My Flower of the Day - Clematis 'Pink Chiffon'

Clematis 'Pink Chiffon'

For simple beauty and elegance... 

Peonies - Round Four! Some "Charmers"

Here's another round of peonies. 

I enjoy this time of year.  Everything is growing like gangbusters and the grass hasn't turned beige yet. We've had some hot days in the mid 80's though and I have to think about watering schedules.The sudden heat can be hard on newly blooming flowers.

The herbaceous peonies I planted last year are blooming for the first time. All of them are gorgeous. I'm quite happy with how much they have grown and how healthy they look. I can only say good things about them being from Adleman's.

Paeonia lactiflora 'Rivida'

Paeonia lactiflora 'Raspberry Charm'

Paeonia lactiflora 'Prairie Moon'  - This one is supposed to be yellow?!? More of an ivory color really.  

Paeonia lactiflora 'Coral Charm'

Paeonia lactiflora 'Red Charm'

This is the bed I added last year to accommodate my purchases.

My Assistant Yvette?!?

Paeonia lactiflora 'Sarah Bernhardt'  - A mature peony with lots of buds.

Peonies in the mix.

A new extension - still needs to be planted

Peonies - Round Three!

My babies from this year's trip to Adleman's are nestled in their new homes and are already popping!

I picked some good ones!

Paeonia lactiflora 'Jean Ericksen'

Paeonia lactiflora 'Orange Lace'

Paeonia lactiflora 'Sea Shell'

Paeonia lactiflora 'Madame Butterfly'

And here are some more pictures of my tree peony 'Fragrant Green Ball' - This flower is about the size of a pummelo and has a lovely peony fragrance. I need to remember to stake it up next year, the flowers are way to heavy for the plant to hold them up.

Paeonia suffruticosa 'Lu Xiang Qiu 綠香球' - side view

Paeonia suffruticosa 'Lu Xiang Qiu 綠香球' - top view

Favorite Plant in the Garden - Hot Lips!

I am always looking for good plants that attract hummingbirds, right now the star of my yard is Salvia microphylla 'Hot Lips'. 

It's a fast-growing plant that gets about 30" tall and will spread pretty wide if you let it. They are easy to prune however and easy to shape. I don't cut them back too much in the fall, but rather wait until late spring to tidy them up.

They develop a woody trunk after a few years and I have had sections of older plants die back over winter, but they keep coming back year after year.

In the early summer heat the flowers are all red, with an occasional white one. But later in the season the flowers will be bicolor red and white and will bloom until frost.

Here they are at the end of May beginning to become bicolor.

The best part is that there are so many flowers to occupy a hummer's time that they fly from flower to flower and I get to watch them for a long time.  My gardening Assistant Yvette does hear them though and will chase them if she sees them.  Silly dog.

I have also had excellent results in Portland with many of the Salvia greggii varieties, like 'Maraschino', 'Icing Sugar', 'Flame', 'Lavender', 'Ultra Violet', and 'Wild Thing'. 

And I highly suggest Salvia clevelandii. It has the most beautifully fragrant foliage and pretty whorls of lavender-blue blooms.  I can smell this plant near my walkway and I have to bend down to smell it EVERY time.

My Trip to Peony Paradise

The day finally arrived!

Sales area

I'd planned this trip for months. I poured over the Adleman's Peony Catalog all winter to study each of their peonies and its particulars.

I prepared extensions to flowerbeds way back in in March to accommodate any new peony plants I would buy!

We wanted to go this past opening weekend to get the 10% off potted plants. I also like getting first pick of the litter, so I wanted to get right into the sales area.

Lovely rows of sale plants, so much to choose from.

Friday before I went, I spent some time creating a cheat sheet with twelve possible plants that I could/would buy.  I included pictures and comments for each plant. I figured I would get perhaps eight new plants, provided I didn't go over budget (My budget was $250). 

We dove into the sales are first, before checking out the display gardens.

Although I had my cheat-sheet with twelve possible plants, a couple I wanted were not available and a couple were available but the plants were not as big and full as I wanted. So a couple laps around the sales area with the catalog, to check out the really robust plants was needed. 

I should have bought eight to fill out the cart, but I got seven for $142!

