When I first started putting my gardens together I added no white flowers. To me white flowers showed nothing but the absence of color and w/ all the glorious colors flowers came in they seemed like a waste of space and energy.

Over time I changed my mind....just a bit though. I started adding white flowers but only because I thought they helped accentuate the colored ones. Within the past couple of seasons, however, I have come to REALLY appreciate the white blossoms for themselves rather than seeing them as simply 'fillers.'

The image here shows one of my favorite white flowers. It's a PEONY shrub (var.- 'Flamboyant White') that lives between two bright red ones. It has these amazing big, bold, white blossoms and when I photographed them about a week ago (on a slightly overcast afternoon) I realized that IT was the star and that the red blossoms on either side were supporting IT. Funny how much my ideas re: white flowers have changed over the years.