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Backyardnotes

~ All things botanical in photos and words—in my West Seattle garden and elsewhere; seeing and creating art and assorted musings.

Backyardnotes

Tag Archives: peonies

A PARADE OF PEONIES

04 Friday May 2012

Posted by backyardnotes in May flowers

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flower buds, flower in my garden, peonies, showy flower

THE FLOWER OF THIS TREE PEONY IS THE MOST SHOWY FLOWER in my garden. It has definite WOW factor for me every year. Only two flower buds this year; one was broken by a windstorm last month.

Back in March with this post I noted the emerging buds of this peony. Now it is in various stages of blooming and practically shouts “I’m ready for my close-up now”.

As I have noted before, I have no idea what this variety is since it bears no resemblance to the ‘Flame Heart’ that I had ordered. I am charmed by it anyway.

A gradual transition from pink to pure white and far from the anticipated red!

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APRIL SHOWERS BRING SOME MAY FLOWERS!

12 Thursday May 2011

Posted by backyardnotes in May flowers, Musings

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hostas, peonies, tulips

THIS LOVELY PINK TINGED PEONY has, to me, a very feminine, girly aspect. Ruffled edges like a crinoline petticoat. It will change from pink to pure white.

In order to avoid repeating myself I took a look at a post from May 11, of last year. Most of what is pictured in that post is not even close to blooming and I have not spotted one fava bean! The continuing cool weather has really set bloom times back by a week or more.

That said, tulips are still coming on and the apple tree began blooming around the first of May. It is so beautiful and we’ve had some warm, dry days so the hope is that it has been enough to bring out the pollinators.

I really like this tulip mix, ‘Valentine Candy’, lots of pink and red shades. They look great poking through the mixed foliage of japanese anemone, stachys, lilies, and sedum of the Autumn Joy type.

I like unexpected little vignettes, like this one with the hosta ‘June’, wood hyacinths, and a few of the ‘Valentine Candy’ tulips.

This morning we have sunshine and the promise of a good day for gardening chores and transplanting of tomato seedlings which seem to be in sync with everything else—behind schedule! But complaints about the weather here are silly and shallow when compared to the devastation taking place all along the Mississippi. My heart goes out to all of those effected. Consider helping here.

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PARTING SHOTS OF APRIL

30 Friday Apr 2010

Posted by backyardnotes in April flowers, Native plants, Spring bulbs, Spring flowers, tulips, West Seattle garden

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April, columbine, friendship gardening, hosta, peonies, tulip

EVEN WHEN RAIN IS FALLING AND THE SKY IS MULTIPLE SHADES OF GRAY, the view from inside to outside is full of color. So one last post to showcase April’s floral bounty.

Tulip clusiana Cynthia, bright and sunny sunny.

Aquilegia vulgaris ‘Leprechaun Gold’ has beautiful foliage and unremarkable dark blue flowers.

Sweet and tiny flowers of my bay tree, laurus nobilis.

The sweet smelling flowers from the bolted brussels sprouts attract all types of bees and bee-like flies.

This beautiful, blue camassia leichtlinii is native to Oregon, and quamash is native to most of the west and British Columbia and Alberta. These were planted in 1997. They stand about 3ft tall. The white variety blooms in May.

The Pacific Bleeding Heart dicentra formosa is native to Pacific coast states and British Columbia.

What is more perfect in nature than circular form of an unfurling fern frond?

A superbly delicate blush of blue is the highlight of the Striped Squill, pushkinia libanotica.

This is ‘Salmon Jewel’. I think it has some form of mosaic disease that is causing the wild color variations; it quite lovely but it should look like the ones below.

These were planted about ten years ago. I am amazed that they have survived in the mass of roots from the red cedars.

This lovely tulip is Professor Monserri, planted in 2008.

When my friend and former neighbor Sarah lived in West Seattle, she gave forced bulbs as gifts at Christmas. Mostly paper whites and tulips. This one, lonely tulip was in one of the mixes. I planted the bulbs in the ground and now every year when it comes up I am reminded of her and her friendship and that is part of what makes having a garden enjoyable.

The hosta below came from Deb’s via Grandma T’s. I have no idea what cultivar it is, but certainly  striking and it has large leaves like the sieboldiana types.

I also promised a piece of  hosta ‘Frances Williams’ to Deb and divided it last week. I planted it in 1997 so it was high time to divide! I was able to get five divisions from it. This is one of my favorites and it is very large.

The original clump.

The first division.

One division stayed in the original spot, one went to my neighbor, one each to my sisters and the fifth one went along the driveway under the lilacs and white snowball viburnum.

And last, the lavish blooms of Grandma T’s tree peony with four blooms this year–a record here.

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Blowsy Peonies

11 Monday May 2009

Posted by backyardnotes in Uncategorized

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friendship gardening, grandmother, legacy gardening, peonies

On Saturday, my heirloom tree peony started to bloom. This crepe paper flower came from my grandmother’s garden after she passed away in 2001. She most likely planted it some time in the 1940’s. They are fussy about being moved and we were not sure that our respective pieces of the root would survive. I believe that three out four pieces made it. I babied mine for over a year and I think it is finally established; there is a little more new growth each year, but so far not more than 3 flowers. Anyway, yesterday it was fully bloomed and is very showy and the size of a dinner plate. My sister says it looks kind of decadent.

My Grandma Teeters was a wonderful gardener and it’s special to have a little piece such an old plant that she cherished and cared for. She cultivated a large ‘collector’ garden developed over 65 years and very large vegetable garden that fed her family through the depression and well in to the 1980’s. I have a number of plants that came from her yard, many of which were what she called ‘Friendship Plants’. She and her gardening and garden club friends regularly traded new finds and seeds, many of which were collected from the wild on hikes and trips around Washington and beyond. So, in many respects I have a legacy garden and I continually think of my grandma and all that I learned from her, including friendship gardening.

treepeony Peonycenter

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