2018 Peony Companions Hyacinth Bulbs

I must say when I saw these pale pink hyacinths playing so nicely together with the new burgundy colored foliage of my Intersectional Peony 'Bartzella', I just had to snap a photo. I must admit that hyacinths are my favorite spring bulb, ever. (***So I'm not biased at all here.) But I really do think that hyacinths make great companions for peonies. It doesn't hurt that deer (or most any other animal) won't touch hyacinths. Hyacinths bloom a bit earlier in the season than peonies. So you get some nice candy colored blooms before your peonies are ready to flower, and the flower clusters of the hyacinths get a chance to play with the up and coming peony foliage. What a beautiful combination.
Pale Pink Hyacinth with Peony 'Bartzella' New Foliage
Hyacinth bulbs only last a few years for me here in the South. So you will likely have to replant them after a few years, but to me they are worth it! There are so many colors of hyacinths to choose from - all shades of pink, lavender-blue, deep purple, coral, pale yellow, white, purple-black. The color options are almost endless. If hyacinths aren't your thing, there are many other spring bulbs to choose from to get your garden flowering long before the peonies pop! If you'd like to see some of our other ideas for peony companions, check them out here: Peony Companions.

2018 Southern Peony Gets New Email Format

Southern Peony is getting a brand new email format. We are moving away from the Feedburner service and are now starting to use the Mail Chimp service. It offers much more flexibility when it comes to customizing and designing the email layouts. Our new email layout has links right in the email that allow you to like and share our articles on social media. We appreciate all of the likes, shares, and comments on our content. We hope you all continue to share our page and our articles with your gardening friends. The format also works well on mobile devices, such as phones and tablets too. I hope you all enjoy the new look, and if you haven't signed up for our email newsletter yet, you can do so on the left side of our page under "Subscribe via Email". We are on track to hit 250,000 pageviews this month, and we will be doing another giveaway like the one we did in 2015 to celebrate 100,000 pageviews, 2015 Southern Peony Giveaway - Itoh Peony 'Bartzella'! The winning name will be drawn from our email subscriber list. So now's the time to sign up if you're not already on our mailing list!

Southern Peony New Email Format

2018 Late Snow and Freezing Temps on Popped Peonies

You know that most recent Nor'easter? Well, it seems this one went more east than north. I guess this year will be another opportunity to see which early peonies' buds get blasted (like in 2015 Saunders Peony Varieties Frozen Bud Blast) by yet another round of extremely cold weather after weeks of above freezing temperatures. This was the scene last night as I arrived home after picking up my daughter - snow covering peonies that were already growing, some over a foot and a half high!
Southern Peonies Popped & Covered in Snow
After about another hour of heavy snow, the snow-covered sprouted peonies looked like this - leaning stems, sad looking and hung over by the loads of icy precipitation. Let's hope the damage is temporary. The snow should melt well tomorrow, but it looks like those stems and buds are going to have another challenge facing them. Now the weather forecast is calling for 4 out of the next 5 nights to have below freezing temperatures, with 3 of those nights in the 20s! Yikes!
Southern Peonies Covered in Snow with Hung Over Stems
Most of the intersectionals are not quite as high as some of the herbaceous peonies, but they have already started to pop up too. I'm hoping they will not be as affected as the early peonies, but I know from experience that a late freeze can definitely have an effect on them, 2016 Intersectional Peonies Suffered Frozen Bud Blast. Many of my intersectional peonies are much more mature this year, so if we do get a bud killing winter blast, I should be able to rate many more of them this year.
Southern Intersectional Peony Covered in Snow

2018 Southern Peony Ribbons Won at Last Year's 2017 APS Convention

While I actually won more ribbons last year at the 2017 APS Convention, I'm pretty sure I didn't do as well as my first time showing 2 years prior, 2015 American Peony Society Southern Peony Winners. I actually received more ribbons total in 2017 (25 ribbons), but the peony flowers themselves just weren't as good as they were in 2015 (18 ribbons). The flowers were smaller and the petals on several of the varieties were krinkled. My garden had a rough year last year, weather wise. Plus the APS flower show was 2 weeks later in May in 2017 than it was in 2015. That's 2 more weeks for my flowers to sit in the refrigerator (which is not a professional flower cooler). Aside from all of that, I actually won a Court of Honor ribbon in 2015, 2015 APS Southern Peony Court of Honor Winner - 'Keiko'. However none of my show flowers from 2017 seemed to be of that caliber. I was basically trying to get as many varieties into the show as I could for the public to see.

Peony 'Sonoma Amethyst' First Award	Peony 'Little Darlin'' Honorable Mention	Peony 'Julia Rose' First Award
Peony 'Yellow Emperor' First Award	Peony 'Cora Louise' First Award	Peony 'Cora Louise' Honorable Mention
Peony 'White Emperor' Honorable Mention	Peony 'Canary Brilliants' Second Award	Peony 'Canary Brilliants' Honorable Mention
Peony 'Bartzella' Third Award	Peony 'Takara' Second Award	Peony 'Keiko' Third Award
Peony 'Many Happy Returns' First Award	Peony 'Coral Charm' Honorable Mention	Peony 'Topeka Garnet' First Award
Peony 'Top Hat' First Award	Peony 'Angel Cheeks' First Award	Peony 'Topeka Garnet' Second Award
Peony 'Candy Stripe' Second Award	Peony 'Paul M. Wild' Honorable Mention	Peony 'Raspberry Clown' Third Award
Peony 'Raspberry Clown' Second Award	Peony 'Bowl of Cream' Third Award	Peony 'Festiva Maxima' Second Award

Also there are 24 flowers pictured here that were awarded some sort of ribbon. I won 25 ribbons, so apparently I missed photographing one more peony bloom entry. It was a 2nd place ribbon for another entry of Peony 'Many Happy Returns'. As for the counts on the ribbon types, in 2017 there were 8 First Place, 4 Second Place, 3 Third Place, and 6 Honorable Mentions. In 2015 I earned 4 First Place, 9 Second Place, 3 Third Place, and 2 Honorable Mentions. So they really gave out many more Honorable Mentions in 2017. I'm not sure when I'll have a chance to show flowers again. It looks like they may not have a convention within driving distance for me for several years...

Looking over the photos of all of the peonies I entered in 2017, Peony 'Yellow Emperor', Peony 'Canary Brilliants', Peony 'Many Happy Returns', Peony 'Top Hat', Peony 'Angel Cheeks', and Peony 'Bowl of Cream' are my favorites. There's just something about a nice, round, symmetrical peony you just can't beat. Which ones are your favorites?