I love peonies and I’ve got the Pinterest board to prove it.
I stumbled across this trick years ago of drowning the blooms in cool water before you bring them inside. It makes all the little ants scramble to higher ground {out of the water/bloom which means they stay OUT of my house}.
Last Christmas we had an ant invasion just in time for my husband’s business open house. It was all hands on deck–we killed so many of them. Cause of invasion that time was bitty food left on bitty table.
It’s amazing how many of them will be inside of just one bloom. I had heard that they helped the many petals of a peony to open, but that appears to be an urban legend not dissimilar to the one where Mr. Rogers was a Navy SEAL and wears those sweaters to cover his tattoos. If you haven’t heard by now, I am very sad to report to you that this is untrue.
But man, those would have been some great tattoos.
I was just talking to my mom about her peonies the other day. This is the first year for her’s to bloom and she was concerned because they were covered in ants but they bloomed beautifully. I’ll have to tell her about your tip so she doesn’t bring the pests inside.