2010 APS Peony Convention Farm Tour

The weather did not cooperate this morning for the tour of Klehm's Song Sparrow farm. It rained quite a bit. However, it did start to clear up this afternoon. I was able to get several shots of varieties that interested me. I saw a few peonies in person that I had been interested in, in the past, and after seeing them in person, intensified my interest. The Award of Landscape Merit meeting is tonight, and the flower show opens to the public tomorrow after judging. I met several people that I have ordered peonies from, talked to over email, or heard of in the APS bulletin. It is nice to put faces with names.

Klehm's Song Sparrow Farm

2010 APS Peony Convention Park Picnic

Today I arrived in Wisconsin. The weather is nice, and so are the people. The recently formed Wisconsin Peony Society hosted the welcome picnic. I made some new friends today at the picnic and hope to make many more tomorrow during the farm tour. I haven't seen a peony yet, but I am so ready! It would be nice to see more intersectional peonies in bloom, but I think their season has probably passed here. Also I don't think Klehm grows very many of them, as I haven't seen too many listed in their catalog for sale. They did hand out an abbreviated version of their catalog in the registration packet, and I did see 3 yellow intersectionals for sale on the back cover. I don't recall seeing any more, but I haven't had time to review the catalog in detail. It will be so nice to see the peonies in person tomorrow!

2010 APS Peony Convention Preparation

I now have a place to stay for the convention, and less than 48 hours before my flight leaves for Milwaukee. My focus now is on what I need to bring to the convention and what I can learn from it. My camera is the most important thing I can think of to bring. I am hoping to learn a little bit about displaying flowers for showing. I don't think I'll be showing peonies any time soon, but I did enter the NC State Fair flower show last year for the first time and won three 3rd place ribbons. I think I will do much better this year as I already have plans to adjust my strategy, but I hope I will learn even more about showing flowers from this year's peony convention as well. Since the NC State Fair is always in the fall I won't ever be entering any peonies into their contest (alas), but I think some flower showing tips in general will help me.

2010 American Peony Society Convention Registration

I just registered for the 2010 American Peony Society Convention. The dates for the convention are June 3-6, 2010, and it is in Janesville, WI. I don't know where I'm going to be staying yet, but I have a flight, a rental car, and my APS registration completed. I am so excited. This year they are going to tour Khlem's Song Sparrow Farm and Nursery. This is one of my favorite peony vendors. I am thrilled to be able to visit them, and I hope to learn a lot on this trip. Their peonies are a bit pricier than others, but their quality and end product is exceptional. I like their business model and am interested to learn more about it. Also there are going to be several seminars about peonies during the convention to learn from. I am also looking forward to having 2 "peony seasons" this year since my peony season is now over for the year. All of the flowers in Wisconsin should be in full bloom. Awesome! Instead of recording and documenting the peonies, it will be nice to just be able to photograph and enjoy the flowers. Ahh!

2010 Rain on Peonies

Rain sure can put a damper on things. I am so grateful for the rain, though. Everything was drying up around here. The grass was getting so dry. So I am sure the peonies appreciate the rain since I don't usually give them any extra water besides what Mother Nature provides. I have watered them on rare occasions in the summer when they've looked so droopy and desperate. Let's hope they don't get that way this year. Right now however we are dealing with a wet spell... I'm curious to see what affect this rain has on the foliage, since it seems most of the peonies have been disease free in the dry spell. Here's a picture of what were some lovely blooms all turned to mush from a couple days of rain...

2010 Peony Blooms - Week 6

The last week of peony blooms are here. Usually there are about 7 weeks of bloom with peonies. Either I don't have enough of the first week early season bloomers or the hot dry weather shortened the season this year (maybe both). These late season beauties keep the peonies coming for a bit longer. Peony 'Nymphe' and Peony 'Uncle Tom' both bloomed for the first time for me this year. So I am slowing extending my peony bloom season in form and color. Enjoy!

Peony 'Nymphe'	Peony 'Uncle Tom'
Peony 'Felix Supreme'	Peony 'Rozella'

2010 Peony Blooms - Week 5

There were 41 varieties of peonies that bloomed this week. So it was another stellar week for the peonies. However, they have been suffering due to the dry spell. The blooms are beautiful, but they don't last very long and start to shrivel faster than normal. Here are some beautiful pictures of a few of the varieties that bloomed this week...

Peony 'Raspberry Sundae'	Peony 'Angel Cheeks'
Peony 'Gay Paree'	Peony 'Yellow Crown'

Here's a picture of a row of some of my most mature plantings from this week. So many blooms. Aren't they gorgeous?

2010 Happy Mother's Day Peony Bouquets

Happy Mother's Day! I spent the morning cutting flowers for Mother's Day. Aren't the cut flowers in the basket beautiful? I made several arrangements with them, and gave the largest pink arrangement to my mother.

