Peony Season

You thought lilacs smelled divine?  There are certain varieties of peonies in bloom here now that seem to perfume the whole farm!  Another brief, glorious, seasonal event as my collection of peony bushes bursts into bloom--a bit later than usual due to the cold spring, but welcomed in the landscape and wonderful to cut for bold, fragrant bouquets to bring indoors.

I love this form--and also have it in deep ruby and bi-color pink, but white has little fragrance.

This variety seems to have the most fragrance (and the most ants!)

 

I remember when we first moved to this farm when I was quite young, and as was typical of many farm houses, a large bed here, devoted to peonies, was memorable.  At some point, it disappeared from the landscape.  When I moved back to take care of my dad in 2003, I brought numerous plants from Iowa, including a few that are heirloom varieties.  If the big storms currently moving through our area this evening haven't destroyed the look of some of the bigger, brighter bushes, I hope I can photograph and post a few more views soon.

Anyone else enjoying peonies this month?  Thanks for dropping by!

Camping in the Rain

 Actually, I mean campground in the rain!  It's so hard to complain when we're just coming off of full summer of pretty bad drought, but come on, we don't even get a break for a HOLIDAY WEEKEND?  Nope, but we had some pretty awesome campers show up despite the cold, wet weather, and it was really busy around here.  Not very much swimming, but I guess the fishing was pretty good the past few days!

So to add some cheer and color, I decided to set up a new potting bench behind the office.  I'm slowly making planters and pots of annuals to sort of spruce up the place!

Potting Bench and the flowers I have left to plant.

These pots and planters seem kind of sketchy looking when first planted--they are just babies popped from cell packs, after all.  I seem to have a pretty pink theme going this year.  I love the contrast of the pink against all this green everywhere.  And I'm thinking of this post as a place to look back when things are all lush and overgrown, overflowing with trailing flowers.   It's been a couple of years since I planted flowers in the Spring--another chorus on the "Yes I Can" theme I started writing about last week, I think.

I'm hoping a few hanging pots of "Wave" Petunias will really take off; I can't plant enough geraniums; and I chose a mix of Nicotiana in hopes of getting a few hummingbirds to stick around.  Otherwise, the concept is:  mix it up.

But the real mystery (as in "will this work?") is all the seeds I'm busy putting in.  For a few years now, I've had a vision of tall, colorful sunflowers all along this old wooden fence that secures our firewood for sale.  I've transplanted a number of catnip plants here, saved from certain death as they were growing in our bonfire circle.  I'm adding seeds for dill plants.  And to really make it colorful, a collection of zinnias will be in front of the planting.  So far, only the catnip is visible....but in a couple of weeks, I think it will all be clear whether or not this is going to work or not.  And since it's predicted to rain for at least another week or so here, maybe this will actually all come out.  I'll keep this new garden project documented here!

Now about the 6 tractor tire planters along the road into the campground.....to be continued!  Thanks for stopping by and hope your holiday was a good one---and enjoy the short week!

Too Bad, Too Hot Too Early

Nearly 80F on March 15, in the Midwest, is all wrong.