Tree peonies finally making some good growth for 2014

Ever since May, it looks like most of the tree peonies have started to take off, and many of them have flower buds which should start blooming in about 3 weeks.

Some of the Japanese tree peonies with flower buds. They tend to make their vertical growth very quickly, and then leaves increase in size afterwards.

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.

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.

Update on the tree peonies

After 2 weeks of very warm weather with highs usually in the lower 70s and lows around 50, all the peonies have really taken off like crazy. It is only 16 days after my initial blog on peonies and some of them have gone from barely poking out to being well leafed out. Here's the link to the peony blog from 16 days ago to show the huge difference. http://stevesbamboogarden.blogspot.com/2012/03/tree-peonies-starting-to-wake-up.html

Starting with the tree peony seedlings, most of them are almost fully grown now. They might need protection if we get a late freeze.

Tree peonies starting to wake up

Ever since the start of February I have started to see tree peony seedlings pop up all over the place, however some of them got frost bitten since it is too early for them to start coming up. In order to survive, they simply need to successfully put out a leaf and take in energy over the summer so they can grow a lot stronger the next year.

Here are some of the TP seedlings from 23 February 2012. These are some of the ones coming out too early for their own good since their initial leaf is prone to freeze damage.