Mary, sorry to hear about your fish. Has it been an especially cold winter, more than the usual?
BTW, how are your tree peonies? Hope they arrived to you intact.
Edited for spelling.
This message was edited Apr 1, 2012 9:06 PM
Peonies 2012
the tree peonies are awesome. Yes, they arrived. I guess I expected bare roots with a little stem, not things actually leafed out. I have a 60 gallon sterlite I keep potting soil in for planting. i just sunk them in the end of that. i guess they are still dormant?
No, our winter was the nicest in a long time despite the heavy snow. We don't know what happened. We kept a pump running to circulate water and that may have caused 'unintended consequences.' Live and learn I guess.
Hopefully when it warms up, you'll be able to replace the lost fish. I had a 47 gallon tank for goldfish for about 7 years. It all started with a baby goldfish ( Robbie), that my DS won at summer camp when he was younger, and it started living in a 1 gallon tank, to a 5 gallon tank, and utimately the 47 gallon mansion, I mean tank, LOL, with his pals. After lots of money spent of food, medicine, cleaners, and chemicals to maintain the water, the ungrateful fish had the nerve to die. My DH thought I was nuts when I cried over Robbie, the first fish that we ever had died.
Today, spent hours in the garden, potted up the tree peonies, and planted my caladium bulbs. I wanted to share pictures of the two beds I created last spring for the peonies. The first two pics are the left bed, and the last two the right bed. I have to say that the peonies seem to love the soil here, they're doing better than peonies that I've had for years. As I've stated above, many of the newly planted tubers have buds, and some of my older peonies that I've had for several years I've never seen bloom. The edge of the bed is planted with daylilies, spring blooming bulbs further back, bearded irises in front of the peonies, and lilies behind, with clematis on the fence on either side.
Salmon Dream's second bud is about to open. This peony is planted in front of a pink daff mix.
And, pheewwww!!!! My torture is finally over. Both of the noids opened, the larger yesterday, the smaller today.
Bowl of Cream has at least 13 buds, I'm excited to see this one bloom, Gardenia has at least 10 buds, and Imaculee only a few.
I was out shopping for annuals at my favorite nursery yesterday, and how could I resist going to look at the potted peonies that they had. Weellll!!!! I found Pink Parfait and Raspberry Sundae, both full of buds, and since they called to me, LOL, how could I resist taking them home. They are nice sized, healthy plants. I'm going to let them finish blooming in the pots before I plant them in the garden. I've placed them in the bed with Shojaraku in their pots, but they'll probaly wind up finally in one of the two new peony beds.
More Peonies blooming in my garden ... didn't have much time to post lately ... too much happening in the garden
This Keiko Itoh Peony has blooms of different colors and some flowers have a darker color petal ... so interesting ...
Misaka yellow Itoh is still going strong
Except that you are in texas, I am surprised at how well your peonies are doing when surrounded by trees. I guess you need the cool shade for them to grow and bloom there?
At the Peony class I took, they told me to plant them away from trees and large shrubs.
That's what I did ... they are in 90% full sun.
In the middle of the summer they will just turn brown, but all the other plants around will cover them.
I do have a few peonies on the shade and they just don't do well ... maybe I will get one small flower ... I will need to move them away in the future ...
I lament the lack of trees in my backyard garden. I have avoided them with the exception of dwarf carragena and weeping larch because I didn't want to block any sun. Possibly I went too far. I like the enclosed look of your garden while mine is like open to the world -- and all my neighbors and I can see the top of trucks and buses that pass by on the major street behind my north fence.
Oberon46
yes I like the trees in my back yard ... definitely a MUST HAVE in Texas.
Also the fence is on a 20' stone wall high, like a little castle, so I don't have much of a pest problem either .... weeee ... we are very private
20' stone wall!!! Holy cow.. Isn't that like the mother of all spite fences? lol
yes we will never have flooding problems here !
We had the same problem with a lack of privacy. A couple built a huge house to the north of us, spending twice what we did, but the installed no window coverings. So when we sat in our sunroom, we would look up and they would be staring at us. This went on for three years.
Our solution was to put in ornamental trees. They are not as large as shade trees, and much less expensive, but they can bring a lot of beauty to your yard.
Here is our north solution:
viburnum trilobum
crabapple
cotinus 'Grace'
viburnum prunifolium
yoshino cherry
Here is how we kept people from gaping at us from the alley: a second crabapple, and more smokebushes.
And how we kept people from staring from the sidewalk. This is a five year old picture. Everything is much bigger.
