Tree Peony Blooms 2015

This year is definitely the best year so far for blooms, and they should get better from here on out. Here's a sample of what I have.

Some of them are grown from seed however those all tend to be pretty boring single blooms, nowhere near as impressive as the known cultivars. The do appear to however carry more vigor than the other ones. I will likely dig those out and replace them with more impressive plants. 

Peony seedlings getting ready to take off

If you have been following my posts, you would know that I'm obsessed with these plants, especially when they are actively growing. We have had unusually cold temperatures for the past couple months, but it looks like the soil is finally starting to thaw out as temperatures are supposed to moderate by March.

I'm seeing that many of these are clearly tree peony seedlings, but some of them could be herbaceous or even intersectional (itoh) peony seedlings as these come from various sources with different leaf shapes. 

Here are some pictures. Enjoy.

Mid summer flowers for 2012

One of the things I try to keep going in my gardens is flowering plants all year long, except for winter. I have crocuses which bloom as early as late February to a perennial sunflower which doesn't bloom until November, and there are plenty of flowers blooming in between.

My second favorite flower would have to the dahlia. Here are a few of them. These guys grow from tubers which can over-winter in zone 6 as long as they are well protected, and I use leaf filled bag to protect mine instead of digging them up and bringing them indoors which is too much work.

Here are the results.

Solification of tree/ itoh peony stems

Towards the end of July, tree peonies usually start to develop brown stems as they start becoming woody and showing their true nature. Here are a few closeups just to show how it looks.  Once tree peonies darken up, they are usually set to survive as long as they are planted deeply enough to develop their own roots.

This one appears to be solid already. Like trees, their stems and branches tend to harden off completely before they ever expand in diameter.

Peony blooms

 I don't have that many of them at blooming size yet, but generally tree peonies have the largest blooms, and herbaceous types have the smallest blooms. Itoh or intersectional peonies should be somewhere in between.

Kinshi Tree peony

Update on all the peonies, itoh, tree and herbaceous species

One of the things I learned this year about peonies is that there is an intersectional peony which is a cross between a tree peony and a herbaceous peony which grows more vigorous that both. I find that these guys have woody stems, but also produce new eyes as prolifically as herbaceous peonies.

ITOH Peony

Here's my newest acquisition, a Julia Rose itoh peony which didn't have much root mass, but as long as it gets established in its pot, it should grow well. I planted it as deep as I could to encourage more eyes to form.