These hands bear the evidence of hard work. These hands are cracked at the fingertips —

they are tiny fissures that sting and don’t quite heal in the wet weather, but the work has to be done now and they just keep doing it.

These hands deftly cut where they’re supposed to, trained by a lifetime of practice. These hands look rough but they handle the frilly blooms delicately, as if the petals were made of spun sugar.

These hands work in memory of their father’s hands, and even back to their grandpa’s hands that did

the same tasks.

These hands are Arcieri hands, and they con-tinue their tradition of work with the beautiful

peonies planted generations ago.It all started when Grandpa

Arcieri immigrated to the United States in 1909, from the tiny Italian village of Conflenti. His name was Vincenzo, and he married Rosa and they made a life together in Grand Junction. He worked for the rail-road, but grew peonies and carna-tions down at their house at Seventh

HOME & GARDENHOMEGROWN

I have a strip of dirt about 4-feet wide on the southeast side of my deck. Grass doesn’t do well there (I’ve replanted twice). The strip is shaded most of the day by plums and pecan trees, but gets two to three hours of blistering midday sun.

I’d like to plant a perennial garden in there instead. What can I use that will take the shade and heat?

— JanThere are quite a few things you could

plant successfully there. I suspect your prob-lem isn’t so much to do with sun or shade, but with the soil and perhaps some competition from the nearby trees.

Before planting, it is really important that you dig up the area and mix in a

good amount of a low salt organic amend-ment such as Soil Pep or compost.

Try to dig down as deeply as you can, 6 inches at a minimum, 12 inches would be wonderful. I’d add one part amendment to every three or four parts soil. Loosening the soil and mixing in the organic material will really improve the soil, giving your new plants the best head start you can.

Be aware that a perennial flowering plant isn’t going to bloom all summer like an annual bedding plant. Because of this, it’s common to plant a perennial bed with a mix of many different perennials. That way when one of them is finishing bloom, another is there to “carry the torch.”

There are probably dozens of choices in perennials that would work there, but let me give you a “few” of my favorites to consider:

■ Beebalm — This group of ornamental perennials will grow from 1 to 3 feet tall, depending on variety. They all have green aromatic and showy tubular flowers in round whorls in late spring. The flowers come in shades of pink, lavender to magenta. This plant is wonderful for attracting bees, butter-flies and hummingbirds. Beebalm grows best in rich, moist, well-drained soil.

■ Coneflower — Coneflowers are medi-um-sized perennials that will grow from 18–30 inches tall. They have large, showy, daisy-like flowers with a dark copper-brown cone-shaped center in late spring into sum-mer. The flowers have traditionally come in shades of purple-pink or white, but newer varieties now expand the color palette to yellow to orange to red. Coneflower prefers a well-drained soil, so good soil preparation is especially important.

■ Coral Bells — This large group of peren-nials will grow from 12–15 inches tall with a neat and tidy growth habit. The nodding, bell-like flowers are borne on branched spikes in mid- to late spring and come in shades of coral red through pink to white. The real show of this plant though is the foliage. The rounded leaves have a wavy, scalloped edge and come in colors from bright green to char-treuse to caramel orange to rich deep purple.

■ Daylily — My personal favorite peren-nial, this plant will grow 12–36 inches tall depending on variety (of which there are hundreds and hundreds). The attractive bright green grass-like foliage forms a dense clump which gives textural interest even when they’re not blooming. The showy, lily-like flowers appear in late spring into early summer and range from shades of yellow, orange, pink, white and red. Tough and adaptable, this long-lived perennial grows from sun to shade.

I’m out of space to include full descrip-tions, but other good choices include pe-rennial geraniums, peonies, balloon flower, bearded iris, lilyturf, moneywort, pincushion flower, creeping potentilla, rock soapwort, thrift and veronica.

Once I started going through the list, I had a tough time stopping. In fact, it has gotten me thinking about some things I may want to add to my perennial bed.

■

Dennis Hill is the nursery manager at Bookcliff Gardens, bookcliffgardens.com. Send questions to Bookcliff Gardens, 755 26 Road, Grand Junction 81506; or email info@bookcliffgardens.com.

Some favorites to consider for areas where it’s hard to grow

DENNIS HILL

PROUD PEONIES

WEST LIFE

Photos by CHRISTOPHER TOMLINSON/The Daily Sentinel

Siblings Armella and Jim Arcieri stand in their field of peonies on Orchard Mesa. Growing and cutting peonies has been a family business for more than 80 years.

ARCIERI’S PEONIES217 Gigax LaneOpen 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.Closed after Memorial Dayarcierispeonies.comFor information, call 434-1264

oftheir

Arcieri family continues flower tradition on Orchard Mesa farm

Arcieri’s Peonies grows 18 varieties of peonies in its field on Orchard Mesa.

