A Trip to Cider Hill

The pink, red and white peonies in our yard were a present from a dear friend who lives just up the hill from us, Vivian Moore. She gave us root stock of the ones in her yard after we raved about the luscious color of the red flowers she brought to our door.

It's been three years since I planted those roots—not knowing a thing about caring for peonies—with little more than the well-known gardener's prayer: "Please grow. Please grow."

The first year, I was delighted to get stems, stalks and leaves with a couple of buds that never opened. The first year is always difficult for any transplant whether it's a person, pet or flower.

Last year, the second year, we got some flowers. Success!!

Then this year, we got an abundance of incredible blooms and found ourselves falling in love with these beguiling flowers. So when we saw an ad in our local paper for a peony talk at Cider Hill Farm (www.CiderHillVT.com) down in Windsor, we knew we were going.

It poured, buckets. But as we drove down the twisty dirt road, the pretty was so pretty (as Jay says, there isn't much ugly in Vermont) and the rain didn't matter.

It mattered even less when we arrived. Cider Hill Gardens is the passion and project of Sarah and Gary Milek. Gary (www.GaryMilek.com) is a local artist whose renderings of our flowers and landscapes is well-known beyond the borders of the Upper Valley. And Sarah is a remarkable gardener.

Visiting their gardens is not like driving to your local plant emporium to pick up a six-pack of pansies and your annual supply of tomato plants. Nope, this is an experience in landscape. There's a garden of big-leafed plants surrounding a Japanese maple on the opening curve of their driveway. The garden shed looks as though it sprang from root stock instead of being built by human hands.

If you take a short walk up a rise, you get to wander among several inviting displays of hostas, unusual shrubs, and display trees. The principle peony bed lies on the downhill side of the house. That's where Sarah introduced us to plants with names such as Avalanche and Dinner Plate.

The photos here were taken by my husband, just a sample of the digital wonders he brought home. In the fall, after our new peony bed is dug, we'll return to Cider Hill to select a few beauties to take home.

Really, if you love gardens and idyllic settings, add a trip to Cider Hill Gardens to your list. You'll fill your quota of oohs and aaahs for the day.