Dreaming the winter away

I have decided that bare roots in the fall is the way to go with peony purchases.  I have picked out already the plants that I need to complete my garden.  In all I will have about 120 varieties of plants.  They have different growing times, so there will be blossom from May until late June.  By the beginning of 2014 all of the beds will be full, some of the plants will already be three years old.  Some will be two years old and a handful will only be one year old.  I have a layout of the garden so that I can remember which plant is which.  I have been searching web  sites from around the world to find just the right colour and shape to complete the garden.  Winter or a hot summer day is a great time to plan.  I will keep you posted on the new additions to the garden.  This certainly has been an adventure.  I did end up with a few extra pink flowers and started another bed by the pool.  There are so many different plants to choose from.  I have meet a few of the growers in person and have emailed many of them.  Gardeners are very friendly people.  Sharing your passion with others is the best humane connection.  This year I hope to enter a couple of the flowers in the show in Oshawa.  Only three more months until peonies are blooming again, until then I can keep dreaming....

Seasons Greetings

Roots Arrived!

The roots that I ordered have started to arrive.  There were some last minute substitutions that changed things a little, some last minute purchases, and all of the roots from the Internet were lovely.  My collection in growing.  Some of the roots took a long time to arrive so I soaked them in water before planting.  They came with lots of eyes to bring flowers in the spring. The soil is still warm and wonderful to work with. This is the right time to plant the roots.  The roots will send out the small hairs to secure the roots into the soil. I will wait one more year for the seedlings before transplanting them in the test beds.  It will be a long time before they bloom.  They are already 2 years old.
It is time to cut down the foliage of the plants from this season.  Some of the plant leave have turned a lovely fall colour.

I have the entire winter to dream of the new plants and how they will look. I still need to add some yellow and white peonies to the collection.  The pinks, reds, and coral beds are all full now.  I have already picked the flowers for next year.  I will be trying some new growers again.  North America has lots of growers to pick from.  They vary in size of growers, but the plants all have the same good quality.

Happy planting.

 

Plannning for the fall

I went to growers to pick the flowers for next year, taking pictures to remember the flower and the name.

I have been looking for flowers to add to the collection.  I have decided on a couple of paths to go down.  I have been looking for plants with family member's names in the plants like: Helen, Robert, Dad, Margaret, Mr. Ed, Lauren and Lovely Louise.

The second path is very old heritage plants. Looking at the Internet, old books researching the names and where they might be available.  I am also trying to find out the names of some of the plants I have.

I did buy some plants for the colour to complete more of the garden.  I expanded the garden to fit more plants.  It also will help with the tulips I planted last year.  The idea was to have a flower that would bring interest to the garden before the peonies, but they did not look nice when the flowers were finished.

Now the tulips will bloom and then the peonies will come out and distract your attention away from the tulips and concentrate on the beautiful peonies.  The soil will be well prepared for the roots to arrive this fall, and hopefully bloom next spring.
Gardening has always been about planning and preparing the soil.  These plants will live longer than me, if they are properly planted in good soil.  I hope not to loose as many this spring.  Today is hot and windy.  Not a good day to be in the garden, so planning is the thing to do.  In three years, this garden will be breath taking.

Red Charm

We survived the heavy winds.  There are leaves everywhere, bird feeders flung across the yard, tree branches on the ground but most of the peonies are okay. 
Red charm and Coral Charm are blooming. Red Charm is a bomb.  The American Peony Society describes a bomb as the outer ring of guard petals are larger than the center.  The center forms a closely rounded ball.  The heavy winds damaged some of the guard petals, but it could not stop the sweet aroma. This is a lovely red flower and well worth having.  This one came as a bare root in the fall from Peonies From the Field and has 5 blossoms on it.  It was a last minute choice, but I am so glad that I have it.

The flower is small this year, so next year it should be just spectacular.

So in the garden there are five different flowers blooming.  Prairie Moon, Bartzella, Coral Charm, Red Charm, the pink single from my Aunt's house.  Soon the rest will be blooming too.  It is an unusual year and everything is early.

Thanks for stopping bye.

Disappointments

This plant started out strong with 4 buds, but all of the buds died and now there is only one leave left. I am hoping there is enough to keep the plant alive and next year it will bloom. It was a bare root that came in the fall.

Let's talk about the ways to buy peonies. You can buy the bare roots for a fall delivery. This was the first way that I purchased flowers for the garden. This is the best time to transplant peonies. I lost 5 plants due to the early spring when the buds appeared and then the frost killed them off with the entire root. I tried to purchase roots that came in the spring. Unlike the roots that came in the fall, none of the plants bloomed this year and one arrived dead, many were out of stock. I bought plants for the local garden centers. They were weak compare to the bare roots and lots of them were damaged in the high winds we had in the spring. Some of them were planted too deep in the pots. They are guaranteed by the garden center, but you must have the bill and the tag identifying the plant. The garden centers did have more varieties than ever before. The internet has way more to choice from.  Some of the potted plants had a soil that some animal here liked and dug up the newly planted flowers damaging the root and the leaves.  I almost cried when I found the plant in the morning.  It was very discouraging.

I will again be purchasing bare roots in the fall, since this was the best results for plants that were strong and bloomed the first year. Who has time to wait for the plant to grow 3 or 4 years before it blooms? There are many places on the internet to purchase peonies. Placing the order early is the only way to get the plants you are looking for. Now in June many of the plants are already sold out. If you can, visit the grower when the plants are blooming to see the flower up close. I found they all did not look the same as the picture on the internet. I was very surprised with Chocolate Soldier on how close it was to the ground. Surprises are sometimes fun, they can be the spices of life. I would have made some changes if I had know what I was getting. Buy plants that have different blooming times. I had plants blooming from mid May until the end of June.

Happy shopping.

Le Cygne

 This full white flower is also know as the Swan in English. It bloomed on June 10th and has a trace of pink in the middle. It has a very strong stem to hold the flower upright.  The aroma is one of the strong early cultivated peony.  This flower oringinaly was cultivated in France in 1907.  This was again a bare root from a Canadian grower.