Street and Struthers Avenue. It started as a hobby but grew into a passion.

Their son Anello grew up to work for the railroad, and took up the peonies as a hobby, too. He and his wife, Alyce, enjoyed growing the flowers for people to decorate graves with each Memorial Day. Visiting with folks who missed their loved ones and wanted to honor and re-member them was something Alyce particularly enjoyed.

Their son, Jim, and daughter, Armella, started helping with the peonies as soon as they could walk and carry a bunch of flowers.

Today, Jim and Armella cultivate the same peonies Anello transplant-ed from Vincenzo’s old place. The 84-year-old plants are some of the 14,000 peonies the siblings grow on the Orchard Mesa farm their dad

established in 1959.Years ago, after graduating from

high school and moving off to other places and other jobs, Jim and Ar-mella returned every spring to help with harvest. The peonies are about family and tradition, and family is what brought the siblings back to Grand Junction and the peonies.

Their aging parents needed help. Then, after Anello died in 1999, they helped their mom, the “peony queen.” Before she died, she told Jim and Armella to take care of the peonies because Anello was watch-ing over them. She died in 2013, and left the peonies in their hands.

Every spring, the fields burst into stripes of white, cream, pink and fuchsia, and the intoxicating lemony scent blankets the neighbor-hood.

But all this beauty is a lot of

work.In early spring, they thin the

blooms, removing the side shoots from each main stem. This ensures the flowers that are left will be bigger and better. This is hard work and can only be done by hand with a knife, stripping each stem. “And they’re sticky as all get out,” Jim said.

In April and May, the Arcieris monitor the overnight low tempera-tures, nervously watching for frost during the critical period before bloom.

A wind machine stands sentinel on the southeast side of the main field, a small form of insurance against Mother Nature’s fickle habits in the springtime. Before sub-divisions with tall fences were built up around the fields, natural wind currents swept the cold air out of the low pockets. But now, the frigid air has nowhere to go and destroys the blooms.

Sometimes, even the wind ma-chine’s 16-foot propeller churning the air and the smudge pots sur-rounding the field aren’t enough to save the crop. Last year, they lost 80 percent of their flowers.

Even the plants try to protect their blooms — each bud peeks out between two leaves that offer some shelter. “Dad called them ‘praying hands,’ ” Armella said.

Jim Arcieri shows off the variety of blooms in the cooler at Arcieri’s Peonies, which sells the cut flowers for all kinds of occasions that happen during the timeframe of the flowers’ bloom, between Mother’s Day and Memorial Day.

See PEONIES, page 9A ➤

Friend us on Facebook www.bookcliffgardens.com I-70 & 26 Rd • Grand Junction • 242-7766

1311

2-04

Fragrant, Gorgeous & BLOOMING RosesFresh Cut Peonies for Memorial Day!Open Memorial Day 10 am – 4 pm

Present Military ID For Your 10% Discount!

SPECTACULAR ANNUAL BEDDING FLOWERSWill Add Pizzazz To Your Garden & Containers!

Stop By Soon For A Great Selection!Simply Successful Gardens!

The Daily Sentinel • Saturday, May 23, 2015 8A

PEONIES: Every year is different, but it’s !nished in two weeks➤ Continued from page 8A

HOME & GARDEN

WATER TIPIt’s JUCO! A great time to stay hydrated — Remember to keep yourself hydrated while you enjoy some fun in the sun at

the ol’ ballgames.The intense sun and heat will dry you out fast. So keep your water bottle !lled, and root, root, root for your favorite team.

■

The Drought Response Information Project (DRIP) is a collaboration between the valley’s domestic water utilities to provide information about drought and the importance of water conservation.

Photos by CHRISTOPHER TOMLINSON/The Daily Sentinel

The Arcieris harvest the peonies twice a day because the flowers bloom very fast. Each plant produces 40–50 blooms.

Finally, between Mother’s Day and Memorial Day, the time comes for the peonies to show their splendor. Armella remembers their grandpa be-ing a little impatient about that.

“Grandpa would come over here,” she said, stooping to grasp a tight-closed blossom. “And he’d say, “Come on-a, open up,’ and then he did this,” Armella said, demonstrating how he would attempt to coax the bloom open. Then he’d stand and announce, “It’s a-ready to cut.”

All it takes is one 85-degree day and the field explodes in color. They call it “popcorn day.” Sometimes, cooler spring weather is a blessing, so they can keep up with the flowers.

But rain isn’t good for peo-nies. The water-logged blooms won’t last and the plants droop with the weight.

