Why I Oughta...

The annual return of these red, sharp-pointed tips are a welcome sing of Spring.  These are (below) a couple of clumps of peonies that are emerging in the beds (kitchen curved) in our backyard.  They're emerging later than last year - here's same peonies about a month earlier in 2024 .   Note the Milorganite in the photo below.  I hand-spread a full 40-pound bag of Milroganite recently on all the beds ahead of the application of mulch.  I've had mixed results with peonies in our current garden.  First, starting them in the way back - too much shade.  And, subsequently moving them over the years.   They are Nat's favorite flower and her first love.  (She wrote a blog called 'i heart peonies'.) So, growing them is important.  But, finding the right home to make that happen has taken years.  These two peonies are younger than the one out front - IB2DWs.  That one produced the MOST flowers and really popped-off last year ...

Just yesterday, I posted a photo showing some of the new red tips of peonies that had emerged from the mulch beds (in this case...a biosolid-top-dressed bed) and talked about how they were a sign of Spring.  But, the peonies aren't the ONLY red-tipped perennial that has arrived for the year: some of our Fanal Astilbes that are planted in our backyard shade garden are making their way out of the mulch to begin their annual foliage show.  Below, is a photo of the Fanal Astilbe that is planted at the furthest East-end of the row of these shade-tolerant perennials: I started with a dozen of these Fanal Astilbes planted in the backyard in 2020 along the south border and have moved them a few times.   By last Summer, these were thick, full and happy - so I put them on my Fall Dividing list.   And, I was able to dig-up and divide four of them - creating four new 'free plants' that I planted on the other side of the yard in a hosta-replacement project . ...