Monday 23 September 2013

Planting Time

Fall is time to plant and clean up.  I have several shipments coming this fall.  All of the spots are marked and ready for the new plants.  I already have a surprise.  So far, everything that I requested has arrived. I tried a couple new supplies.  The first one has been great.  I will receive the second shipment from a new supplier next week.  
I will be cleaning up the old flowers next week.  Some of the plants have changed colour with the fall.  They look lovely.  This year I will wait until the leaves are ready to come off the  Itoh plants before cutting them back.  Last year I cut them back a little early and noticed a bud forming after the cut.  Be sure to remove any of the foliage and throw it out.  It seems the first year plant have a harder time with Botrytis blight, I have even read about changing the soil around the plant to avoid contaminating next year's growth. The Itoh plants seem to handle the relocation better. I stopped putting mulch around the plants.  One year I put it in the old bed of peonies that I have had since I moved here.  The plants looked horrible the fallowing year.  They were covered in black spots and mold.  This had never happened before.  I am still trying to get this bed to recover.  Each fall I cut away the foliage, add peat moss to the bed and fertilize. They are slowly recovering.
Next year the new garden will be complete, with the exception of the two plants that did not survive the spring.  I will have to replace them.  I think that I will move Coral Charm from the yellow bed.  I am not sure yet where to put the plant.  It has grown quite large since I first put it in two years ago.  The coral bed is already full of plants.  I might have to start another bed.  The coral plants are one of the first groups to bloom in the spring.  Coral Charm was the first coral peonies that I bought.  I was so happy with the colour.  Maybe one of the other coral plants will be disappointing and I can move Coral Charm into that spot. I have already arranged for the yellow plant to put in the spot of Coral Charm.
As you can tell, I am already dreaming about the new plants that are going into the garden.  I have already filled the new bed around the pool and have been looking around to see where I can put another bed.  I am definitely hooked on peonies.  I keep going over the web sites and picking more plants that I would like to have.
I am still trying to find out the names of some of the old plants that came with the property.  I have started looking for places that have peonies gardens with old varieties that I can visit to see if I can identify the plants.  I will have all winter to dream about them.....