Wow, Copper Classic is a beauty. Vanity is on my list already, as I read on the Iris forum that it's a great pink for this zone. What a beautiful bouquet.

Last hurrah for the pansies before hot weather sets in.
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This summer's cobbler:
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Alliums:
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'Starlight':
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Iris tectorum:
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indigofera amblyantha:
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Hartlage Wine:
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Baptisia Carolina Moonlight:
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Alicia, Copper Classic is also nicely scented, as is Vanity (I got the fragrant package last fall from Schreiners).
Karen W, what is "indigofera amblyantha"? I'm not at all familiar with this so it obviously does not grow in the north. Is it a vine? The Hartledge Wine is gorgeous.

Karen W--what's the 3rd photo? (purple pom poms)

Indigofera amblyantha is in the pea/legume family and grows as a tall, open shrub, about 8-10' for me. I took some more photos so you can see the overall habit but probably won't have time to post them for a few days. It blooms from April until at least Oct.

Terri, the third photo is Allium schubertii. I don't know how well it will perennialize here, as it's my first year with it. Some of the alliums come back well for me and others don't.

Karen we make blackberry cobbler every summer too. And blueberry pancakes.

American snowbell blossoms
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Eastern Gray Beardtongue
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Irises and baptisia
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Anyone's peonies about to bloom? Mine are, but I notice ours are usually a few days/weeks behind everyone elses?

Festiva Maximus opened fully yesterday
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Yep- my festiva which is still in a pot, has a bloom, and the pink in the ground is loaded. The others don't seem to have that many blooms this year and i'm not sure why. Alicia, what conditions (esp light) do you have yours planted in? 'Cause the one that's doing great was a fluke, small when planted, it's in more shade than i thought optimal and it has like grown 4x its size in just a couple years. I have them in 5 spots in the yard, differing soils & lights, and that one does better than any of the rest, even though it was much smaller to begin with. Where the bulk of the rest are, there was a smaller one, too (from the same batch- a great trade) that has just sat and sulked and not grown hardly at all, so it isn't size. For the life of me, i can't figure it out. I love peonies- it was one of my gram's signature plants, at least to me, and i really want them to do well.

Tammy mine is on the eastern side of the house, in a mix of sandy soil and compost. But I have also seen a peony in a MIL's neighborhood (also sandy soil) in full sun in a mailbox planting. It's beautiful every year.

Pics from this morning.
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I have found that my peony performance tends to depend on me getting the planting depth right more than any other factor. Too shallow and they limp along...too deep and they rot. The exposure has varied for mine and part sun to full sun has not changed much.

Meredith

Meredith, do you know the cultivar names of your peonies?

Hi Alicia! I got your email. I'll write back through yahoo. But I did want to say that the first one is 'Sorbet'. The deep pinky red is unknown to me. And FYI, the iris is unknown too(may be Honky Tonk Lights) but it reblooms like crazy...I had blooms into December last year. The best plant for me in that whole set is the Blue Spruce sedum. Goes like gangbusters and roots so easily.

Meredith

Oh good! I'll look for your email then. Sorbet is gorgeous, and a good name for that peony. The blue iris with the white on the falls looks like "City Lights". Is it fragrant? I saw an iris in a garden that looked like City Lights and it was very fragrant.

How long do peonies last in a vase and when should pick them?
I mean..when they just break bud or when they are fully open?

I've never used peonies as cut flowers but when hubby worked for Burroughs Wellcome during the summer years ago a fellow employee used to bring them in by the armfuls. He had many different varieties, including one that smelled exactly like a rose.

Irislover,
It looks sort of like your tomato plant has its own little potty! What is that little white thing? Some kind of watering device? What lucky tomatoes you have!

Thanks Alicia and Meredith. Maybe i planted the others to shallowly- that area does tend to be drier. Perhaps i'll try piling on a some mulch or compost to raise the level about an inch and see if that helps. My original planting was facing east and they've been there for years and done zilch. They come up and get infinitesimally bigger each year but that's about it. Granted, it's not the best soil and i don't baby them, but still.

Dottie, if i recall right, you want to pick peonies part way open at the most. If they are too far open they shatter. Gram grew so many we picked them growing up. I've never had enough to do that with, but i hope someday...
I love the double decker sorbet one, and my fave that gram grew was a deep bull's blood red. i'd love to get my hands on one that color.

