2018 Early Peonies Pop, Is Spring Weather Here to Stay?

With the recent warm temperatures, bits of rain, and now sunshine today, the herbaceous peonies have started to pop this past week as well. Even though the temps have cooled back down a bit (we are now having highs in the 50s and 60s), the longer days and spring like weather are convincing the peonies that spring is here, although it's not quite yet time for the Vernal Equinox. Even though these temperatures are more "normal" for this time of year, I'm already missing those 70 degree days!
Herbaceous Peony 'Nova' Pops
Unlike the past few years, 2016 Very Early Peony 'Nova' Buds Emerge First, Peony 'Nova' has made it to March without any buds busted by freezing cold overnight temperatures. Let's hope it stays that way. Even though there weren't any freezing overnight temperatures in the 10 day weather forecast 5 days ago, it has now been updated, and I do now see a couple of nights with a forecast for 30 and 32 degree overnight temperatures. Let's hope they change the forecast again, and we don't get those freezing cold temperatures.

2018 Record High Temperatures Help Tree Peonies Unfurl in Feburary

Tree Peony 'Yao Huang' 姚黃 (Yao's Yellow)
Today was our last day of 70 degree temperatures. Next week we'll be back in the 60s and 50s for the high. However as you can see from our 5 Day Forecast that we had earlier, we've been enjoying about a week of 70 degree temperatures. We had 3 days with record breaking high temperatures this February, and we went from winter to spring in 1 week flat. Let's hope Mother Nature is a bit more kind this year than she has been in previous years with those late killing frosts, 2017 Protect Peonies from Super Cold Overnight Temps.
February 21 - 5 Day Forecast
I don't see any below freezing overnight temperatures in the upcoming 10 day forecast. So there may be a chance that winter really is over here for 2018. I think Sir Walter Wally (North Carolina's groundhog) may have been right this year about the early spring. I sure am hoping that spring is here to stay (since that will mean more peony blooms in the garden). If the cold weather is gone for the season, we won't lose any peony buds to bud blast from a late spring freeze. I can only dream of how nice the peonies will look in the garden since we haven't had late cold bud-blast free peony season in years!
Tree Peony 'Kamata-nishiki' 鎌田錦

2018 New Pricey Intersectional Peonies Debut at Swenson Gardens

I see that the Swenson Gardens 2018 catalog is now up, and in addition to their wide range of intersectional peony selections, they are also debuting several new pricey intersectional introductions registered in 2018 by Anderson / Swenson. I have updated my 2018 Intersectional Peony Catalog Price Comparison List with all of their intersectional peony offerings, if you'd like to compare their prices to other peony vendors. However none of these new Anderson / Swenson cultivars are available on any other peony grower's sites this year since they are brand new, and appear to be exclusive to Swenson Gardens.
New Exclusive Intersectional Peonies
The new intersectional peonies they are offering are: 'Peppermint Blush' a blush colored intersectional for $175, 'Predawn Beauty' a medium pink intersectional for $175, 'Purple Reign' a purple intersectional for $250, and 'Scarlet Heights' a red intersectional for $250. If big fluffly doubles are your thing these new intersectional intros may not be for you, since they are all single types. They do seem to have nice, clear colors, though. The purple one keeps calling my name, but I can't decide if it's worth the $250. It will probably be sold out by the time I make up my mind...