2010 Peony Blooms - Week 4

There were so many peonies that bloomed this week, 44 varieties in all. Just to compare there were 23 varieties that bloomed in weeks 1-3. So there were almost double the number of peonies blooming this week than the first 3 weeks combined. It seems like the long hot dry spell caused many of the peonies to start blooming this week. These are some of my favorite shots of those peonies...

Peony 'Coral Charm'	Peony 'Do Tell'
Peony 'Prairie Moon'	Peony 'Cherry Charm'

2010 Peony Bloom Color Coding

Today I was busy checking my peony blooms against my RHS mini color chart. I am in the process of trying to catalog all of the bloom colors by the RHS chart. That way the color descriptions of each peony are more accurate and can be more easily compared to one another. I think I may invest in the complete RHS color chart later on (which would be quite an investment £174.00 vs. £26.00) because the range of reds and pinks would be larger. For now, I think the information I'm gathering with the mini chart will be helpful.

2010 Intersectional Peonies

I am in love! I just saw the blooms on the intersectional peony 'Morning Lilac' for the first time, and it was love at first sight. I have never seen a peony in bloom as purple as this one (purple is my favorite color), and it is awesome! I can't wait to hybridize this one. It would be awesome to use the pollen from this one. I wonder if it will set seed. I haven't yet gotten any seed from an intersectional peony, but of course I've only had one intersectional peony bloom at all which was last year. So I haven't had much of an opportunity. I guess we'll see what happens with their pods this fall.

Peony 'Morning Lilac'

2010 Peony Blooms - Weeks 1-3

Here are some of the best blooms from weeks 1-3 of my peony bloom season. I am so happy to have so many peonies blooming now. 'Roselette', 'Roy Pehrson's Best Yellow', 'Honor', and 'Lustrous' are all blooming for the first time this year for me. Peony 'Roselette' is stunning in form and color. The yellow color of 'Roy Pehrson's Best Yellow' is excellent and the crinkled petals are interesting too. The bright pink color of 'Honor' is awesome. 'Lustrous' is so red, and it looks great with the 'Immortality' iris planted nearby. 'Chalice', 'Roselette', 'Honor', and 'Lustrous' are peonies in my Saunders peony garden and were hybridized by Professor A. P. Saunders. I love that most of his plants are early blooming and would like to expand the selection of early blooming varieties, especially in the South. I am so looking forward to the rest of the peony bloom season...

Peony 'Chalice'	Peony 'Roselette'
Peony 'Roy Pehrson's Best Yellow'	Peony 'Honor'
Peony 'Coral Charm'	Peony 'Lustrous'

2010 Peony Bud Count

I am so excited! I have only had one bloom last year on an intersectional peony, Yellow Crown. This year I have buds on 3 different intersectional peonies! They are Bartzella with 9 buds, Morning Lilac with 2 buds, and Yellow Crown with 2 buds. So I guess you can tell I did bud counts on all of my peonies today. There are several with no buds, maybe they'll bloom next year, to as many as 81 buds on one of them, an unknown double peony. My Festiva Maxima peony also has 50 buds on it. This is going to be a great year for the peonies as long as it is not too rainy in May. We have had a pretty dry April, which has been good for the emerging foliage. The reduced precipitation seems to have had a good affect on preventing botrytis blight on the new foliage, which seems to be much more susceptible to it than mature foliage. I think we could use some rain soon, though. As long as it's not like a week of continuous rain, to give the foliage a bit of time to dry out. That would be great.

Peony 'Morning Lilac'

2010 Peony Bloom Season

The first blooms of spring 2010 are starting to appear. The first peony to bloom this year was one that bloomed for the first time for me. It was Earlybird, and it bloomed today on April 5th. This peony is a P. tenuifolia hybrid (which gives it its beautiful fernleaf foliage) from Professor Saunders.

Peony 'Earlybird'

2010 Winter is Almost Over

Winter is almost over, and spring will be here in just over a week. It felt like spring today. I got so much done outside today. Some of my peony seedlings are starting to peek out. The red buds on the herbaceous peonies are swelling, and a few are starting to poke out of the ground. With the warm day today, I took the opportunity to spread ashes on some of my peonies. The ashes are supposed to make the soil a bit more alkaline. I didn't have enough for all of them, but I did get the ashes spread on quite a few. I think it is supposed to rain tomorrow. So that's even better. It was windy some parts of the day today. So if the rain comes tomorrow perhaps some of the ashes will get soaked into the soil instead of blown away. I am so excited for spring! I can't wait to see what new peony flower faces I will get to meet this year!