The last big push is the har-vest, which requires skill and experience. Each stem must measure exactly 22 inches long, and consistency is key to offer-ing quality flowers to retailers.

The Arcieris carefully select only the flowers with the big-gest stems — they don’t want the puny ones.

“The bigger the stem, the bigger the flower is,” Armella said.

Some varieties easily produce blooms 6 inches in diameter. Each of the 18 vari-

eties they grow is cut slightly differently — the whites and pinks open at different rates — so timing of the harvest is key and requires a trained eye so the flowers are guaranteed to open after shipping.

If the Roosevelt peonies are cut too early, the buds just won’t open. And the white varieties are the trickiest to cut. It’s fast and furious work, harvesting twice a day, every day because peonies bloom so fast. Each plant produces 40–50 blooms.

Every year is different, but in a span of roughly two weeks, the spectacular event is finished.

“And then, it’s kaputski,” Armella said, shrugging her shoulders. “I always hate for the season to be over.”

Maybe that’s why everyone loves peonies so much. Their short-lived splendor is a novelty in a world of convenience where people can pretty much get any-thing they want, anytime.

This is more than a family business. Jim and Armella have other jobs to make ends meet. He has a landscaping business, and she works at an insurance office. They take vacation to work the peonies each spring. They’re both in their 60s, and instead of going on a cruise, they’re working the peonies.

As their parents did, Jim and Armella enjoy visitors’ faces when they inhale the scent of

the peonies before they even glimpse the field. Jim holds a fragrant blossom out for one to smell, joking, “They don’t smell very good, do they?” or, “That smell only costs 50 cents.”

In the same fields where they used to play hide-and-seek as children, when the peonies were taller than they could reach, the siblings hear and feel their parents beside them. Alyce is cracking jokes and living up to her reputation as a Lucille Ball doppelganger. Her favorite peonies were the Reine Hortense variety, a light pink bloom. They see Anello picking his favorites, the Roosevelt peo-

nies. He reminds them to work smarter, not harder, but mostly he doesn’t say much at all.

Jim and Armella love carry-ing on the tradition of helping others remember their loved ones, by honoring the legacy left in their hands.

“We were very close,” Jim said, gazing across the field of blooms. “Armella and I are still very close to Mom and Dad.”

■

Erin McIntyre is an advanced master gardener, writer and Grand Valley native. Please email her at westlifegj@gmail.com with story ideas or feed-back.

Jim Arcieri holds some of the peonies from his field that has burst into stripes of white, cream, pink and fuchsia.

Our quality is high and our prices are reasonable.

Time to plant!We have it all.

Greenhouse FreshGarden Ready

Mon–Sat • 8 am–6 pm /Sun • 10 am–5 pmMemorial Day 10 am–5 pm

3162 F Road • 434-2788Home Grown • Locally Owned

• Fresh Sod on Weekends• Beautiful Hanging Baskets• Bedding Plants• Great Selection of Perennials, Vines & Grasses• Flowering Summer Bulbs• Garden Veggies• Onion Sets & Seed Potatoes• Fruit Trees• Grapes & Berries• Shade Trees, Shrubs & Roses• Bird Baths, Fountains• Wind Chimes & Pottery• Garden Decorations & More• Pest & Weed Control Products• Soil Amendments, Mulches, Compost & Bark

1557

6

MORE QUALITY TIME FOR LESS SAVE up to $500 on additional seating and ottomans with any qualifying purchase.

April 17 - June 22*See your sales associate for complete details.

2494 Hwy 6 & 50 • 263-4989Open Monday - Saturday 10 am - 6 pm

(Between Grand Junction Subaru & Marine Max)

www.holmanhousefurniture.com

Spend your evenings in ComfortDifferent sizes,

same great lookStressless® is

created for a custom fit

Memorial Day Specials

15640

12724-01

We Offer Over 500 Varieties! Trees & Shrubs, Evergreen Trees & Shrubs, Annuals & Perennials, Roses & Vines, Grasses & Herbs, Natives & Xeriscape, Lavender, Garden Center, Gift Certi!cates

680 24! Road (3/4 mile north of Mesa Mall)Grand Junction

245-2634 | www.valleygrown.com

Hours are: Mon-Sat 8-6, Sun 9-5

Contemporary Queen Bedroom Set ~ just $529 ~ Limited Time All Wood, Solids and Veneers

Dresser, Mirror and Nightstand ~ add a Tall Chest for $199

Add a Mattress Set

230 East Lynwood St., GJ(One block east of Orchard Mesa City Market)

www.junctiondiscountfurniture.com

Call or text Jim970-640-2639

15113

1272

4-02

The Daily Sentinel • Saturday, May 23, 2015 9A