2018 Intersectional Peony 'Scrumdidleyumptious' Arrives

Intersectional Peony 'Scrumdidleyumptious' Potted Up
My intersectional peonies from 2018 Tulip World Offers Intersectional Peony 'Scrumdidleyumptious' for $12.95! arrived this past Friday, and I immediately potted them up. The foliage had already been growing in the bag for some time. Whenever I've gotten roots like this and planted them out in their spot in the garden in the past, the foliage seems to burn up in the sun and die. I think they've been in the bag in the dark too long, and started growing in almost no light or completely no light. That's why the foliage growth is so pale. Then when I plant them out in their full sun location, the intensity of the sun's rays are just too much for the immature foliage that has been growing in the dark. So this time I decided to try potting them up and putting them in the shade for a little while, until I'm satisfied that the foliage is growing well and will live. It's kind of like hardening off plants that you've been growing indoors or in a greenhouse that are used to a warmer more even air temperatures. You have to kind of ease them into living outside again.
Intersectional Peony 'Scrumdidleyumptious' in Bags
I'm hoping by easing these plants into the light, they will have a better chance of survival. I'm just lucky I had a couple of pots and some top soil. Usually I recycle all of my pots right away, and I don't usually have top soil. I had been keeping a few pots on hand in case I wanted to share some plants, and I was using the top soil to try to fix some bare spots in my lawn and improve the soil around some underperforming plants. I kept these intersectional peonies in the shade all day on Friday, and on Saturday we had an entire day of rain. So a nice, cloudy sky to help these immature intersectional peonies to get on their way - growing! I'm just curious to see if they actually have intersectional peony foliage. We'll see... ;-)
Intersectional Peony 'Scrumdidleyumptious' Roots

2018 Peony Companions Daffodils

Peony 'Soft Lemon Kisses' with Daffodil 'Sunlight Sensation'
I'm sure many of you have daffodils as a companion with your peonies. If you don't then you should definitely consider planting some daffodil bulbs this fall. Daffodils can be an entertaining distraction while you are waiting for those peony blooms to open. They are also super easy to grow. Just dig a hole, mix in some fertilizer, put the bulbs in the bottom of the hole (spaced out), and then replace the dirt. These beautiful and easy bulbs are very reliable and will come back year after year.
Peony 'Color Magnet' with Daffodil 'Cheerfulness'
If you get lucky enough, you may even have some daffodils and very early peonies or tree peonies to bloom at the same time. There are some summer blooming varieties of daffodil like 'Summer Cheer' that will bloom later than other daffodils as well. Daffodils nowadays are not just the yellow flower that your great-grandma grew. There are so many forms, shapes, sizes, and colors to choose from now - from lemon yellows, to white, to yellow with orange, to white with pink and double daffodils, butterfly daffodils, miniature daffodils, to daffodils with multiple blooms per stem. Have fun picking out some early spring colorful cheerfulness!
Peony 'Pehrson's Violet Frisbee' with Double Daffodil 'Tahiti'

2018 Spring Tree Peony Planting 'Kinkaku' & 'Lavender Grace'

Tree Peony 'Lavender Grace' from Song Sparrow
The Tree Peony 'Lavender Grace' that I purchased when 2018 Klehms Song Sparrow Offers Tree Peony 'Lavender Grace' on Front Page of Web Site, arrived this week and so did another peony I ordered from Ebay seller orientalpeony, Tree Peony 'Kinkaku', also known as 'Souvenir de Maxime Cornu'. I got both of them planted this week. They are quite a bit behind my other tree peonies in foliage growth, but we are set to have a nice day of rain tomorrow (after almost 2 weeks on no rain!). So that should give them both a nice cloudy day to settle in after been sun-starved for a few days while in transit. We are also expecting some lower than normal temperatures and since both of these tree peonies came from a colder growing zone, that should help them feel more at home and hopefully begin to adjust to the much warmer temperatures here.
Tree Peony 'Lavender Grace' with Bud
Both of these tree peonies were actually a very nice size, and Tree Peony 'Lavender Grace' even came with a bud on it. Let's hope I can take care of it well enough to see it through to maturity. Tree Peony 'Kinkaku' looks like it will have more foliage than 'Lavender Grace', and it appears to be a bit older too. I can't tell if it has a flower bud on it or not. I guess there could be, but right now it looks like it will not flower this year. All in all I am pretty happy with both of my purchases, and I can't wait to see them grow...
Tree Peony 'Kinkaku' Sprouting

Tree Peony 'Kinkaku' from Ebay

2018 Third Peony Bloom of the Season - P. Rockii Lavender Tree Peony Seedling

P. Rockii Lavender Seedling
The 3rd peony bloom of the season opened today, well, almost. It didn't quite open all the way. So I guess a bit of the excitement will be saved for tomorrow, but I got to see the full bud on this peony today, and the beautiful lavender color of its petals. The awesome lavender color on this one excites me, as well as the fact that it seems to be so vigorous, blooming much sooner than its siblings, and growing much taller and faster as well. This P. rockii seedling is actually from some seed I bought on Ebay, 2013 Tree Peony P. Rockii Seeds on Ebay, which turned out to be 2013 P. Rockii Peony Seeds from Cricket Hill Garden. It is the first P. rockii tree peony to bloom for me ever. It first bloomed last year, but I mostly missed it, just saw a few petals dropping after the bloom. I have been growing P. rockii's that I bought as plants (from 3 separate sources) longer than this seedling has existed, and they've still never bloomed. This P. Rockii lavender seedling actually has 2 buds on it this year. So I will get the chance to see two blooms on it!
P. Rockii Lavender Seedling with 2 Buds

2018 Cold Damage Tree Peony 'Lavender Hill'

For the second year in a row a late freeze has killed all of the buds on my Tree Peony 'Lavender Hill'. It is still a bit too early to tell what the extent of the damage to all of my peonies is from the late freeze we got this year, but it is already quite evident on Tree Peony 'Lavender Hill'. There are two buds on this tree peony, and they should be continuing to grow and swell, but they are not. Both of the buds that were developing normally before the cold snap, have stopped developing and started to shrink. This will mark the 2nd consecutive year that cold has killed all of the buds on my Tree Peony 'Lavender Hill'.
Small Bud on Tree Peony 'Lavender Hill'
Blasted by Late Cold Temperatures

Advanced Bud on Tree Peony 'Lavender Hill'
Blasted by Late Cold Temperatures
Another tree peony, Tree Peony 'Angel Emily' sits right beside of this Tree Peony 'Lavender Hill'. However Tree Peony 'Angel Emily' still has most of her buds. She only lost 1 out of 10 buds (2018 Tree Peony 'Angel Emily' Goes from 3 Buds to 10 Buds in One Year of Growth!) due to the late cold. That's a 90% bud survival rate, pretty good! If your growing area is prone to late cold snaps, and you are looking for a lavender tree peony to purchase, I would definitely recommend Tree Peony 'Angel Emily' over Tree Peony 'Lavender Hill'.
Tree Peony 'Angel Emily' Bud Showing Color