2009 Fall Peony Cleanup

It's time for winter. Today is the Winter Solstice in fact. So I am a little late cutting back the dead peony foliage this year, but I did get some of it done before winter. I spent some time yesterday removing the dead peony stems and leaves from the herbaceous peonies. The foliage can carry the spores from the botrytis blight and reinfect next years stems. So it is important to remove all stems and leaves from and put this dead foliage in the trash. It is important not to leave these remains or compost them, as the diseases may still propagate. Here are some photos of my 'Karl Rosenfield' peony before and after cleanup. As you can see the hot pink buds for next years stems are visible above ground. Since I live in a southern climate, it is important that the peony be planted at this depth to get the required amount of chilling hours required for flowering.

Peony 'Karl Rosenfield'

Another interesting thing I've noticed the past 2 winters is that one of the intersectional peonies that I have, 'Yellow Crown', sends up new shoots in late summer/early fall that don't seem to die back with the first frost and last for some time into winter. The original shoots from spring have died back, but the later growth still remains.

Peony 'Yellow Crown'

Another intersectional peony that I have, 'Bartzella', has kept above ground stems like a tree peony. I accidentally cut off one of the stems before I realized they had buds on them. I don't know if the stems will survive the winter, but since this peony has never produced any flowers, I am going to leave them in place. It will be an interesting experiment to see if they survive the winter and produce any flowers.

Peony 'Bartzella'

2009 Fall Peony Orders

Well, it's that time of year again, fall planting! I can hardly wait for the orders to arrive all year. You have to get your orders in early in the year if you want to get certain varieties. The best ones sell out quick. This fall planting season is especially unique because a peony I have been wanting for 3 years (or more) has finally arrived, Peony Lavender, from hybridizer Saunders. I would love to expand the work done in the field of lavender colored peonies. All shades of purple are my favorite color. I have been trying to get Don Hollingsworth to sell me a Peony Lavender root for some time, and this year he decided to put it in his catalog. So I didn't waste any time putting my order in. I also ordered it from Hidden Springs Flower Farm last year, but they decided they couldn't ship any. So I requested they send it this year, but they didn't and just sent a refund. That was very disappointing, but now I finally have one from Don.

The fall orders have been arriving these past few weeks. I waited until I had them all so that I could take some pictures and compare the packing materials, the size and condition of the roots, and my overall opinion of the vendors. So this is what I came up with:

Gilbert H. Wild

• Packing Material: sawdust and clear plastic bag
• Size of Roots: small to medium
• Condition of Roots: wet and firm

Hidden Springs Flower Farm

• Packing Material: peat moss and plastic garbage bag
• Size of Roots: medium
• Condition of Roots: moist and firm

Hollingsworth Peony Nursery

• Packing Material: peat moss, biodegradable peanuts, and green translucent bag
• Size of Roots: large
• Condition of Roots: dry and firm

Song Sparrow

• Packing Material: cedar shavings and clear plastic bag
• Size of Roots: large
• Condition of Roots: moist and firm

2009 Fall Peony Foliage

Peony 'Coral Fay'

Peony 'Prairie Moon'

Fall is just around the corner. So I decided to take some pictures of the fall foliage today. Some of my peonies have already gone dormant for the season like 'Coral Fay'. Others are still going strong with very few signs of wear, like 'Prairie Moon'. Still others are showing signs that the season is very near to the end with powdery mildew and botrytis blight. After growing peonies for 6 years in this location, this is the first year I've ever had powdery mildew. We did have plenty of rain this year. So maybe that had something to do with it. Botrytis blight, however, is a constant.

Powdery Mildew

Botrytis Blight

2009 Peony Seed Planting

I got the seeds planted in the peony test bed today. Some of them had shriveled quite a bit even though it has only been four days since I collected them. I know some instructions say you have to put them in a bag with moistened peat moss in the fridge, etc. to get them to germinate, but I've had really good luck just planting them in the ground and letting Mother Nature handle things. I finally got around to making the signs to label the peony seedlings. I have planted peony seeds since 2007. So I should have my first flower by 2012! You can see the 2008 peony seedlings in the upper left of this picture. So the seedlings are actually quite small their first year. Peonies are a practice in patience, which I need to learn more of anyway...

2009 Peony Seeds

Today I gathered the peony seeds from their pods. It was a dismal year for seed production. With all of the rain we had during the peony bloom season this year, open pollination was greatly reduced. The rain caused many of the blooms to rot. I was about a month late collecting the seed this year. So a couple of varieties of seed may have been lost because of my delay. From over 50 blooming varieties, I ended up with seed from 8 of them. The most notable was seed from 'Coral Charm'. I will be curious to see if the seed is viable. Only spring will tell..

Southern Peony Welcome

Welcome to the Southern Peony blog. This should be a good place to learn more about peonies as I learn about peonies and how they perform in southern climates. I have always loved peonies ever since I was a small girl admiring them in my grandmother's garden. This is my journey growing, evaluating, dividing, and hybridizing my favorite flower.