Why I Oughta...

I was out in our #newoldbackyard over the weekend doing some weeding of the various beds along our foundation and came across this four-stemmed set of shoots.  I was mindlessly wandering around the perimeter of the house looking for green shoots in the mostly brown mulched (and empty beds).  I was about to bend over and rip it out when I realized that these look a lot like a young peony plant. Could we have some volunteer peonies?  I don't think they're 'survivors' like our ostrich ferns .  Based on these being right up next to the foundation around our screened porch, I'm thinking that if these are, indeed, peonies, that they hitchhiked along with the mulch when our landscaper put it down before we moved in. Volunteer peonies?  Wouldn't that be delightful.  We still have to move our foster peonies from Nat's Mom's garden in Naperville.  Maybe this is a sign?  Could this bed be destined to house our peony plants?  I'm going to keep an eye on t

Yesterday, I posted a photo of our foster-care hosta out in Naperville , but it isn't the only plant we have in my in-laws yard.  There are a few others including an Ostrich Fern, a miniature hosta and this peony plant above.  This peony plant was given to Nat by her Aunt from Tennessee, I believe and has it's roots in one of their Great Aunt's gardens from years ago.  Back in 2010, I posted this piece about these very ferns and their origin story . I've covered Nat's peonies over the years here on the blog.   You can see the full peony archive here . These are being fostered by Nat's mom and after being transplanted late in the summer in 2015, had a pretty rough year last year. Nat's mom is a pretty good gardener and thanks to her, we had these beauties survive.  We brought them over in the middle-of-summer heat (that's when we moved out!), and she got them in the ground and kept them wet as they tried to establish themselves.  I wasn't that

Back in April of this year, I chronicled the annual return of Nat's peonies as they emerged from the mulch in our backyard. Just one small section of the blooms opened up this week with the rest still tightly balled up awaiting their time to shine.  These are a really dark pink and they're set off to the side of the rest of our peony plants.  I believe these were harvested out of the yard of a house at the end of our block that was getting torn down.  I went with the Babe and a wagon and filled it up with peonies, irises and hostas. Before they tipped over and started dragging on the ground, I went out and cut some of the flowers off to bring inside where the girls helped me put them in a vase.

In a sure sign of spring, I have to look no further than some of the landscape beds in our back yard to see the peonies popping their little red tips out of the mulch. This is an annual ritual - the posting of the peony tips - on the blog here.  Six years and counting.   Here's how I documented this Spring moment last year . Here's my post from 2013 . And here are the photos of these same peonies in 2010 , 2011 , and 2012 .

Just like in year's past, Nat's peonies are popping up - and that is what really means Spring to me. Here's my post from 2013 .   And here are the photos of these same peonies in 2010 , 2011 , and 2012 .

In a sure sign that I need to get going on the yard cleanup, most of our Peony plants have their red tips popping through the mulch.  I've chronicled this moment in 2010 , 2011 , and 2012 . Seems like they're right on track.  One year, they were up in early April.  One year they were up in early May.  This year?  Mid/Late April.