Tree Peonies are in bloom!
I've been pretty busy in the gardens lately. Now that the last frost date has passed by I've been planting seeds of everything from beans to zinnias and I'm still not finished sowing.
This beautiful Wednesday afternoon I went out wandering through the gardens with my camera.
My tree peonies bloom before the herbaceous peonies. Tree peonies are woody and do not die back to the ground each year like herbaceous peonies.
(No, that big woody limb does not belong to that Tree Peony! It's a mulberry limb that fell into the garden about seven years ago or so.)
You can kind of see the woody limbs of this Tree Peony sticking out at the side.
Shooting Stars
They are slow to multiply but now I have several little clumps of them in my native wildflower area.
Camassia. I have four different varieties. This is the first patch to bloom.
They are not all that fancy; however, they are a nice pop of color in the garden this time of year.
Stop and smell the lilacs.
Trillium in bloom at the base of a rose bush.
Sweet Rocket. I never know where it will pop up. It seeds itself here there and everywhere.
One of many climps of wild or species tulips. It seems critters leave the species tulips alone but love to devour any other tulips so I've quit trying to grow any type of the fancy tulips I love.
Critters also leave the Daffodils alone. I've fallen in love with the many varieties of miniature Daffs. These are fragrant.
Another miniature fragrant variety of Daffss.
The shade garden has several different varieties of fragrant mini Daffs too. And, look!...the Aquilegia (or Columbine) are starting to bloom. I've started them from seed over the years and some varieties have seeded themselves here and there.
This year I sowed a mixed variety of McKanna's Giant Aquilegia and will be planting them in the gardens soon.
Aquilegia
Aquilegia
Aquilegia
Some of the other varieties are not in bloom yet.
This is the native variety of Aquilegia and it is in my native wildflower garden.
Hostas are starting to pop up here and there to give some color to shady areas.
About 25 years ago I bought several different Hostas on clearance at Walmart. I have separated them many times now over the years and given some away. That's a Hellebore in bloom in front of the Hosta.
Hosta
This is a smaller piece of a bigger Hosta I planted a couple of years ago. Depending upon how much shade/light it gets the leaves might look blue. And an older more mature Hosta of this variety gets at least two feet tall and the leaves are huge.
And sow on...
10 comments:
Your flowers are spectacular! I don't see most of them where I live. Thank you for sharing them with us.
So many lovely purples, blues and mauves in your flowers this year, Cathy. Thanks for sharing;))) hugs, Julierose
Love the garden tour :-) My peony trees were in full bloom and......a severe wind destroyed the flowers. Such a bummer.
Happy Thursday! I'm off to plant marigolds!
beautiful flowers and plants - I love it when things blossom
So beautiful!!! Love all the deep colors - they are just so pretty!
Lots of lovelies here. I'm no gardener so I've never heard of tree peonies, they must be different to the peonies which brow as a Bush?
My tree peonies have just tiny buds right now. I have the same pink and the magenta ones. Love all the other flowers. The rabbits mowed down most of the tulips. The hellebores were beautiful this year.
Thanks for the lovely garden tour. I have most of the plants you showed, except the species tulips. I had a beautiful tree peony that only lasted about 5 years. Developed some disease that cause the branch tips to turn black and die back. I also have bleeding heart and Virginia bluebells (Mertensia) in bloom right now.
Pat
Oh just where to begin after seeing these stunning photos of flowers in your garden!! They have brightened my day enormously - thank you - just what I needed to see. Now, I have never grown tree peonies, had the herbaceous peonies when we lived in Christchurch but a but too warm and humid up here for them. Many, many years since I had the pleasure of seeing and smelling lilac, an unforgettable experience.
Daffs - always a favourite and your Aquilegia plants are beauties, I have the pink ones in my garden but must search the seed growers here for more varieties. The fallen tree limb left just where it fell is my sort of thing, I have an old, old bench in my garden, so old now covered in different lichens, the seat slats are now rotted and falling through to the base of a Viechenblau rose, husband asked two days ago should he move the remains of the bench to the rubbish - he received a very firm NO!!! Thank you Cathy for giving us the pleasure of a wander around your garden
That's funny...my tree peonies bloom after the other peonies, not before. Your gardens are lovely...always great to see what is blooming! :)
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