2018 Planting Tree Peony Seeds from Luoyang China

Peony Seeds from Luoyang China with Garden Stakes
It took me a lot longer to figure out how to label these 2018 Tree Peony Seeds from Luoyang, China than it did to actually plant them. I did get them planted last week though, before our big snow, 2018 7 Inches of Snow on Southern Peony Gardens! (just in time, I guess!) I don't know what if anything they will do, but we shall see in the spring, if not spring 2019, then spring 2020, I suppose. I ended up laminating the photos of the seeds and attaching those to some copper garden stakes I had on hand. Since they didn't have an English name printed on them, I couldn't easily print a Brother label for them. Just in case they don't do much, I didn't want to have my husband go to the trouble of trying to figure out the translation for each of them.


Chinese Tree Peony Photo Garden Stakes
So what I did to create these garden stakes was first write a number on every paper and every plastic bag (1-20) so I could keep straight which picture went with which bag of seeds. Then I scanned in all of these tree peony photos in case I need to reference them later. Then I laminated each photo with some UV resistant laminating material. Then I used gorilla tape to affix each laminated photo to the copper garden stake. I'm kind of curious to see how these hold up. Even if these peony seeds don't do much, it will be an interesting experiment to see if the photos fade or not, whether the gorilla tape withstands the elements well, and how these "photo" garden stakes hold up outside.


Copper Tree Peony Garden Stakes

2018 7 Inches of Snow on Southern Peony Gardens!

Snow on Southern Peony Gardens
Wow! We just got 7 inches of snow! I can't say I remember getting this much snow in a long, long time. I know we got 5 inches this January, 2018 5+ Inches of Snow on Southern Peonies!, which was rare. I also I don't remember getting this much snow in December before. This has been a high precipitation year for us overall, though. I'm sure all of the peonies will be fine since the snow is completely covering them. Almost all of my tree peonies are completely under the snow since they are so young and not very tall yet. Since the snow is so deep, you can't see any of the peony garden markers either!


Intersectional Peony Garden Under Snow

Snow on Bird Feeder
I just wish I could have finished planting all of my peonies before the snow, but alas, I have not. That box I ordered from the 2018 Adelman Peony Gardens Black Friday Sale 50% Off is still waiting to be planted. Since we're in North Carolina, though, this snow will likely all be gone by tomorrow or the next day. So I'm sure I'll have another opportunity to get them planted. I'm just hoping the ground is not too mushy to walk on and dig in. Since newly planted peonies seem to be most susceptible to root rot, I'm also hoping that our winter is not too wet that the peony roots rot.


Tree Peonies Under Snow

Snow on Trees

7" of Snow!

I'm really glad we got those big trees down (2018 More Light for Tree Peonies, Sweet Gum Ball & Poplar Trees Gone!) before this snow and ice storm hit. Our ground has already been quite soggy this fall (no drought this year), so this heavy snow and ice on these large trees is a recipe for disaster. The weight of this frozen precipitation can bring trees down quick. Remember that large oak tree in my back yard that got taken out by an ice storm 2 years ago, 2016 3-Trunked Monster Down = More Sun for Peonies? Several people have lost power in this storm already. I'm hoping we can keep ours on, but we'll see. I am trying to prepare for a power outage just in case... Stay warm out there!


Wood Rack and Blueberry Bushes Under Snow

2018 More Light for Tree Peonies, Sweet Gum Ball & Poplar Trees Gone!

Southern Peony Trees Removed
I can hardly believe it!!! The sweet gum ball trees are finally gone! I have been wanting those tree removed for years now! I actually had the money saved up since August, but I couldn't get anyone out here to do the work (since we had two hurricanes this year, most of the tree service companies are staying pretty busy). I finally got one of the guys who brings me free mulch to take the trees out for me. It ended up costing me a bit more, but they did a great job, were really nice, and super professional. At first I was only going to take down 5 trees, then 6, and at the last minute, I went for 7. I'm so glad I did because that last one was a really large sweet gum ball that continuously drops those hateful spiky balls into my yard. If they haven't found a way to stick my fingers or feet, then one of us is slipping on them about to fall down.