My partner in crime, Anita, came prepared to buy three plants and ended up with five. Sorry Anita!

There are just too many cool peonies to pass them up and the prices are very reasonable. Some of the Itoh and tree peonies are much more expensive, but still reasonable for such well grown plants.

My CRV stuffed to the gills with 12 peonies!

Our visit was very early in the season, but there was still lots to see in the display gardens. The tree peonies and the intersectionals were doing their thing. Most of the herbaceous peonies still need a few more weeks to really be in full swing.

Lots of buds to open yet!

'Leda' Tree Peony

'Ofuji Nishiki' Tree Peony

 

'Hephestos' Tree Peony

The yellow one is 'Lemon Chiffon'.  

'Sonoma Velvet Ruby' Intersectional Peony

'First Arrival' Intersectional Peony

Got My Tomatoes!

Instead of my usual trip to Portland State's Farmers Market to buy my tomatoes from my favorite vendor, I broke down at Portland Nursery on Friday on the way home from work and got them.  I couldn't wait...

My babies.

The pole is from an old Concord grape that I got rid of - Grapes are yucky.

The garden was tilled a few weeks ago, with the addition of a few soil amendments. Other than pulling out some grass clumps that were popping up and some raking, I was ready to go. I was just waiting for a nice sunny day.  I know that I skirt things a little early temperature-wise, but I often plant mid-April, so I'm a little late this year. 

My assistant Yvette.

Grass naps are amazing!

I planted (crammed in) carrots, parsnips, Japanese radishes, mesclun lettuce mix, mustard greens, celery, turnips, patty-pan squash, yellow zucchini, Brussels sprouts, romanesco, and lemon cucumbers. 

Bone meal and veggie/tomato fertilizer.

When planting tomatoes - I like to mix in a little bone meal and a tomato fertilizer into the planting hole. I also plant the plants as deep as possible (or plant sideways, with the top tipped up), this means some of the leaves get covered up.

I dig a circle out around the plant, so that when I water, there is a well around the base of the plant and the water stays put. The hill of dirt around the plant does spread out with the first watering in, but there is still a nice well for the water. Makes it a lot easier when the plants are large and I can't see under them.

Then I set the cages over the top and mulch around them with my grass clippings to help keep the weeds down and keep the moisture in. A sturdy cage is a must! Cannot stress that enough.

This year's tomato list is: 

• Azoyschka
• Brandywine Red
• Brandywine Yellow
• Japanese Black Trifele
• Jaune Flame
• Moskovich
• Paul Robeson
• Stupice
• Yellow Perfection - First time growing this one.

I'm still on the lookout for Caspian Pink, which is my all time favorite.

and bob's your uncle - Here is a picture from 2012.

Peonies - Round Two!

Round two of the peony flowers.

I was happy for Portland's nice week of sunshine and not overly hot temperatures.  It was a tad windy a couple of times, but all the peonies have done well. The really hot intense sun really fries the flowers. So this week they have opened beautifully and avoided damage.

Paeonia suffruticosa 'Yin Hong Qiao Dui 银红巧对' (Silver Red Tree Peony)

 The dark bronze foliage of 'Yin Hong Qiao Dui' really sets off the pink flowers of this one.

Paeonia suffruticosa 'Yin Hong Qiao Dui 银红巧对'

'Black Panther 黑豹' still has some opening to do.

Paeonia suffruticosa 'Black Panther 黑豹' buds are opening!

'Black Panther 黑豹'

The foliage of  'Black Panther 黑豹' is lovely too.

 

Paeonia suffruticosa 'Lu Xiang Qiu 綠香球' (Green Fragrant Ball) beginning to open

Paeonia ostii 'Feng Dan Bai 鳳丹白' (Phoenix White) in full bloom.

The one bud the "asshole bug/slug" didn't get - Paeonia suffruticosa 'Shima Nishiki 岛锦'

Paeonia ostii 'Feng Dan Bai 鳳丹白' mixed into the flower bed.

The next installment is 'Fragrant Green Ball', 'High Noon" and 'Kinshi 金鸟' blooming for the first time.  Should be a knock out!

One more Yin Hong Qiao Dui, because it's just so perfect.