It blooms! Woo Hoo!! And just look at how BIG the bloom is!!
photo by SVSeekins
And durable. This bloom is a week old & has endured rain several times. Bonus!
I know Peony as an old-fashioned perennial. There are several in our garden. But Tree Peony? Doesn’t the name sound exotic?? They’re a recent discovery for me.
in February 2012 I bought one from Joe Harvey, a local fellow who develops new varieties of peony. So, this ‘tree’ is still a baby. I’m impressed it produced a bloom in its 3rd spring.
Now I’m excited for the future….
How much longer will the bloom last?… How tall will the ‘tree’ get this year? … Will there be more blooms? … Will the deer leave it alone? (The baby deer are arriving in the garden these days & they’ll usually try a taste of anything.)
So many questions. Always so much to learn. Isn’t gardening grand?
The solstice passed & each day is just a little brighter than the last. With optimism I step outside searching for signs of the new year…
JOY !! Snowdrops in bloom 🙂
If these little bulbs can thrive during the cold, cloudy winter, then so can we.
Happy New Year!
P.S. Ok, to be honest: these blooms are not from my yard. I searched & searched but found no signs of them yet. BUT – – Just 6 houses down the street, there they are! Talk about micro-climates. 🙂 All the more reason to go for a walk, eh?
So much for the golden haze of summer. It’s been below freezing here for almost a week. That’s not a complaint, because we’re cozy inside, but I feel badly for the creatures living outdoors.
A couple of winters ago C & I started hanging a suet log. The birds love it!
They also clean it out fairly quickly – – which means one of us must refill it. We’re pretty good at that, but not perfect. 😦
photo by SVSeekins
This autumn I decided to make a change in garden maintenance that would help out the birds just a little more. I chose to NOT cut back some of the perennials when their bloom finished. I reckon the seed heads might come in handy when the suet log is empty.
Goldenrod has really funky looking seed heads. This perennial is native to North America, so I figure the birds have learned to make use of it over the centuries just as the First Peoples did.
photo by SVSeekins
And if the birds don’t eat these seeds, perhaps they’ll use the fluff to insulate their nests?
photo by SVSeekins`
Lychnis is another with great summer blooms & and an abundance of winter seed. This patch along the fenceline is left standing in hopes it’ll be useful for the birds too.
Happily I’m not worried about those seed heads foretelling a full future for weeding. We mulch the garden beds quite heavily, which (aside from keeping roots warm) has the added benefit of slowing down scattered seeds turning into unwanted plants.
But hopefully the seeds will all be eaten before my pruning hand become so itchy that I just HAVE TO cut the plants back for tidiness sake. (I have good intentions, but I also know my nature.)
Even as we speak the crocosmia & the hardy fuchsia are dying back & will soon be luring me outside to tidy up.
Garden Variety Life 