April 2012 bulb pictures

Peonies--May 2012

When we moved to from gardening zone 10 to zone 5 in fall 2009, I vowed to embrace the plants that grow well here.  Peonies immediately came to mind.  When I found out that peonies are generally not eaten by deer I decided I NEEDED them, preferably in large quantities.

Peony "Moonstone" Spring 2012 with Allium aflatunense and unidentified blue iris from a fellow gardener. 

I purchased a few peonies through Van Engelen, including these 3 Moonstone, in Fall 2010.  Spring 2011  I saw moderate growth and a few buds.  The buds quickly shriveled into sad looking dried-up mummy buds.

At first I was horrified, thinking my peonies had been assaulted by a unique to zone 5 peony blight.  Since then, I have read a few reports of similar results on first year transplants.  Thankfully, Spring 2012 they flowered quite nicely, mummy free.

Peony "Do Tell" had also had a few flowers for me Spring 2012 along with Dutch Iris, Hardy Glads and a few Alliums.  This deer-resistant grouping is currently growing safely in The Compound.   Need more well drained sunny spots in the yard. Bonus Painted lady butterfly in upper right corner.

Unidentified dark red peony.  Definitely not Festiva Maxima. 

As we are into summer now, I do have a few foliar issues on some of my peonies.  A few look downright nasty.  All in all though, growing peonies, is but one of the rewards to a zone 5 garden.

Spring Biennials April 2012

Sweet Williams, Dianthus barbatus, are my favorite low fuss biennial.  I frequently read that people avoid biennials because they take up a garden space for a year without any flower production.  If you start them now (mid to late summer), keep them growing in little cell packs or other pots and then plant them in bare spots in the fall, they will reward you in early spring with vibrant and fragrant blossoms, without taking up space for an entire summer.

Sweet Williams with taller  lacy and white Agrostemma githago"Ocean Pearls" in the foreground.  Campanula medium "Canterbury Bells, another biennial, in bud in background.  Seed heads and a few straggly white flowers from yet another biennial, Verbascum phoeniceum "Shades of Summer", a few Allium multibulbosum and a lone Digitalis purpurea (Foxglove--another very easy biennial).

Spring Tulips--April 2012

Tulip "Montreux" an early double, started out pale pink and then turned luscious yellow tinged with pink at the base. They were $22.50 per 100 bulbs during the 2011 Van Engelen fall sale.   Waiting to buy so late in the season means less selection.  Also, it pushes the planting time back pretty far.  I had all my bulbs in my zone 5 garden by the end of November.  The last few bulbs I had to chip away an inch of frozen mulch/soil conglomerate.




Tulip "Red Impression" from the 2011 Van Engelen bulb sale cost $18.15 per 100 bulbs (plus shipping and handling charges).   A bouquet of around 30 stems definitely brightens up a room.

Tulips, along with other plants favored by deer in our area, must be grown in a fenced area.  We fondly refer to the fenced area as the "Deer Compound", even though that makes it sound as though it is a compound for deer.