2010 Intersectional Peonies

I am in love! I just saw the blooms on the intersectional peony 'Morning Lilac' for the first time, and it was love at first sight. I have never seen a peony in bloom as purple as this one (purple is my favorite color), and it is awesome! I can't wait to hybridize this one. It would be awesome to use the pollen from this one. I wonder if it will set seed. I haven't yet gotten any seed from an intersectional peony, but of course I've only had one intersectional peony bloom at all which was last year. So I haven't had much of an opportunity. I guess we'll see what happens with their pods this fall.

Peony 'Morning Lilac'

2010 Peony Blooms - Weeks 1-3

Here are some of the best blooms from weeks 1-3 of my peony bloom season. I am so happy to have so many peonies blooming now. 'Roselette', 'Roy Pehrson's Best Yellow', 'Honor', and 'Lustrous' are all blooming for the first time this year for me. Peony 'Roselette' is stunning in form and color. The yellow color of 'Roy Pehrson's Best Yellow' is excellent and the crinkled petals are interesting too. The bright pink color of 'Honor' is awesome. 'Lustrous' is so red, and it looks great with the 'Immortality' iris planted nearby. 'Chalice', 'Roselette', 'Honor', and 'Lustrous' are peonies in my Saunders peony garden and were hybridized by Professor A. P. Saunders. I love that most of his plants are early blooming and would like to expand the selection of early blooming varieties, especially in the South. I am so looking forward to the rest of the peony bloom season...

Peony 'Chalice'	Peony 'Roselette'
Peony 'Roy Pehrson's Best Yellow'	Peony 'Honor'
Peony 'Coral Charm'	Peony 'Lustrous'

2010 Peony Bud Count

I am so excited! I have only had one bloom last year on an intersectional peony, Yellow Crown. This year I have buds on 3 different intersectional peonies! They are Bartzella with 9 buds, Morning Lilac with 2 buds, and Yellow Crown with 2 buds. So I guess you can tell I did bud counts on all of my peonies today. There are several with no buds, maybe they'll bloom next year, to as many as 81 buds on one of them, an unknown double peony. My Festiva Maxima peony also has 50 buds on it. This is going to be a great year for the peonies as long as it is not too rainy in May. We have had a pretty dry April, which has been good for the emerging foliage. The reduced precipitation seems to have had a good affect on preventing botrytis blight on the new foliage, which seems to be much more susceptible to it than mature foliage. I think we could use some rain soon, though. As long as it's not like a week of continuous rain, to give the foliage a bit of time to dry out. That would be great.

Peony 'Morning Lilac'

2010 Peony Bloom Season

The first blooms of spring 2010 are starting to appear. The first peony to bloom this year was one that bloomed for the first time for me. It was Earlybird, and it bloomed today on April 5th. This peony is a P. tenuifolia hybrid (which gives it its beautiful fernleaf foliage) from Professor Saunders.

Peony 'Earlybird'

2010 Winter is Almost Over

Winter is almost over, and spring will be here in just over a week. It felt like spring today. I got so much done outside today. Some of my peony seedlings are starting to peek out. The red buds on the herbaceous peonies are swelling, and a few are starting to poke out of the ground. With the warm day today, I took the opportunity to spread ashes on some of my peonies. The ashes are supposed to make the soil a bit more alkaline. I didn't have enough for all of them, but I did get the ashes spread on quite a few. I think it is supposed to rain tomorrow. So that's even better. It was windy some parts of the day today. So if the rain comes tomorrow perhaps some of the ashes will get soaked into the soil instead of blown away. I am so excited for spring! I can't wait to see what new peony flower faces I will get to meet this year!