My herbaceous peonies are blooming now. This is their second year and they are still small, but starting to fill out a bit.
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| Peony 'Myrtle Gentry' |
'Myrtle Gentry' is a soft pink with creamy white interior petals. The fragrance is intense and sweet. This one is my most floriferous so far.
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| Peony 'Paul M. Wild' |
'Paul M. Wild' is my favorite for color. It's a deep raspberry red that does not fade. Not as fragrant as Myrtle though.
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| Peony 'Vivid Rose' |
Here is 'Vivid Rose', also a big fat double and a wonderfully vibrant shade of mid-pink. It is one of the latest-blooming peonies, about a week later than the above two.
Here is my peony bed last week, before 'Vivid Rose' joined in:
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| Peonies, Dwarf pine, and penstemon |
And here the dark pink one has joined the show:
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| Peonies 'Vivid Rose' and 'Myrtle Gentry' |
The flowers are enormous and heavy. The flowers are nearly on the ground and it hasn't even rained!
I obviously need to figure out a better support system for next year. How do you support your peonies?
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| Peony flopping |
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| Peonies 'Vivid Rose' and 'Myrtle Gentry' |
Wonderful bloom for the second year!
ReplyDeleteMine are 'lazy' and bloomed on the third year. Pretty pictures!
Beautiful peonies, especially the 'Paul Wild'. It's amazing that they are all already in bloom in the second year, great!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the vicarious opportunity to enjoy your peonies. In a fit of zonal denial, I tried growing a herbaceous variety in SoCal many years ago, trying to simulate winter by dumping ice cubes around the plant (!!!). Needless to say, it didn't work. I later planted a tree peony and, after about 3 years, got 1 bloom - then it never bloomed again. This spring I put in one of the new Itoh peonies, which are reputed to bloom here. My fingers are crossed that it'll bloom again next year. If not, I'll have to stick with looking at pictures on-line and buying cut flowers in the market...
ReplyDeleteYour peonies are lovely! Mine are finished already. I found some peony supports that are similar to tomato cages, only wider and shorter. I used to remove them for the winter, but now, keep them in place, so that they will be there when needed. It is best to put them in place before the plants get large enough to bloom.
ReplyDeleteAll three peonies are just gorgeous. Peonies are slow to mature, but they will be around forever. You are doing well to have so many flowers in year 2. I don't usually stake or support my peonies and let them lean on other plants. They are so short lived that I try to pick as many as I can so I can enjoy them in the house.
ReplyDeleteWow - peonies my favourite blooms. You have a few beauties there. My first have just flowered - the others will catch up soon enough.
ReplyDeleteYou have just named one I lost a label for a long time ago. As soon as I saw those words Myrle Gentry - it came flashing back to me!
I support all my peonies and find that ring/grid supports are best. The bigger the better. Get the supports in just as they start to grow, the stems will grow up through and then you can raise them up a little as the plants grow. Works perfectly every time.
Your peonies are lovely, and as Angie says, ring supports work well, at least when they are quite small, that's what I used to use. When they get mature like mine is now it doesn't work anymore as each of my stalks get 5' long! I support each individual stalk with bamboo canes, although next year I think I will invest in green, wooden stakes as they look nicer. If I didn't stake my peonies individually they would all do a u-turn completely to the ground long before they started to flower so with a bit of effort they stand proudly supported against wind and rain.
ReplyDeleteLovely peonies - I've never seen that raspberry colour. I support my peonies with a kind of lasso tied to something fixed down.
ReplyDeleteThe Peony 'Paul M. Wild I like very much, so unusual. I also have a job supporting them and usually end up using canes.
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