One of my lovely readers emailed me the other day to tell me that she had found my blog
months ago after goggling old linens and textiles, yet had hesitated to contact me, fearing
that her English wasn’t good enough. Our combined adoration of peonies put us on the same
page, yet again, and she sent me photos of her gorgeous tree peonies, and, after prompting,
told me a little more about herself and sent additional photos of her wonderful part of
the world in the south west of France…
My name is Karin Jansky. I’m a German Antique dealer and Interior consultant,
living in the Périgord. Being an Antique Dealer combined with Interior consultancy
for about 30 years. The last 10 years I worked (exhibited) at the Decorative Antiques
and Textiles Fair in London-Battersea, which is 3 times a year, I know Jane Sacchi
quite well, she is the vetter for the textiles…
Incredible bush of tree peonies in Karin’s garden. Tree peonies require less chilling than
the herbaceous variety, have larger blooms, sometimes as large as dinner plates! The
blooms are ragged edged, ethereal tissues that emote into deeper tones and markings in
the center. Karin sums up their incredible history:
The tree peony, known as “Mudan” in Chinese, has been grown as an ornamental
plant since the Sui Dynasty (581-618) or even earlier. Paintings and literature suggest
that the tree peony has been associated with Chinese culture for over 3.000 years. “Mu”
means male, and “dan” means red. “Mudan” means “a plant that can reproduce by both
seed and sucker. Tree peony has also been called “Hua Wang” which means “The King of
Flowers”, and “Fu Gui Hua”, which means wealthy and honorable. Height up to 2 meter,
and some of them can get up to 500 years old! They are a bit “capricious” if they don’t
like a place in the garden, but if they do…..what a pleasure!
In general in German we call them “Pfingstrosen” which means Whitsun roses
(because of the flowering season around Whitsun) and in the South of Germany
where I’m grown up on the country side they are called “Bauernrosen” = Farmer’s roses.
Just love May with it’s fresh green, special light early mornings, special blue sky’s,
our birds are singing and we had such a, for our region unusual, long and cold winter.
it’s so exiting for me to stroll around my simple country garden, discovering new
blossoms coming up. A glint of color here, a little bit there. Simple but good!
This lovely white, tinged pink in bud rose was Karin’s mother’s favorite rose…
it reminds me of my Frau Karl Druschki, a c. 1901 Hybrid Perpetual
Coppery pink with a lavender blue salvia
I’m besotted with the stone house behind the roses…
A deep velvety red clambering against the shutters…
Karin showed me many of her antiques as well…
French fire-gilded bronze curtain rings
Napoleon III, c. 1860…
Used as napkin rings
Gilded Italian sconce
c. 1800
The gilded top of an 18th century
French mirror…
At the base of the stairs…one of a set of French chairs from a suite,
Attributed to Paul Follot, 1930-40’s
Beautiful vignette…
I would love to share the beauty of nature and history with somebody.
Peonies, gardens, French stone houses, shutters, antiques…
all my favorites…
Thank you for sharing them all with us Karin!
