2016 Very Early Peony 'Nova' Buds Emerge First

I am getting a little excited. I have been growing this very early Peony 'Nova' plant for three years now. However, I have not yet seen it bloom. Every year, its buds are blasted. This is the only peony I grow with the very curious habit of pushing out huge bloom buds out of the ground first. I suppose its buds develop over the winter, much earlier than most other varieties. Then when Peony 'Nova' starts to emerge from the ground in the spring, these huge buds are very susceptible to bud blast by a late freeze. As you can see from last year's 2015 Saunders Peony Varieties Frozen Bud Blast report, all of Peony 'Nova's buds were blasted last spring.
Peony 'Nova' Bloom Buds Emerge First
From the photo above you can see that Peony 'Nova' buds emerge so early, one of them was already blasted earlier this winter. Now two more have arrived, and hopefully we'll get to see them bloom this year! We shouldn't get any more late freezes before they bloom, since our local groundhog, Sir Walter Wally, predicted an early spring this year. ;-) On a more scientific note, our local 10 Day Forecast looks like we'll have 10 days in a row of 70 degree temperatures starting tomorrow! Also the overnight temperature will range from the upper 40s to the upper 50s. If that doesn't sound like an early spring, I don't know what does! Hopefully it will be enough to coax these beautiful Peony 'Nova' blossoms from their buds!
Local Weather - 10 Day Forecast

2016 Intersectional Peony Vendor Price Changes

Well, I think all of the 2016 peony catalogs are out now. So I've updated my 2016 Intersectional Peony Catalog Price Comparison List. I decided to add a new feature this year to put green arrows for mostly lower prices, red arrows for mostly higher prices, and a blue dot for mostly same prices. Hopefully this will be a helpful feature when determining where to place your order. If you haven't taken a look yet to see what roots you'd like to order to plant this fall, now is a good time to do it. A few limited stock and in demand peonies have sold out already, but not many. However, the later you wait in the year, the more peony varieties will be sold out. So get your order in early!!!

Intersectional Peony Vendor Price Changes

2016 It's Starting... Tree Peonies are Waking Up!

OMG! I am so excited. My tree peonies are starting to wake up! There are even a couple of coral peonies that have started to sneak a little stem out of the ground. Peony season is coming! After three 70° days in a row, how could they not wake up? I am so happy to see many of my tree peonies are coming back from last year - sorry to say I have killed a few (and there may more casualties this year). I only have a small number of tree peonies, even though they supposedly grow very well here. I am trying to grow my tree peony collection, and still trying to figure out how to grow them. They're a little different than the herbaceous peonies that I'm used to growing. However, I think I am *starting* to get the hang of it - by no means an expert, but I'm starting to get them to come back year to year. ;-) I can't wait to see what my tree peonies do this year. I think a few of them have tips that look like bud tips on them. So some of the tree peonies that I have not yet seen bloom, might give me a flower this spring - very exciting!!!

Tree Peony 'Li Yuan Chun' 李园春 Leafing Out	Tree Peony 'Li Yuan Chun' 李园春 Leafing Out

2016 Why I Love Saunders Peonies (& You Should Too!)

Early Blooming A. P. Saunders Herbaceous Peonies
If you haven't discovered any of A. P. Saunders herbaceous peonies (or have a whole collection of them) yet, then you should definitely give them a try. There are so many reasons to love these early hybrids, here are mine:

1. Foliage - Their early foliage usually creeps out of the ground 1 or 2 weeks before any of my other peonies, which really builds excitement for the peony bloom season.

2. Early Blooms - Also most of them are early bloomers, giving my garden colorful blooms before some of my peonies have even fully woken up and developed their buds.

3. Lots of Colors - They don't just come in light pink and white. There are fire engine reds, light yellows, pale pinks, whites, corals, shocking pinks, and lavender too!

Even though last year I had Saunders Peony Varieties Frozen Bud Blast, several were unaffected, and some still put on a good early show! So if you are eager to expand your peony bloom season, check out the extensive list of A. P. Saunders herbaceous hybrid peonies. I grow so many of them, but there are still so many more I want to grow!

2016 Ten Years of Southern Peony Blooms

To celebrate 10 years of blooms here at Southern Peony, I decided to put together this peony bloom photo collage. It contains one bloom from each of the 10 years - 2005-2015. I have added this collage to my Peony Bloom Dates page. So if you ever need to stare at its mesmerizing beauty, you can do so anytime you like! I have organized this Peony Bloom Dates page a little, giving it some new headers, and cleaned my peony bloom offset data a bit more - removing some mislabeled peonies I have given away and updating some incorrect Asian characters. Also if you're curious about the cultivars in the collage, they are... Peony 'Blue Lagoon', Peony 'Morning Lilac', Peony 'Muskoka', Peony 'Cora Louise', Peony 'Rose Heart', Peony 'Lemon Chiffon', Peony 'Firelight', Peony 'Pink Hawaiian Coral', and Peony 'Lavender', and Peony 'Coral Magic'!
10 Years of Southern Peony Blooms!