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...

Peonies are Nat's favorite flower.  But, in our garden, peonies have a very short window.  They all bloom at the same time and the blooms don't last long.  Like a flash of petals, only to fade-away quickly.  That's why I was excited to come across the advice of how to cut and store peonies at the "marshmallow stage" by cutting them, wrapping them in paper and plastic wrap and tucking them in to a long Summer's nap in the cold climate of our fridge.   I wrote this post showing my process back in mid-June .  I cut-up-and-preserved two big bunches of peonies.   This week, I took one of the packages out of the fridge.  I cleaned up the leaves, cut the stems and put them in water.  They perked up and looked like the perfect peonies that we see a month-ago when they are fresh cut from the garden.   Below are a couple photos showing this peony arrangement on our counter - IN JULY.  Yes...July.  That's pretty great....

Peonies are here.  And they don't last long.  With four-or-five peony plants coupled with some travel, the timing of bloom season isn't great this year.  We're getting more peony blooms than ever, but they're all going to waste.  Or...at least they *were* going to be going to waste.  That was...until I came across this person who "Flower Farms" on Tiktok - her handle is Hidden Springs Flowers .  She's a good follow on TikTok, but one video - in particular - taught me something I didn't know:  You can 'extends' peony season by cutting them at the 'marshmallow stage' and sticking them in the fridge.    Here, below are some of the cut peonies where I removed their bottom leaves: Below is the TikTok that she posted that details the process: @hiddenspringsflowers Replying to @user1379406190063 how to store peonies for weeks in a cooler. Make sure to grab them at marshmallow stage before they’ve opened or this won’t work. 🌸 #flowerfarm #...

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 ...

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 w...

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 Fes...

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...