And it's all done with shrubs and grasses. The only problem with the grasses is cutting them down in spring. Which was why I added 3 President Lincoln lilacs, which I grew from one foot tubes. They cost $12 each.
your place looks wonderful donna !
the peonies are up for sure, some just went in this last fall, so i'm excited to see what they look like. need to find room for 3 new in the package, and a 'bunker hill' that's sitting in the vegetable garden. i over-wintered hens and chicks in the garden too...would like to try a living wreath..there's amazing pics on google images.
going to watch the masters...like the golf, love the azaleas, such a beautiful place.
cheers L
Glad you're finally seeing some peony growth lindy, before long you'll be having some blooms.
I've been really busy the last few days, so I haven't had a chance to share some of the blooms. Here's Shojuraku that started blooming this week. It definitely has more buds that it did last year. I stated above Shima Nishiki is the first tp I've ever had bloom, but dumbo me didn't realize I've had a tp all along in this one. The strange thing is that it dies down to the ground like a regular herbaceous peony every year. I'll have to pay attention so that I don't prune it too short, as I may have been cutting off bud stems, Duh!!!!
Keiko also opened some buds today, I really happy to see this one blooming in the garden, she's about to put on a show.
Misaka is also starting to bloom. Yipee!!!! We finally got some rain this week, which is helping speed the blooming along, an a little more rain tonight.
Another picture of the noid in it's full glory. It must love the composted manure, and the rose fertilizer. Blaze, not to be outdone is starting to bloom as well, and this is my Ebb Tide rose, love the deep color on this one.
Finally, Sorbet is blooming today, right along with iris Gnu Blue in the same bed.
Oh my goodness! all these peony blooms I am seeing here makes me want one or two or several of those LOL.
I am going peony hunting today. Thanks everyone's for sharing your blooms.
Hey gaseedgrower, check out Pikes on Miginnis Ferry RD and PIB, it has nice Monrovia peony plants, a little pricey, but worth it for the size and health. The plants that I got from them last year are really doing well.
Bowl of Beauty is starting to bloom, and so is the clematis Duchess of Albany just behind it. They make a great combo. You can see some of the BoB buds in the clemie picture.
Thanks Cem9165,
Soon as I finish planting all my brugs from the greenhouse I will.
Oh Cem, what gorgeous pictures! Bowl of Beauty and Duchess of Albany are a glorious combination. I love the cool colors. And your plants look great. Better yet, you are enabling gaseedgrower. Excellent!
Annette, your garden is wonderful! I love the clematis with the 'Bowl of Beauty' peony.
Thanks Donna, and LG. It's a beautiful day here with the weather having cooled down, in the 60's today compared to the 80's the last two weeks, and the plants are much happier. Hopefully the blooms will last longer. Annette
Cem, your peonies look terrific this year! Well done! Weather is cooler here now so it will be awhile.....
Thanks Steve, I hope your new plants are continuing to do well also.
Love all the pictures of the peonies. I have them popping up this spring in places that I dont remember planting them. I know I had bought some small tubular's in a bag a few years ago. Maybe this is them just coming up.
Two of the newest peonies are getting ready to bloom. They both have 2 buds. We'll have to wait to see what they are. Either Sante Fe, Harrington Belle or Top Brass.
I have one peony planted by the footings free of snow with warm western sun on it. It is a little pip just about to break the ground. Yes, I nudge around a little just to see if they are waking up. course the ones out back all had little pips aplenty that I had to cover last fall. Hope they make it okay.
drthor, love the whites, is the center one festiva ? hope mine comes up and flowers this year. snowed last night..still a few days of cold weather.
missed the flowers at the augusta masters...what's up ???
cheers
Hope everyone had a good Easter weekend, for those who celebrate. I have to admit, I've been taking lots of pictures, just no time to post until tonight, so here goes. Sorbet started blooming, and has opened up it's second bud.
Blaze also bloomed, and the weather man this evening said this is the hottest March on record for GA, since they started keeping track in the 1890's. The warmer weather affected the azaleas in Augusta, GA, and caused them to bloom too early, and therefore there were not as many blooming this year as in years past. A friend of ours told us yesterday that they even but ice around the bushes to slow the bloom time down before the Masters, however if this is true, I don't know how well it worked. Anyway, GO BUBBA!!!!!
Blaze, so aptly named, LOL
Sea Shell also made her debut.
Bowl of Cream is starting to open, along with the roses, and the variegated vinca underneath is still blooming. This is starting to come togehter just as I had envsioned.
