Peonies Archives - Lush Heritage

I am still weeding the South Garden! As I wrote last month, this 11′-13′ W x 106′ L space is quite overgrown, but that didn’t stop me from buying the following 358 bulbs for fall planting, including eight glorious peonies:

50 Romance daffodils (the cup opens peach to coral)
100 Louise de Coligny daffodils (apricot)
200 Gypsy Queen hyacinths (apricot)
3 Frances Willard peonies (cream/blush)
5 Hermione peonies (apple-blossom pink)

Peony Dreams

Peonies are my favorite spring flower (possibly my absolute favorite flower, period). In order to indulge my passion for peonies and have year-round interest in front of the house, I’m creating a large peony patch within the south garden. It will have pride of place in the center front, away from the shrubs and specimen trees that will throw too much shade on it.

However, over the last few weeks, I’ve cleared only enough space for twelve peonies, including the eight listed above. The “foundation” peony, a mystery non-bloomer, is well-positioned for full sun but had been smothered by a (now removed) thicket of weeds. Next to these nine beauties, I transplanted three more unknown, non-blooming peonies from the south garden into this weed-free section.

Fragility

Peony blooms are so fragile and short-lived that I dread their end even as they’re just beginning to unfurl. And I was nervous that I’d done everything wrong as I handled their rootstock:

I’d waited much too long to plant/transplant (but I’d only received the new bulbs in October)
Though the soil is moist and well-drained, I didn’t add any kind of fertilizer to it
Maybe I damaged the roots as I dug them out
I planted all of roots shallow, but maybe they’re really more than two inches deep, in which case they won’t emerge

Perhaps most importantly, peonies just don’t like to be transplanted. Even under ideal conditions, they may not bloom their strongest for 2-4 years after transplanting. I’d still like to transplant the few struggling peonies from the west side of the main house as well, but I think it is too late in the season to do so.

The above photo is of the west end of the south garden, where the Japanese maples would create too much shade for these sun lovers . This area just looks better than where the peonies will reign supreme one day.

So, why have I made so little progress despite hours and hours of weeding for the last several weeks?

Phragmites.

My Worst Invasive Grass

The prior owner thinks the phragmites somehow took hold in the hayfield south of the south garden. Although the garden bed drains well, sections of the hayfield sometimes have standing water after prolonged, heavy rains. This is the perfect invitation for this reedy nightmare. Phragmites’ rhizomes grow vertically and horizontally. Once they take hold, they will dominate every other nearby plant.

Since October, I have been removing this invasive wetland grass from the south garden with small hand tools and a shovel. Unfortunately, its rhizomes are intertwined with specimen tree and flower roots. The result: I’ve dug up several day lilies by accident, and more than a few daffodils.

And I thought the bamboo were tough to eradicate.

Phragmites removal may end up being the most difficult landscaping task I’ve undertaken, but it cannot be avoided if I’m to have a successful flower garden. So, I’ll continue to shovel and bag their underground canes and dead surface debris then learn how to properly dispose of them. Maybe it’ll be something straightforward like burning.

I suspect it will take years and a few different eradication methods to rid this garden of phragmites. Luckily, it has not extended beyond about half the footprint of this flower bed, even after several years of unchallenged growth.

For now, though, I must wait once again for several days of rain to end then continue my work in the south garden. I’m definitely behind schedule but ever hopeful that I’ll plant the other 350 bulbs before the ground begins to freeze.

No matter how tough it gets, I’ll still be excited about those twelve peonies and eagerly await their red shoots next spring. They’re the start of a wonderful centerpiece of the south garden that will thrive for many decades to come.

Basic Tips

Determine your landscaping aesthetic

Discover what’s present and what you want to keep

Be ruthless and thorough in removing/suppressing all unwanted growth (which doesn’t mean the automatic use of herbicides)

Learn the sunlight amount, wind exposure, and soil characteristics in the specific gardening area(s)

Apply soil amendments, if needed

Find your planting zone

Learn what will thrive naturally in your local conditions (there’s a lovely shrub/tree/flower for just about every environment)

Select the greenery you want to introduce (there are fall-planted and spring-planted specimens so if it’s too late to plant, it’s never too late to plan)

Work really hard

Don’t stress

Be eternally optimistic

The Reality

As I wrote last month, this year’s main landscaping goal is to rejuvenate the overgrown front flower garden at the main house. It measures 11-13’ W x 106’ L and is probably a bit longer due to the garden’s undulating border. I’ve run into headwinds, as any gardener can empathize:

The weeding seems endless.

I dread digging out yet more bamboo roots that are as thick as sweet potatoes.

I ran out of wood-chip mulch very early.

Weeds poked through it just weeks after I’d set out wet cardboard and what I thought was a sufficiently deep layer of mulch. Chopped leaves to the rescue!

But that entails a whole other time-consuming (and dusty) process of chopping leaves with the bigger mower, collecting them with the smaller mower with bag attachment, then depositing them.

So, how am I keeping myself motivated to rejuvenate this formerly glorious flower garden?

My Ideal Garden

I keep envisioning a lush, beautiful space, one with a limited palette. Hopefully, it will provide year-long visual interest and attract pollinators, too. A simple aesthetic always appeals to me most – repetitive stretches of form and different hues of a few colors create a calming environment. This works for me even if the colors are vibrant and saturated, like the iconic red tulip. Calming doesn’t mean boring! To achieve this, I selected three fall-planted flowers: daffodils, hyacinths, and peonies.

Then I ordered more than 300 heirloom bulbs, 358 to be precise.

Why these flowers and why so many?

A Sea of Heirlooms

They’re beautiful, long-lived, hardy perennials that are deer resistant, and some are deliciously fragrant. The cultivars that I chose are cream, pink, or coral. I love these tones in a spring garden, especially coral which I don’t see very often. Although peonies can take a year or two to settle into their new home, they’re so exquisite that they’re worth the wait.

I ordered 358 bulbs just in case burrowing critters try to spoil my grand plan and also to avoid the appearance of what I call “pimple planting,” the effect of too few plants studding a wide swath of mulch.

Here is what I selected:

50 Romance daffodils (the cup opens peach to coral)

100 Louise de Coligny daffodils (described as apricot, but I consider that to be in the coral family)

200 Gypsy Queen hyacinths (apricot; I wanted to dot them with dark purple hyacinths, but they were sold out)

3 Frances Willard peonies (cream/blush)

5 Hermione peonies (apple-blossom pink)

First, though, I have to finish preparing the bed which is going to be a slog. And keep reminding myself to be patient since this flower garden rejuvenation is a years-long project. After this week of rain and yesterday’s snowfall, I’ll be out of the garden for the next several days, but that’s okay. My goal is to complete my fall planting by the first week of December. Fingers crossed that Mother Nature cooperates!

Fall Preparation of the South Garden – Peonies’ Progress