Why I Oughta...

It is peony season around here.   When we were first dating, Nat was a blogger.  Her url was iheartpeonies dot com.  The very first thing that we planted in our first garden was a Sarah Bernhardt peony that was a division from Nat's mom's garden.  The story goes that the peony was her great aunt's peony that had been divided a number of times to be planted in various family member's gardens.   That peony ended up back in Nat's Mom's garden when we moved out.  I said - back in 2017 - that it was being 'fostered' .  But, it has stayed there these seven-plus years.   Our new garden didn't have any peonies.  Until 2018 when I bought a couple of tubers.  The first one was Sarah Bernhardt .  The pink peony that you think of when you think of peonies.  It has moved around a few times, but ended up IB2DWS and has grown quite a bit up there.  Last year (2023), I declared was our first REAL 'Peony Season' .  It was the first time that we had blooms; or

Last Fall, I dug up and divided the three Elijah Blue Fescue ornamental grass clumps that I planted in our IB2DWs bed and grew the colony (from three to six).  I originally planted three of these Blue Fescues back in Spring of 2022 along with a trio of Nepeta 'Cat's Pajamas' in a sort-of blue-hue'd combination planting.   These three were NEVER (to my eye) thriving, but they just chugged along over the course of two growing seasons.  Last Fall, I noticed some center rot and then read up on these ornamental grasses and learned that they need to be divided every few years to push healthy new growth .  So...I took my hori hori to them and created six grasses from three.  I put them back in the same location and just 'expanded' the colony with a staggered set of grasses.  Two of them were - at the time last fall - were TINY.   To my surprise, all six came back, including the two tiny ones.  Here, below, is a look at the six Elijah Blue Fescue grasses in the center

It has taken six growing seasons, but we *finally* have enough peonies to make a bouquet.  Just one bouquet.   But, it is still a bouquet.  That's a major victory for me.  We had a major set of Peony tubers in our first house in Elmhurst.  We also had a full sun backyard.  In Downers Grove we have had peonies that have grown, but never really flowered.  And, mostly shade. So, over the years, I've moved the plants around.  And, it seems that I've found a few spots that work for peonies.  We have (this year) three flowering peony plants.  First, a darker, purple-ish single blom: That opened up to look like this: We had one white peony that bloomed - a Duchesse de Nemours white peony that is also in our backyard.  See below for that bloom after I cut it and brought it in: And, finally...the largest of the peony plants:  Sarah Bernhardt pink peonies .  This peony plant is out front, IB2DWS and this is what it looked like when the blooms were still closed and felt like 'mar