2019 The Corals are Coming! Peonies That Is

Coral Peonies Popping Up
It's that time. The foliage on my coral herbaceous peonies always starts to appear earlier than any of my other herbaceous peonies. (That doesn't mean they will bloom first, though.) It is already up several inches. Pictured here (from left to right) are Peony 'Coral Sunset', Peony 'Coral Charm', and Peony 'Tropicana'. It looks like Peony 'Tropicana' is winning the race this year. It is definitely the tallest peony in the garden so far. Peony 'Coral Charm' is usually the tallest one. I'm wondering if the extra mulch I added around it might have slowed it down this year. I can't wait for the all of my peonies to start blooming! The first ones are always the sweetest.

We have a few nights of sub-freezing temperatures coming up this week. So I'm glad most of my peonies are still below ground. It's going to be in the 20s overnight for at least 3 nights this week, it looks like (starting tomorrow night!). I'm not sure if I will try protecting this this time or not. While I try to wait out these last few days (or weeks - we'll see!) of winter weather, I can still dream about the gorgeous blooms to come! Here's a few photos of these three coral beauties taken last year so we can all start dreaming of our springtime peony blooms now...! Happy Dreaming!


Peony 'Coral Sunset'

Peony 'Coral Charm'

Peony 'Tropicana'

2019 New Label Maker for Peony Garden Signs Brother P-Touch PT-D600

I finally bit the bullet and bought a new label maker for my peony garden signs (and all of my other garden plant signs), and I love it! My old Brother P-Touch PT-1500PC, 2012 Brother P-Touch Peony Outdoor Plant Labels, finally bit the dust. I was trying to buy a replacement used one of the same model on Ebay, but everyone wanted about $35 with shipping. That was just too high for me to purchase a used device.


New Brother P-Touch PT-D600 Label Maker
So then I decided to see what newer models Brother had available that could connect to your PC. The Brother PT-D600 seemed to be their newest PC connectable model, but it also has a keyboard and you can design the labels directly on it as well (with a color screen). However the price was like $76 on Amazon. So I just added it to my shopping basket, hoping that the price would come down. I've been without a label maker for a few months now, and the price on the label maker finally came down to the $50 range this past Sunday! For only $15 more (than the price of a used label maker), I could get a newer model that I could create labels on my PC or just on the machine itself. So I snagged one right away. I just got it set up last night, and I love it!


Brother P-Touch PT-D600 Label Maker on Amazon.
(This is not an affiliate link.)
It prints faster than the old label maker. It also internally cuts the tape for you automatically as soon as it finishes printing, and it doesn't waste as much tape at the beginning and end of the print. The old unit actually wasted quite a bit of tape on both sides of what your were printing. So this new unit should actually save me money in the long run since it uses the tape much more efficiently! I am also able to use the same Brother P-Touch Editor software I had installed for my old label maker, and all of the previous label templates I created still work beautifully on this new one. If you are looking for a new label maker (or don't have one at all yet), I highly recommend this one! (I'd also try to snag one while the price is still $49.99. I'm sure Amazon will raise the price again soon!

2019 Solaris Farms Adds New Hot Herbaceous Peonies

Peony 'Dreamtime'
I noticed something quite interesting when I was creating my 2019 Herbaceous Hot 100 Peony Catalog Price Comparison List this year. Solaris Farms has become the leader in the "hot herbaceous" category this year, adding 8 more high demand varieties than last year for a total of 22 offered this year. Hollingsworth Nursery is still right up there with 21 "hot herbaceous" varieties offered. These two have been trading the leader position for the last couple of years in this category, but no other peony grower even comes close to the number of pricey, next generation peonies offered by these two growers. Both Solaris Farms and Hollingsworth Nursery have offered hot peony variety selections in the double digits, while all of the other growers have single digit offerings. Somehow I was lucky enough to get a root of Peony 'Dreamtime' last year. I am really looking forward to seeing what it does this spring!


Peony 'Dreamtime' Offered at Solaris Farms 2019

2019 Swenson Gardens $25 Intersectional Peonies!

Peony 'Prairie Charm' @ Southern Peony
When creating my 2019 Intersectional Peony Catalog Price Comparison List this year, I noticed something I'd never seen before! A $25 Intersectional Peony!!! This is the first time ever that these gorgeous beauties have been offered for sale at this low of a price directly from a peony grower! Swenson Gardens is the vendor who actually was the first to offer this price drop, and it is not just one intersectional peony at this price point, but 3 of them! They are offering Intersectional Peony 'Border Charm', Intersectional Peony 'Prairie Charm', and Intersectional Peony 'Shining Light' for $25 each. It's definitely an exciting time to see the intersectional peony prices begin to approach the lower price points of standard herbaceous peonies!

Peony 'Border Charm' and Intersectional Peony 'Prairie Charm' were both hybridized by Don Hollingsworth (check out my interview with him here - 2016 Peony Hybridizer Interview - Don Hollingsworth), while Intersectional Peony 'Shining Light' has an unknown hybridizer of Japanese origin. I grow both 'Border Charm' and 'Prairie Charm' here in my Southern Peony garden. (See my photo of Peony 'Prairie Charm' above.) All three of these varieties are yellow flowering intersectional peonies. So if you don't yet have a yellow peony or you want to try a new yellow intersectional, this might be the time to do it!


Swenson Gardens Offers $25.00 Intersectional Peonies!

2019 Peony 'Miss America' Featured in Plant Delights Nursery February Flyer

Peony 'Miss America' in Plant Delights Nursery Flyer
I got a nice flyer in the mail this month from Plant Delights Nursery. It is advertising their upcoming open houses this weekend and next weekend. They are only open once a season for 2 weekends - so 8 total weekends a year. The flyer also features some special plants they'd like to highlight, and I couldn't help but notice the large photo of Peony 'Miss America' in the bottom right corner. Peony 'Miss America' is an American Peony Society Gold Medal Winner. It is a lovely semi-double white peony that can range from a few layers of white petals with a bright yellow center to a very full petalled semi-double where the yellow center is barely visible. I guess Plant Delights is making sure their customers remember to purchase and plant their potted peonies now for a good spring show! I am also thinking about the hellebore show they are going to have going on in their greenhouses in the next couple of weeks. If you haven't been before it's definitely worth the trip. :)