I had Kamatanishiki and after I stopped pruning off the flower buds for the following spring, I got one gorgeous flower. The most beautiful one I have ever had. Shiminishiki was also beautiful and I got three huge flowers the same year. Two years after the mice killed them, I planted Guardian of the Monastery last fall. I am going to put heavy wiring around it each fall. I am taking no chances with my tree peonies.
Peonies 2012
drthor..great bouquet, you grow lovely iris too !
had a huge down-pour last night..
bowl of beauty is poking up now, going to check today and see if any others are showing.
can't wait to get celebrity and lady liberty planted.
not sure if i have the right festiva maxima....the picture showed white with red flecks near
the center, i'll see if it blooms this year, and post pics.
cheers L
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. But talk about scheduling.
Pic 1: Festiva Maxima, May 5, 2009. This is a mature FM, planted in 2003.
Pic 2: Festiva Maxima, new plant acquired in October 2008, that has been in a pot almost the whole time. This is TODAY, March 20, 2012
I am many weeks ahead of schedule!
Peony Coral Charm, in a pot for months, and in my garage for the winter, was first moved outside in a pot and today to the ground. I really recommend that people do this when they are moving, because the entire root system was intact in the pot.
Pic 1. Peony Coral Charm on March 18.
Pic. 2. In the ground today, every root intact.
Pic. 3. I popped it into the ground in front of some daffodils the previous owner planted.
Pic 4. In the ground on May 3, 2009 - small enough to dig up in October of 2011
Whoo hoo!
Oh I hope hope that, despite the record snow, our spring comes early also. I can hardly wait.... I planted so many new things last fall - lilies, peonies, tulips (I think). I get confused unless I check my database. Also have poenies coming this fall and think I have already planted them. They have been on order since last year. Two, Nosegay and Prairie Afire, are both sold out now. One from Adelman and one from Hidden Springs. Also anxious to see how the tree peony did through the winter. It would be more than wonderful if it were to bloom this summer but I don't expect it.
Interesting note.
One of my peonies that showed red eyes in December, Moonstone, looked like the eyes had turned gray, and I thought that they were dead. But they have reddened up again. I've never seen anything like it.
I have grown peonies for almost 9 years but I learned so much this last year. I roughly dug up and tore three peonies. Lady Alexandra Duff, which had been in for several years (I loved it and had to have it) and Kansas, one of my first three peonies (at least 8 years old) that had been a disappointing bloomer. Both of these older peonies have eyes!
So I exposed a peony to extreme cold, ripped two fairly mature ones out of the ground, put most of them in pots in April, repotted them in December, and planted them this spring extremely high. Not all of the ones in pots bloomedland year. But they are fine. If there are not going to be passers by. My Coral Charm got stomped three years in a row. I am finding that, in at least zone 5a, I can plant them sticking out of the ground with no mulch.
These plants can take anything! I am experiencing far more success than when I handled them gently. For the first time, ALL of my peonies have broken dormancy. Which is great, because I just hate knowing that something is there but it doesn't bloom year after year. Moonstone, in several years, had only bloomed once.
I broke all the rules.
Maybe I should just go out and slap them around!
This message was edited Mar 20, 2012 10:54 AM
LOL. If mine can grow, it would sort of argue for either ignorance of rough treatment. I just dig a 2' hole, put a little gravel in the bottom for drainage, good soil, the root, and cover maybe an inch or so above the buds. Of course as it gets watered and settles seems like it all but sticks out above ground. I have added a little soil on some of the really exposed ones over the year. Otherwise they become pools of ice in the spring. And yet, even then they all grew and grew and more and more blossoms. I don't cover them at all in winter. The herbaceous and itoh's. I did cover the tree peonies but wonder if they were just ready tobloom (especially after I stopped pruning them in the fall) or if the cages and burlap helped the buds to be healthy. Hope I get to find out which with the new one
Cem, that is lovely. Don't be surprised if you get flowers that are all red, red and pink or all pink with the Shima Nishiki. As the plants get bigger, the blooms also get larger. They also tend to close up at night and reopen in the morning sun.
I see from your earlier post that you just purchased some new bare roots. I don't know how they'll perform for you, but when I planted them in the spring, they did nothing that year. The following year they grew but without blooms. In the third spring they had a few buds, many of which dried up without opening. By the fourth spring (3 years later) they started looking like peonies, and now the are going great guns. Some of the peonies just grew but never bloomed, so last year I dug them up (they had bid roots) and planted them elsewhere and probably not so deep, and they are very happy.
I just planted an intersectional which looks great, but I have lost 2 tree peonies that never really "took."
In your zone you probably have perfect winter temps to make blooms but not bloom too late. Here peonies are referred to as the Memorial Day flower (another reference to the cemetery).
All of these came from Costco about 4-5 years ago.
This message was edited Mar 20, 2012 12:55 PM
Mary, when we're roasting in Hotlanta, and our blooms are over, we're going to have zone and bloom envy. Hopefully those bad mice didn't chew your stems this year.
DonnaMack, you've got some fabulous growth going on. Keep on " abusing" those peonies, LOL. I agree that I wish I had known to plant my first peonies more shallowly that I had gotten years ago. I have a few I'm going to have to raise/replant in the fall that I've never seen bloom.
Cathy, except for Red Charm that I got from GH Wild, the other bare roots were from Hollingsworth, and they're doing well. So far good growth, and some of them have buds that don't appear to be blasting. Time will tell. The Itohs Keiko and Misaka that i got as potted plants last spring have handled their fall transplant into the ground well, are growing rapidly and both have buds.
I've got 4 tree peonies coming from a co-op soon. I'm going to keep them in pots till the fall then abuse them, I mean plant them in the ground then, LOL.