Tree vs. Crane

Crane Won!
Besides getting rid of the sweet gum balls (and the potential hazard to our house if they fell over), I now have lots more sun for my peonies, especially my tree peonies. I am so excited to see how they will grow now. I even took some extra time to make sure they were marked and protected before the crew began their work. For the tree peonies directly underneath the sweet gum balls, I covered them with 5 gallon buckets and hammered metal garden stakes into the ground around them to keep them in place. Then I wrapped the tops of the stakes with hot pink flagging tape. Several people told me I'd better dig them up and move them temporarily, but since I decided not to grind the stumps that were very near the tree peonies, I decided not to dig them up. I figured I'd probably damage them more than the tree people would.


Tree Peonies Protected During Tree Removal

Tree Peony 'Angel Emily'
Covered with a 5 Gallon Bucket and Flagging Tape
I guess I got lucky. It seemed to work pretty well. My tree peonies weren't very old yet. So they weren't too big to cover. I guess if they would have been even larger, I would have had to figure out something bigger to cover them with. Luckily they weren't too large, and all of the tree service people were very careful to try not to touch them. I also roped off my larger tree peony area with stakes and flagging tape to make sure they didn't step in that area. They kept out of it for the most part. I think a couple small twigs might have fallen in, but I don't think I lost any buds. A couple of my plant stakes did get pulled up, but that's not too big a big deal. All in all, I think it was a pretty successful operation, and I'm very excited to see how well everything grows next spring!!!


Tree Peony Garden Protected with Flagging Tape

2018 Strawberry Crème Brûlée Intersectional Peony at Spring Hill Nursery

I have been looking for 'Strawberry Crème Brûlée' Intersectional Peony for a few years now. I never wrote about it on here before since it was a sad story, but a reader of mine gave me a hint about where he had purchased some of his intersectional peonies - from a nursery in Canada called Select Plus Lilac Nursery. I placed a small order for three small intersectional peony roots, one of the varieties being 'Strawberry Crème Brûlée'. Sadly I never received my peony root order since the owner and proprietor of the nursery passed away before my order was scheduled to ship. :(


Spring Hill Nursery
Unregistered Intersectional Peony Offerings
That was in 2015. For some reason I just decided to search for 'Strawberry Creme Brulee' peony again this fall, and I found it at Spring Hill Nursery. I have ordered a couple peonies from Spring Hill Nursery in the past, a long, long time ago (2005), and the peonies I ordered seemed to be labeled correctly. So I thought I might take a chance on this one too. Intersectional Peony 'Strawberry Crème Brûlée' was hybridized by Don R. Smith, but it does not appear to have ever been registered. While I was poking around the Spring Hill web site, I noticed they had two other Itoh peonies I had never heard of for sale, 'Oochigeas' Itoh Peony and 'Pastel Lilas' Itoh Peony. I'm wondering if these two varieties are also Don Smith introductions that have never been formally registered with the APS. I guess you could say my curiosity got the better of me... I had to place an order. :P (If your curiosity is piqued as well, Spring Hill Nursery also has coupons out for $100 off $200. So find a small item to put in your basket with these to save almost 50% off.)

2018 Intersectional Peony 'Luxuriant' Arrives from Ebay

Intersectional Peony 'Luxuriant' Root from Ebay
The 2018 Intersectional Peony 'Luxuriant' on Ebay that I ordered last week arrived yesterday. The root itself, not just the variety, was luxuriant as well. This root was huge! It was advertised as a 6-7 eye root, but it actually had more like 8-9 eyes on it. It was quite long and quite heavy as well. The root measured over 10 inches, with a stem at the top as well, bringing the total length to over 13 inches. The root itself was quite firm, seemingly freshly dug. I'm hoping this one will establish quickly. It would be nice to get a bloom from this Intersectional Peony 'Luxuriant' this coming spring 2019, but we'll see. I'm guessing that might depend on what kind of winter and spring warm up we get around here.


Intersectional Peony 'Luxuriant' Eyes
The root was packed very well in peat, and not one piece of it broke off during shipment. It was shipped via USPS Priority Mail and arrived here within 3 days of shipment. The bright pink eyes on this root are very firm and full. It definitely looks ready to grow. I made it a nice spot in my intersectional peony bed, dug in a bit of organic top soil, a scoop of natural fertilizer and a small scoop of lime. I also mixed in the peat that it was shipped in, to add a bit more organic matter to the soil as well. Let's see what this beauty brings next spring...


Intersectional Peony 'Luxuriant' Close Up

Intersectional Peony 'Luxuriant' Planted