I spent Saturday and Sunday weeding the cottage peony beds and am relatively encouraged by what I'm seeing so far. This and the last spring have presented situations that I've not encountered before—I had 3 peonies planted fall 2022 that did not emerge at all last spring that did come up this year! White Innocence from Solaris, Valkyrie from Lyndaker Farms and Sonoma YeDo—purchased from Adelman's Black Friday sale and planted early Dec which was srill gorgeous fall feeling planting weather in AL. Also got Elizabeth Black that fall and it emerged super late, like June/July after everything else had bloomed! So 2 herbaceous and 1 Itoh from 3 different growers…knew growing them in such a hot zone would be challenging.
Sharing a few pics, mainly Itohs this time, of the growth I'm seeing. The plants are increasing slower in AL than they would in a cooler zone, but I'll get used to that.
Bob. This plant was barely holding on when I moved it from CO to AL. It went from a sad, barely there plant to 3 buds on what looks like a 2nd year plant in 4 years in the ground there. If it sounds like I'm whining I really am not, I'm happy with the growth! Now that I'm living in the same state I'm hoping to experiment with shade cloth in the summer to reduce soil temps, maybe work on getting more root growth, but if that doesn't work I'll gladly put up with plants that mature in 7 or 8 years rather than 4 or 5 to be over with Mother's Day, or some years Father's Day, weekend blizzards!
The Sonoma YeDo that did not emerge last spring. I'd say it looks pretty good for one that rose from the dead!
Caroline Constabel was rescued 2 falls ago from the weed bed. She has buds this year and seems to be recovering well from her blackberry jungle adventure.
