Sarah Bernhardt blooms late for me, along with Fancy Nancy and High Fashion. Those three are in a bed that lose the snow late because it is near the laneway and my hubby blows the snow there.

Sounds like quite a project, Mary Stella! It should be beautiful.

Yes, I agree, photos of the foxtails would be great.

I'll take pics of the foxtail lilies tomorrow and post tomorrow eve. I'm so glad the other colors are starting to show up but it's taken 3 years to get more than yellow. Probably a lot to do with my zone. Having the other colors made up a tiny bit for missing almost all of my Itohs.....

My peony season is finally over with the last of my white/blush NOID sidebud gone yesterday. Considering unusually hot and dry weather 1 month is quite good. Guess now I have to prepare for coming roots.

I spent quite a bit of time weeding and deadheading yesterday, seems like I missed a lot of flowers. My season is normally at least a good 5 weeks with stragglers going into the 6th week, this year it seems to have been compressed into just 3 main weeks. I swear I'm staying home from June 5th or so through the rest of the season next year....I am going to the APS convention in NC, though!

Have you finished with all of your orders for the fall, Alex? I told myself I'd get less this year, don't know how well I've kept that resolution. I came back with over 20 from WI. Guess we'll have to start a thread on what we've ordered soon, huh? I still have to go through and label pics and share those, I'll probably be doing that all winter.

I ordered only two this year, Liz, but hope for some exchange in the fall.

Exchanges are the best, Alex. I've done just a couple for peonies but hope to do more in the future

I have 22 coming this fall. 13 from Holland (Peony Shop), the rest from Hidden Springs and Adelman's. Several hard to find, two fernies, etc. Garden Treasure is finally blooming. Always my last one. Such a nice ending to the season.

Garden Treasure is on my personal favorites list.what a great way to close out the season, Mary Stella.

I thought Garden Treasure was my last Itoh but I noticed a fading bloom on Strawberry Blonde earlier this week. Don't remember it blooming so late before, always right at the end of Singing in the Rain. This was my first ever bloom of Garden Treasure, glad I didn't miss it with the rest.

I could use some help in identifying four peonies in our botanical garden. They were planted without tags but I know their names; just not which is which and there appear to be multiples of each one: Felix Crousse, Felix Supreme, Adolphe Rousseau, Kansas, Shawnee Chief, and Karl Rosenfield. I have taken pictures then put numbered stakes at the base of those with pictures. They are planted so close together it is difficult to discern how many plants are there in one spot unless one is very different. Which is the case in one 'clump' of three. Two have red veins in the stems and dark green leaves, the third has totally green stems and very simple green leaves. Just one example. It was easy to eliminate Bowl of Beauty and General MacMahan. There was just a bit of a barely legible nursery tag on the three or four in the front area that we figured was General something or other. So we checked the purchase invoice and there it was. That was last year, the tag got lost but when they bloomed he really stuck out. And of course mixed in with all those huge wine red bombs, Bowl of Beauty stuck out. I told them they need to move it. You can barely see it.

Anyway, if anyone has any of these plants and would be so very kind to take photos of the stems and leaves I would appreciate it. I have tons of pictures of the blooms but they are in some cases very similar. I even printed pictures from the Nichols Arboretum figuring that their pictures would be truer to form than that of vendors. At least if you live in Michigan they would be. Plus sometimes what is a double bomb form might decide to be onery and product singles early on. Right now I have tons of blooms and the foliage is great so I have the best chance to identify them. I started a section in the three ring binder I carry around the garden that is just closeups of leaves and stems with the accession number and name of each one. We differentiated Scarlett O'Hara from an unnamed one right in front by that method. And the same with Raspberry Sundae (two different garden beds).

Thanks so much for any assistance you can offer. I will of course give attribution for each picture in our records

So sorry Mary. I wish I can help you. I have only one of the 4, Felix Supreme but I think the vendor may have sent me a mislabel. Hope others can help you out.

Thanks anyway Karen. It's the thought that counts.

I'm new here and would like to share a new addition to my garden here in the 'North Country'.
'Vision of Sugar Plums'

Welcome Craig. Very nice flower and color there on your peony.

Hi Craig. That is really a nice hue to your peony. Also like the little flower in the back. What is it? Hope you are faring well in the turbulent weather back there.

Hi Mary.Thank you! The flower in the back is a Sweet William dianthus


This is a tree peony from New Zealand

Gorgeous!! Name?? I just looked at a bunch of pictures my daughter's boyfriend sent from NZ. He was there getting a ride to the south pole. He is on his way to Amundsen-Scott ultimately as their Maintenance Manager (and other duties as assigned like 'first response.'

Hi Mary, I believe it is Radiant Moonbeam.



This is Honey Comb which is also from New Zealand

Okay, is anyone else wondering how Craig managed to get tree peonies from New Zealand? Nice, Craig!! I know some sellers manage to trade back and forth....the big question I have is if this was imported, I assume bare root, what time of year did you get it? With the reversed seasons I'd think it'd go through a lot of shock with the transition. Glad they made it, both are beautiful!

Hi Liz, I purchased it directly from Simmon's Paeonias (peony.net.nz) as a bare root in the spring. Because they are in the Southern Hemisphere the plants are going dormant. They do survive the shock of being forced into bloom again and have even bloomed in the late spring of the year I received them. They have a great selection, shipping is pricey, and I see on their site that they are considering retirement and have scaled down.

Here's Southern Beauty