Why I Oughta...

Late July is the beginning of (at least around here) dahlia season.  We're seeing our first few blooms on the various dahlias around the garden.  We also are seeing our second flush of blooms from the Disneyland Roses on the side of our house.  But, this year it is also something else.  Something that is surprising:  peony season.   Yep.  This is what the flowers on our countertop look like right now:  Sarah Berhardt peonies are opening up in a vase . How is this happening?  Peony season around here in late May to Early June.  We cut peonies as fast as we can and they put on a great show for about ten days.  But, this year, I tried something new:  Storing cut peony stems in the fridge when they were at the 'marshmallow stage' before they opened .  Here's a post showing the full process .   Here, below, is a look at the unwrapping process.   We started with a big collection of wrapped stems in Saran...

A few days ago, I posted some photos showing the big peony arrangement that I successfully stored in the fridge for about a month and talked about how peony blooming season is so short.  In addition to cutting and storing some peonies for later this Summer, I also cut and put out on the counter a couple of vases full of peonies when they were blooming.   I've been working on the Disneyland Roses a bit more this early Summer, too.  Paying attention to them water-wise.  And, spraying them with both an insecticide and fungicide as often as I remember to do out there.  That's produced Floribunda rose stems that are *knock wood* holding more leaves and having less pests than last year.   One of my 2025 goals was to continue to have countertop arrangements with cut flowers .  Here's a round-up of a number of cut flowers we've had on our counter the past six weeks or so. We have white double 'Duchesse de Nemours' peonies in the back .  And some...