They were both on the same day and since it was the only day Alan could go to Adleman's, I'm afraid peonies won out. The trip is an all day affair, so there was no option of doing both.
With my trusty companions, Alan and Anita, we set out to do some damage to our wallets.
Alan is new to peonies. He bought four last year at Adleman's and this year he had no trouble picking out a few more, including an intersectional. He's been pretty excited about last year's plants blooming this spring in his garden for the first time.
Anita wanted to buy a tree peony this year (but ended up with a beautiful intersectional named 'Unique'), several herbaceous for herself, and a herbaceous peony ('Leslie Peck') for her mom.
I went with buying three herbaceous peonies in mind, but of course ended up with EIGHT. I forgot to buy their fertilizer while I was there though! Doh!
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| Might as well fill up the entire cart! No use having extra space in there. |
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| Alan and Anita with their carts. Anita is hiding behind "Unique'. |
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| Total rear view black out and some big smiles! |
On the way back, we hit Al's in Woodburn and Hughes Water Gardens for water lily fertilizer tabs, pond plants and tadpoles.
By the time we left our last stop, there was no more room for plants. Everybody had a flat of plants on their lap and there were several bags of baby amphibians being looked after.
All in all an excellent day!
Some of my new flowers are below!
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| Paeonia 'Top Brass' opening |
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| Paeonia 'Blaze' |
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| Paeonia 'Laura Magnuson' |
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| Paeonia 'Linda's Dream' |
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| Paeonia 'Topeka Garnet' |
I don't have a lot of peonies like you, but I do love them. I only have 3 herbaceous, one Itoh and one still rather small tree peony. This year the Itoh (called Cora Louise) is looking very big and healthy, and I'm so pleased! Lots of big fat buds, but none open yet. Oh wait, I also have a Paeonia obovata, the woodland peony, just planted this year. Looks like you had a lot of fun with friends at Adleman. I'll have to check them out if I ever make it as far south as Salem.
ReplyDeleteI know I'm a little overboard on the number of peonies I have, but I can't help myself! It's always a good time visiting Adleman's. I'm glad that I can help put one of their kids/grand kids through college with all my purchases.
DeleteAh …'Linda's dream'
ReplyDeleteIt's really pretty too Linda!
DeleteThey are all beautiful! P. 'Top Brass' looks spectacular!!!! Well done at stopping at just eight, Matt :-)
ReplyDeleteI tend towards pink flowers and have too many pink peonies. Last year I bought more reds to help counter the pink. This year I wanted at least one more white peony. 'Top Brass' had double white blooms with white guard petals and a dense center of white, light pink and yellow petals. So it was "white" but not too white.
DeleteDamage to your wallet is right. I contemplated a peachy peony the other day, until I read the price tag...and this was at Means! If word gets out, you may need to build a fortress around your garden.
ReplyDeleteI only spent $150, so it wasn't too bad. I have spent more for orchids over the years then peonies.
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