Great pics everyone! looks like our first one will be opened in the next few days. I can't wait!!

Another shot of Festiva Maxima
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Amyflora, You just made me snort...its own little potty! Haha! I'm trying it for the first time, it is one of those self watering planters. The "potty" is the fill tube and they put a lid on it because I think these types of pots were playgrounds for mosquitos when they made them without lids.

Alicia, you were totally right about that iris...I got Honky Tonk Blues and City Lights jumbled in my head. I think it has a nice fragrance...some irises are downright stinky.

Meredith

If I remember correctly, they have a technique for harvesting peony blossoms before the buds open but when the first hint of color shows on the still closed petals. They then wrap them up in newspaper and store them in the refrigerator for MONTHS!! You don't take them out and unwrap them until you are ready to use them because they bloom really fast (like by the end of the day) but they last for a while in the vase. This is a way florist can provide peony blossoms out of season.

Oh, and you have to recut the stems quite a bit, so harvest them with long stems if you want to try it.

Thanks all for the peony cutting advice. Especially the bit about cutting the stems long.

Renae{{gwi:575938}}
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Eastern Gray Beardtongue{{gwi:575919}}
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Dusky Challenger{{gwi:575956}}

Samurai Warrior{{gwi:575958}}

Picador. This iris has a very nice fragrance.{{gwi:575960}}

Noid from DH's grandmother's garden{{gwi:575962}}

Possibly Pride of Ireland{{gwi:575964}}
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Mme Ernest Calvat

Duchesse de Brabant

Phlox Minnie Pearl{{gwi:575978}}
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Duchesse de Brabant{{gwi:291221}}

Iris pallida{{gwi:575981}}

Iris Camelot Rose{{gwi:575982}}

Unknown Louisiana iris{{gwi:575983}}

Louisiana iris Sinfonietta{{gwi:575984}}

Alicia, that pink LA iris looks almost the same as the buds you saw the other day. Mine might be a bit of a warmer, dustier color, but i guess it's a LA iris. I believe the copper and dark purple/black ones i have are the same kind, but will have to wait til they bloom to be sure. Camelot rose is very pretty! I was just wondering the other day with all the coppers, pinks, yellows why they haven't managed to make a true red iris yet. Not that i want one, really, but just curious. Mix deep pink and yellow and it makes an orange that's almost tomato red, so why not?

Tammy your copper iris sounds like Iris fulva. I. fulva has a very characteristic bloom habit that's very different from LA iris so it's easy to identify. Your dark iris is probably Black Gamecock.

Red is a primary color, and iris don't naturally produce a true red pigment. There was an article in the NY times about splicing in genes from other plants to enable the iris to produce true red carentoids without any purple, blue or brown shadings, and or perhaps isolating a recessive mutation that will allow the iris to produce true red pigment.

Here is a link that may be useful: Discussion of breeding red iris.

So, what is different about the habit of I. fulva so i can watch for it, assuming it'll bloom for me this year. I don't see any buds yet and it usually isn't far behind the pink, so maybe not. I certainly have shots from years past, so i may have to dig into the archives once the bday thing is past and see what i can post. The dk purple was labelled as black gamecock. Is that a LA iris?

That thread was interesting, even though a lot of it went over my head. It sounds to me like the genetics are there, it's just a matter of getting it to express them the right way.

The Louisiana iris are hybrids -- parents include the species I. fulva, I. brevicaulis, I. nelsonii, I hexagona, and I giganticaerulea. I. fulva is just starting to bud in my garden. I'll take a picture when it opens, Tammy, so you can compare to yours. The hybrid 'Ann Chowning' is also in bud, which is supposed to be relatively more red. Black Gamecock is a Louisiana hybrid, but I don't know about the specific genetics that went into it. I'm hoping to see it bloom this year with the coppery I. fulva. 'Black' and 'copper' sounds like it could be so striking. We'll see...

One way to describe the bloom habit of I. fulva is to describe it as relaxed; another way is floppy, lol. I have Iris fulva too, or did; hopefully it will bloom this year.

This link has some photos.

Just breaking out the camera for the season. Hope nobody minds me butting in...

Chocolate Mint
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Clematis
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Dandelion (lol)
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Dianthus
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Lamium
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Stonecrop
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Strawberry Bloom
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Yarrow
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You're not butting in, we love pictures! :) What sort of strawberry do you have that has pink flowers? They're beautiful.

