In ground peonies waking up after a warm week 2014

Finally, most of my peonies have broken out of their shells, so here are the photos. We just had 2 days of temperatures over 80F which will make many plants including peonies break their dormancy.

Herbaceous

Rise and fall of the yucca plant time lapse

This is the first time one of my yucca plants has ever flowered and here's a 40 day time lapse of the flower stalk from May 21st until June 30th. I hope the main plant survives the flowering to keep growing, but I'm not too worried since there are 2 little offsets coming off on either side.

21 May

Update on the sempervivums

Sempervivums usually reach their full size by around July, and start flowering over the summer if they are mature enough. So far, most of them have produced many offsets. Here's the latest blog from 5 weeks ago. http://stevespeonygarden.blogspot.com/2012/05/sempervivums-hens-and-chicks-waking-up.html#more

One way I have figured out how to prevent people from stepping on them or deer from eating them is to place rocks around these plants.

This is a very unusual one as it split itself into 9 large offsets instead of simply producing them.

Thornless raspberry growth progression

2 months ago, I purchased 5 bare root thornless raspberry plants, and they have really taken off over a 2 month span. Since they are starting to fill out their pots, I have had to start planting them in the ground. This blog shows their growth progression over about 2 months. The sprouts that emerge this year should bear fruit the following year so I need to get them in the ground to make sure they have plenty of room to spread and make new shoots.

10 April

Sedum succulent garden hardy succulents update with many new species

Here's the link to my sedum blog from 1 year ago. http://stevespeonygarden.blogspot.com/2011/05/sedum-succulent-garden-hardy-succulents.html

This year I have manually started to start spreading my sedums out, and actually cutting back on the original one since it keeps expanding. They are very hardy so zone 6a winters are usually never a problem especially since they grow so low to the ground and get covered by the snow. All of them made it through the winter except the Angelina, but I have re-acquired that species so it's OK.

Here's the original sedum that I started out with.
Sedum Sarmentosum

 

Sempervivums hens and chicks waking up

Last spring, I added many sempervivum cuttings to my collection. Only a few of them produced their own offsets, but this year, it looks like every species may start producing them. They usually start growing by around April, and now they are almost full size. This year, the new ones are about twice the size they were last year so there's a good chance that some of flowering.

Here's the original giant sempervivum that can get 9 inches in diameter when there is enough growing room, and partial shade.

cold hardy succulents ready to take off for spring

One of the small plants I like growing are cold hardy succulents like sempervivums and sedums because they look kind of unique and are completely hardy in zone 6. Some of the bigger sempervivum varieties are prone to getting eaten by deer, but it depends on their color and where they are planted. Planting them closer to objects like a house, bricks, or deer repellant plants can keep them away.

Sempervivums also known as hens and chicks usually start growing in the winter as long as the soil is not frozen and continue growing until the summer when the soil dries up, generally producing offsets by around May and they go dormant in the summer when the soil is too dry for them to grow. They will just sit there until around October when the soil becomes moist again, and they get a bit bigger since these are cold weather plants.

Here are some of them from my huge collection