Annette, could you point me in the direction of a peony coop? I haven't participated in any coops as they looked sort of intimidating.
i buy from costco too
cathy what are the names....love the second one
I like them all but the third one is blowing me away.
i'm taking a guess at sorbet and top brass are 3 and 4
c'mon cathy don't keep us in suspense !! lol
L
Well, #2 has a goony in the nest as th flower to the upper right isn't the same as the other flowers in that picture.
a goony?
LOL. A goony bird! They leave their eggs in other birds' nests to be cared for by the other parent. The flower to the right doesn't look like the other four, unless it is in a 'newer' state and the others are more mature.
As speediebean would say..giggle!
The second one is Nymphe (or Numph) and I'll have to check on the others. One is Raspberry Sorbet, but I have to find my notes, which may take a while.
By the way, they're already sending their little red pips.
Thanks!
this crazy temperature has mine coming up too
is this global warming ???
My Itoh peony is almost open ...
Anticipation!!! Anti-ci-pa-a-tion, it's making me wait!!! LOL. Can't wait to see your bloom. Which Itoh is it?
It is a yellow one ... I dunno the name as usual ... the tag is buried with the plant ... ah ah
I will hold my breath ...maybe tomorrow.
The great thing is that the plant might have 50 buds ready to bloom !!!
Ok, now I have bud envy. Hope you get some open blooms tomorrow.
And people laugh at ME!!!! Anticipation ---- an-ti-ci-paaaaaaaa-shun......
50 buds . WOW. That is going to be quite a sight when they start blooming. i bought my first ITOH 2 years ago and i hope it blooms this year.
Here are better pics of Shima N. now that it's a little cooler. I've also got some irses starting to bloom here as well which is very early for me. This iris is in one of the new beds that were created last spring for the peonies. The lilies are also starting to grow well.
I am a true peony nut, but I love bearded iris just as much. that white and blue is gorgeous.
Salmon Dream has nice fat buds, and this noid looks like it may open in the next 1-2 days. The iris is Stitch Witch, I almost didn't see this little bloom.
Glad you like my little iris. It's called Forever Blue. I got them at Lowes last year, kept them in pots till it cooled down, and planted them in the fall. This is the first time I'm seeing it and Stitch Witch bloom ;~)
I like Stitch Witch also. It reminds me of Alaskan Seas that I got from Shreiners -- one of many that didn't survive. Could have found that out with a lot fewer plants and less money.
Congrats Cem and drthor on your peonies. Looking forward to seeing more pictures as yours bloom! Sad thing is, we're not far behind you at all....mine are coming up like gangbusters and I have several with clearly defined buds. Will take some more pics and post tonight after work. Like Donna we have had a very warm winter relatively speaking and temps in 70's and 80's all week long - and in fact it has been warmer here than in TX the past few days. Daffs and hyacinths in full bloom here and I even had some tulips open yesterday.
Thought I had lost my new Garden Treasure - saw the tag and was digging around pretty frantically to locate it but coulld not. Then, yesterday looked up about a foot from the tag and there were four shoots coming up right in front of some daffodils - LOL - so I am happy again.
Have to say I am disappointed in the Adelman peonies I got this year. Roots much smaller and spindlier than in years prior and I have several still showing now signs of life which has me worried since most of the others are up. I dug around a little and still no pips. The Klehm and especially the Hollingsworth peonies were wonderful this year and are growing aggressively.
Cem and drthor, thank you for the beautiful pictures. It was 84 here yesterday, so things are really moving along, and it's raining now, which is great. I have buds on 2 of my peonies. I still have two left in pots - sending up little stems!
Steve, (we cross posted) how disappointing. All of mine are up and yours should be too.
I have always heard how wonderful Adelman peonies are supposed to be. They were incredible at a peony convention a couple of years back. But I must say that the only peony I bought from them, Paul M. Wild, never appeared. I just assumed I didn't know what I was doing. The odd thing was that, hard as I tried, I could never find it. Other peonies that didn't appear were simply buried too deeply.
But at least you have your garden treasure! I have some peonies with buds (unbelievable) and I think you and I will be neck and neck.
I have gotten several from them. Some planted last fall and more coming this fall. I admit they are no where near as large as the honkers I get from Reath's Nursery, but they do okay. Cora Louise took three years to take off where Reath's generally bloom the following summer after planting.
I have to chime in and say that the Hollingsworth peony roots planted last fall are growing nice plants this year. They had 3-5 pips and most of the plants growing have buds now. Salmon Dream posted above was one of them.
Edited to say hey Steve, I'm glad your plants are doing well up north. Can't believe this crazy weather. Everything is growing and blooming much faster than I expected.
This message was edited Mar 23, 2012 6:56 PM
hi folks
snow's all gone, heard a robin yesterday. most peonies are poking up. moved sword dance last year.. so it's a bit slower.
the winter was so mild, i'm hoping for no die-back on the shrubs.
would love to plant a white peony in a new all white bed this year....any ideas ?
thanks L
Hey lindy, I had to stop and think for a minute, white peonies hhmmmm!!!! I couldn't think of any, then the brain kicked in and realized I had a few. The last one that I planted in the fall but hadn't seen bloom yet is Requiem. Here's Baroness Schroeder and Curonne d' Or. Also white are Bowl of Cream, Imaculee, and Gardenia.
Finally my yellow Itoh MISAKA Peony ... wee
the picture doesn't give justice to the flower ... it also so fragrant !!
WOW !!
http://www.monrovia.com/plant-catalog/plants/2989/misaka-beautiful-blossom-itoh-peony.php
This message was edited Mar 25, 2012 7:47 PM
Having a problem posting but part of the problem with the roots from Adelmans and other's from that area is that the growing conditions caused by the weather last year. Many plants did not grow as well as normal.
My specie peony P. caucasia is in bloom. Week later than normal.