I've seen some of the European peony growers advise growing strawberries around tree peonies, the roots are very close to the surface and easy to remove. Might be an idea foe a living mulch.

We've had some beautiful spring weather for awhile here in Minnesota. Two days ago I shoveled a bunch of snow and ice on top of my fern peonies. Then I put a sheet of white styrofoam on top of the snow. I did not want those plants to get any silly ideas about growing this early! We still have many weeks to go before below 0F temperatures are out of the question. A couple years ago my fern peony bloom was destroyed by late, cold weather. I'm not going to let it happen again.

It looks like my plan worked. There is still snow under the insulation and it just started snowing. The plants could get a nice 7" covering by tomorrow morning. That should make the garden happy since I've been in a drought since last spring.


Here's what my double fern peonies look like when they aren't fooled into growing in early March. This photo was taken on May 22.

It's raining here so no gardening today but I noticed my little Command Performance that I just moved recently has 3 little pips.

Rubi, Beautiful picture! And interesting tip on how to make peonies behave. I hope it works!

I was in the garden and found a few of the tree peonies branches broken off so I search for a bit of root found a piece on a plant that I forgot to-plant2 year's ago most of it was dried out dead, except for a small section. So I made a graft ,you never know? Will post.

Rubi, your P. tenuifolia is very nice. How many plants are in this clump?

anyagoro said:Rubi, your P. tenuifolia is very nice. How many plants are in this clump?

Here's how many plants. I may have chopped a chunk or two off of the big ones since this picture was taken.

Will graft in Spring work?
I heard most people graft in Autumn.

ol434445 said:I was in the garden and found a few of the tree peonies branches broken off so I search for a bit of root found a piece on a plant that I forgot to-plant2 year's ago most of it was dried out dead, except for a small section. So I made a graft ,you never know? Will post.

Littlebin you are right, I will be making a few grafts late summer early fall,I just did not want to throw it out ,so nothing to lose.

Exactly! You either throw the stem away or try to graft—I'd say graft. Worst thing that can happen is you wasted a few minutes if it doesn't work but if it does you have a new tree peony. Please keep us updated, Oscar!

Oscar it is worth a try. Your graft looks good from here. Good luck!

How interesting, Oscar! Fingers crossed that it will take.

Thank you Liz ,Tracey and LG , the nurse root that I used was not the best my garden is still frozen , fingers crossed. Liz for mould in the bag, I spray with hydrogen peroxide.works for me,

I fertilized the peonies with flower buds, I also gave the Pink Hawaiian some baking soda water, I'm thinking it might have botrytis.

It is getting really cold here, had to run out to the library this morning and haven't worked the chill off yet! Snow is supposed to start overnight with the majority of accumulation in the next 36 hours or so, guess we'll see soon!

Liz...I have extra strawberries...I know where to put them now! Thinking warm thoughts for you!

Oscar, can you plant the graft in a pot with Bonsai type soil? Hoping it grows!

Rubi...I love the look of your fern leaves...hope mine make it and look as good.

SoCal...fertilizing too!

Had a few nice days so i thought i would get brave and put some radishes,lettuce and some snap peas in.

I emptied one container with lots of clay and dirt, this container was used to grow blackberries, but somehow the plants were so aggressive they sent shoots to the ground. So I moved all the blackberries to higher ground, I mean there are cement blocks under the container now. Anyway, the dirt was mixed with some potting soil and perlite, I filled some of the ground near my herbaceous peonies, I didn't want them to get botrytis by sitting in a puddle of water. Not only that my garden is now neater, no more empty container with clay out there.

My blackberries now

We ended up getting 3-4" of snow instead of 3'! It is blowing around and really cold today so nothing in the garden for me.

Yesterday, I finished cleaning up the mums and I brought all the plants into the porch yesterday again because the temperature will be falling below zero, especially at night. Pitty we are not having an early spring that I was hoping for. Not sure if I should fertilize the mums. They are growing, but I don't want them to grow too fast before they are fully hardened outside. It's kind of cold today, so I won't be working outside.

I would like to find a solution for the plants that overwinter in my porch though. I need really good-looking pots because I used them for spring and fall display when nothing else blooms. Clay pots look really nice, but they are too heavy to bring them in and out several times a year, especially in spring and fall. Even the most expensive fiberglass pots (which look like glazed clay) that I tried in the past got damaged after a couple of years. And since I don't like the look of plastic pots, I really don't have a solution. Any suggestions?