2010 Peony Blooms - Week 6

The last week of peony blooms are here. Usually there are about 7 weeks of bloom with peonies. Either I don't have enough of the first week early season bloomers or the hot dry weather shortened the season this year (maybe both). These late season beauties keep the peonies coming for a bit longer. Peony 'Nymphe' and Peony 'Uncle Tom' both bloomed for the first time for me this year. So I am slowing extending my peony bloom season in form and color. Enjoy!

Peony 'Nymphe'	Peony 'Uncle Tom'
Peony 'Felix Supreme'	Peony 'Rozella'

2010 Peony Blooms - Week 5

There were 41 varieties of peonies that bloomed this week. So it was another stellar week for the peonies. However, they have been suffering due to the dry spell. The blooms are beautiful, but they don't last very long and start to shrivel faster than normal. Here are some beautiful pictures of a few of the varieties that bloomed this week...

Peony 'Raspberry Sundae'	Peony 'Angel Cheeks'
Peony 'Gay Paree'	Peony 'Yellow Crown'

Here's a picture of a row of some of my most mature plantings from this week. So many blooms. Aren't they gorgeous?

2010 Happy Mother's Day Peony Bouquets

Happy Mother's Day! I spent the morning cutting flowers for Mother's Day. Aren't the cut flowers in the basket beautiful? I made several arrangements with them, and gave the largest pink arrangement to my mother.

2010 Peony Blooms - Week 4

There were so many peonies that bloomed this week, 44 varieties in all. Just to compare there were 23 varieties that bloomed in weeks 1-3. So there were almost double the number of peonies blooming this week than the first 3 weeks combined. It seems like the long hot dry spell caused many of the peonies to start blooming this week. These are some of my favorite shots of those peonies...

Peony 'Coral Charm'	Peony 'Do Tell'
Peony 'Prairie Moon'	Peony 'Cherry Charm'

2010 Peony Bloom Color Coding

Today I was busy checking my peony blooms against my RHS mini color chart. I am in the process of trying to catalog all of the bloom colors by the RHS chart. That way the color descriptions of each peony are more accurate and can be more easily compared to one another. I think I may invest in the complete RHS color chart later on (which would be quite an investment £174.00 vs. £26.00) because the range of reds and pinks would be larger. For now, I think the information I'm gathering with the mini chart will be helpful.