Peonies: My peonies are breaking dormancy!, 2 by DonnaMack

DonnaMack wrote:
And early in the season, I put the previous year's tulips in my peony bed. It means you have to dig them up after they bloom in spring, but I would just dry them out in my garage, and then put them in my peony beds. They don't have to be at their best. These are all 2nd, 3rd, and in some cases 4th year tulips. They are mostly Triumph multiflowering tulips Happy Family and Weisse Berliner. They tend to break into singles after a couple of years, but they cost me nothing, and they are great filler.

In picture 2, here is my peony bed early in the year. The cheery little plants are the super cheap bulb chionodoxa sardensis - bright blue. You can see the tulip foliage, and you will also see a perennial toward the top, and lilies sprouting at the bottom. (picture 2)

That perennial, grown from seed, is salvia ssp. turkestanica. It ROCKS all season, and looks great with peonies in the pink white red range. Here with Cornelia Shaylor. (pic. 3)

At the other end of the bed, near where the chionodoxa is, throw in an "easy" lily. Regale album. It will bloom in July, when the peonies are finished. Pics 4 and 5

The lilies, verbena cynoglossum, chionodoxa, lilies, bouncing bett and salvia are planted once! They spread. The only work (oh yes, there are allium christophiis there too, which are planted once) is putting in the tulips in the fall and pulling them out after bloom.

Basic theories - lots of color and texture from easy plants. And put in lots, because it deters weeds.