It's a Pink Lipstick. I bought one at Lowes several years ago and I ended up with over one hundred of them by the end of one season. They send out runners like crazy all season with easy to root babies. They get a little time consuming...

How do the strawberries taste? I've got strawberries too and I just let them run and be a ground cover under shrubs.

Bud of Carolina Bush Pea{{gwi:575985}}
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Goldflame Honeysuckle{{gwi:575989}}
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Helen Collingswood{{gwi:575994}}

Clematis Ramona
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Tritelia Starlight and lambs ear
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Spanish lavender
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Iris Shaker's Prayer
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Salvia roemeriana
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Salvia hotlips and Phalaris
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Euphorbia cyparissus
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Camassia
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Calla
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Lilium cernuum
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Alliums in the meadow:
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Baptisia Purple Smoke
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They are grown as an ornamental, a cross between some flower in the rose family and a garden strawberry. They are edible but they don't seem to have much flavor. I don't really nurture their growth though. As long as the petals are pink and the foliage is green, I don't mess with them. I've also always had them in mostly shade and filtered sun. I'm sure that has some effect on the flavor.

Now that I think about it I remember seeing Pink Panda at Lowe's a few years ago. Lipstick looks like the flowers have more color.

Karen, Ramona and Lillium cernuum are lovely.

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Belinda's Dream{{gwi:575995}}
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Rosa palustris scandens from Antique Roses Emporium, first bloom{{gwi:576001}}

Foliage of R. palustris{{gwi:576002}}

Mutabilis{{gwi:576003}}
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Rose received in a trade from TriangeJohn{{gwi:576006}}

Rugosa Purple Pavement{{gwi:576008}}

Festiva Maxima again{{gwi:576010}}

White foxglove received in a trade from Rootdiggernc{{gwi:576012}}

R. rugosa alba{{gwi:576014}}
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Alicia, I love the color of the swamp rose and all of your irises are lovely.

Does anyone know the name of the small red rose that I see blooming now in practically everyone's yard? LOL It must be a good passalong rose. I see it most commomly growing like a small fountain shaped bush.

Thank you Shari.

The rose you're seeing is probably Dr. Huey, which is commonly used as rootstock. I've seen a lot of that around and it's very pretty in the spring.

I took a couple of shots of my roses yesterday - a Hot Cocoa & an Apricot Twist. I also took a couple of shots of a mystery plant - could this be a peony?

http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm169/MagickBttrfly/HotCocoa.jpg
http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm169/MagickBttrfly/ApricotTwist.jpg

Mystery Plant:
http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm169/MagickBttrfly/Unknown1.jpg
http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm169/MagickBttrfly/Unknown2.jpg

Opps... Here are the photos:

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Mystery Plant:
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It sure looks like a peony to me.

One of the new additions in the garden this year, my Bleeding Hearts dropped all their flowers when I transplanted them. Three weeks later they are starting to bloom again, something I am very pleased to see!
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I knew chives bloomed but I have had them for a few years and this is the first time I have seen them. The chives, sage, and yarrow are the highlights of the herb garden at the moment!
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I had one bloom yesterday then came out today and all of my miniature roses were full of blooms. I received them for mother's day last year so they were quite a nice surprise to wake up to near Mother's day this year. Not sure of the variety.
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The Japanese bleeding heart is one of those plants on my want list. I have the native and love it but the Japanese is so different and very showy. Beautiful picture of the yellow rose.

Salvia transylvanica, received in a trade with Shari{{gwi:576021}}

Verbena bonariensis{{gwi:576022}}

Sour Grapes? penstemon, also received in a trade with Shari{{gwi:576023}}

Short's penstemon, grown from seed from the NC Botanical Garden{{gwi:576024}}

Smooth beardtongue, also grown from seed from the NC Botanical Garden{{gwi:576025}}

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Eastern Gray Beardtongue (grown from seed from the NC Botanical Garden), Smooth phlox (received in a trade with Ais), Gulf Coast Penstemon (grown from seed), Mexican Hat (not yet blooming, grown from seed), Rosa palustris scandens (grown from cutting), and perennial sweet pea in the background(received in a trade with Tammy).

Close-up of the perennial sweet pea{{gwi:576027}}

Mutabilis{{gwi:576031}}
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Carolina Bush Pea{{gwi:576039}}
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