Deep in the restful green of a back yard in Bangor, a few blocks from the red brick heart of downtown, Ken Liberty, a self-described “dirt gardener,” has created an urban garden where more than 70 varieties of peonies grow. They include Nova, Israel, Kansas, Hot Chocolate, Gay Paree, Joseph Rock, Red Charm, Jules Elie and Gay Feather. One peony, known as the “Hammond Street peony,” Liberty rescued a few years ago when a vacant lot was being bulldozed for a parking lot. The flower has a single row of pink petals around a large, dense cluster of golden stamens. Liberty has not been able to identify what variety it is.

Last Saturday, 173 men, women and children, for a modest fee of $2, which included getting your hand stamped with The Peony Society of Maine logo – a peony – toured Liberty’s Ohio Street garden. Young visitor Emma, the daughter of Kirk and Susan Maasch of Bangor, collected fallen peony petals and said she was taking them home to float in a bowl.

“This one is the color of dragon’s blood,” Susan Wishkoski of Bangor said about a dark red peony.

Everyone who saw the lush red, pink and cream blooms said, “gorgeous,” because that was the word that best describes Liberty’s flowers and garden.

Proceeds from the tour went toward the purchase of peonies for local public gardens.

The roots of his interest in peonies, Liberty said, were formed when he was growing up in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Although his mother and grandmother did not garden, they were interested in plants.

“Friends gave my mother some peonies,” he said, “the old-fashioned kind, probably Festiva Maxima. I was a teenager and given the job of digging and planting them.” That experience stayed with him and when he settled in Ellsworth in 1972, he began collecting peonies – the same peonies he dug up and took to Bangor when he moved to Ohio Street in 1983.

Liberty grows both herbaceous peonies, which grow in bushy clumps, and tree peonies, a woody plant.

One of the stars of Liberty’s garden is Joseph Rock, a tree peony. It is white with dark purple blotches at the center of the petals. It was past blooming the day of the tour, but I was lucky enough to see its huge, elegant blooms two weeks before the tour.

Joseph Rock was the first European to collect seeds of the cultivar. In the 1930s, Rock lived for a year in China in a monastery. The lamas grew the peony in the yard and Rock sent seeds of the plant to the Arnold Arboretum in Boston. The plants grown from the seed were named for Rock.

“My first tree peonies,” Liberty said, and he smiled at the memory, “I bought from Kmart, for about $5 each. They all survived, but it took 20 years for them to bloom. It pays to buy quality.”

Liberty likes growing peonies because they don’t need pampering and are almost disease-free. “If they can’t survive by themselves,” he said jokingly, “tough luck.” He also likes them for their spectacular beauty and because they are easy to grow. “Peonies are one of the most foolproof plants you can grow. Anyone can grow them.”

When Liberty moved to Ohio Street, the 230-by-56-foot back yard was a repository for trash and debris. A down-to-earth kind of man, Liberty went to work, transforming what was an eyesore into a tranquil place of beauty where the patter of water from several fountains mingles with the pleasant melody of bird song.

The garden also includes hosta, bleeding heart, holly, cut leaf Japanese maple, lily, violet, tree rose and a water lily he bought at Home Depot. A small replica of the Venus de Milo, curved concrete garden benches, a sundial and a gazing ball furnish the garden. “It evolved over the years,” he said.

A plaque in Liberty’s garden illuminates his gardening philosophy: “As the garden grows, so shall the gardener.”

“It’s been a learning experience,” Liberty said. “I learned to do things I’d never done before – like building a trellis and stone wall.” And figuring out how to make an antique fountain work.

Liberty, a former executive director of the Katahdin Area Council of Boy Scouts, is the founder of The Peony Society of Maine, which has 34 members. Peony society members were on hand to assist Liberty with the tour. Secretary Rosemary Patterson of Hampden said members “get goodies” in the fall when they meet to divide and swap peonies. Her garden has 10 varieties of peonies. Members also staff a booth at the annual Bangor Flower Show. Membership dues are $8 per year.

Visitors to the garden received information on how to tell a tree peony from a herbaceous peony, how to plant a peony and how to divide old clumps.

Peonies are available for purchase from area nurseries, Liberty said, but he prefers to purchase from Song Sparrow in Wisconsin. Web sites pertaining to peonies include www.peonyland.com, www.reathsnursery.com, www.peonygarden.net and www.songsparrow.com.

To learn more about The Peony Society of Maine, call Liberty at 945-9726.