Very pretty Laurie! That's a nice sized clump you have there. Mine are teeming with buds & ants, they will be a couple of weeks yet.

Smouthi is covered with blooms, nice Peony Laurie!

I've only got a few blooms on my Fernleaf right now.

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Paeonia tenuifolia Fernleaf Peony

Sharon

Happy birthday to me! Happy birthday to me!......well, not quite, but it may as well have been, as I've been waiting for 3 years for this tree peony to bloom. It was originally named Kinshi, which is a yellow, but obviously it's not. But I LOVE it anyway!!!

closer up......
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Laurie (who's incredibly happy today!!!)

Well done, Laurie. Is that 3 more buds I see? I've not yet tried a tree peony. Perhaps now, seeing your success, I will.

Thanks Pudge, yes there'll be 3 more blooms for sure(keeping fingers crossed nothing happens to them), and there are 2 other smaller flower buds that are hidden under the leaves......so maybe they'll open up too. All in all, it was worth the $3 investment for it(it was a walmart end of season rescue). My other tree peony isn't even an eighth of the size of this one, but, it does have one small flower bud, so maybe.....

Nice peonies everyone!
Speaking of peonies and ants I have a question. I had an argument with a friend. She said you should never plant a peony near your house because it will attract ants. I disagreed. I mean I know the ants will be attracted to the buds, but not a problem IMO.
Am I wrong?

Happy Birthday Laurie.LOL. It is a beauty and for $3 . Wow.

Shelley

That's really beautiful Laurie, I would be happy too if I had that blooming in my garden, way to grow!

I really really want to buy an Intersectional hybrid someday, but dang they are sure expensive.

North, ants are indeed attracted with the flower buds in which they secrete a sweet substance, however I agree with you they are not harmful to your peonies and they don't bother me.

Sharon

Come to think of it, I never saw any ants on these buds at all. So tell your friend to plant a tree peony by her house and she'll be safe.;^) I've got 3 peonies right in front of my house and I've never had a problem with them IN the house......it's a battle with the rest of the yard mind you, but I doubt growing peonies has anything to do with that.....ants go where they want to.

Congratulations, Laurie - great to see that beautiful bloom! Did you give it a sniff? Mine was not fragrant at all. Unfortunately after blooming last year, it fell victim to our weird winter and spring. :(

That's too bad Marcia about yours. I did give it a sniff, and there's a hint of fragrance, but not much. I guess it must be the herbaceous peonies that have all the fragrance.

Sharon, I'm glad I only spent $3 on this one, because I did splurge this spring and got an intersectional from Fraser Thimble. Their prices were the most decent(if you can call it that!)and I managed to sell enough perennials at my yard sales to cover the cost of it. So I'm really, really hoping that it does well now.:0)

Laurie,
How was the quality of the plants that you received from Fraser Thimble Farms? I have been looking at their website for a while now.

Shelley

It's very pretty Laurie, reminds me of a water lily a bit. North53, I see your friend's point, but I tend to agree with Laurie that ants go where they want. Maybe if you had ants in your house the peonies would attract them out!

Shelley and Sharon,

I also ordered an intersectional peony from Fraser's Thimble Farms along with Laurie. We split the cost of the peonies and shipping costs between the two of us. In a few years our plans are to split the peonies and each share with the other. This will in turn lower the cost for each of us for these peonies.

We were extremely happy with the order. I faxed the order in on Friday, they shipped on Monday and we had them in our hands on Thursday. They were beautiful. The roots were in plastic bags and lots of little roots in the soil. They came healthy, well packaged and were already fully leafed out. There were already 5 shoots on my Julia Rose and 4 shoots on Laurie's Cara Louise. The leaves stand 12" tall on mine and Laurie's would be very similar. I will post a picture of mine as soon as the batteries for my camera recharge this morning.

I would definitely order from them again.

Intersectional peonies look like a regular peony with their leaves and are suppose to die right back in the winter like a herbaceous peony but the nice thing is that there are so many more colors available for us to choose from. They are also suppose to be fully hardy here in our zone 2b-3. But I will plant it where there is, for sure, good snow cover.

Brenda

You lucky gALS you! DH and I are going in to Edmonton this weekend, I just might have to make a u-turn and stop at Holes Greenhouse. They have some for $100. I also have 3 plants for credit that didn't make it last year, so that should bring the price down somewhat.

Intersectional (Itoh)peonies are the result of crossing herbaceous and tree peonies. Like herbaceous peonies they die back to the ground each year. Their foliage and flowers however are reminiscent of tree peonies.

Sharon

Sharon, if you can get them for $100 that's great! No shipping or air charges, only GST.

I just phoned Holes and wow do they carry a lot of varieties of intersectional peonies. Sharon, the prices are great and you will have a hard time choosing which one(s) to get.

I asked at the nurseries in Winnipeg, Portage and Brandon and none of them I asked carried any intersectional peonies. I would have liked to have gotten them here but...

Brenda

Pink Hawaiian Coral opened up today.

And so did Buckeye Belle.

I just love this deep dark red.

Laurie, I have to get a Buckeye Belle. I love that dark red!!

Well the 9 clumps of peonies at my house are blooming now, and whaddya know, they're all the same. Oh well! They're an old-fashioned white bomb-style and nice smelling.
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Each bloom has a dark pink paddle shaped thing inside, but no other markings. They are heavily guarded by aggressive ants so I couldn't get a very good look ;0)
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Gillian, those flowers look absolutely huge! And I guess with aggressive ants, you'd want to make sure that you got them all off, before you brought any inside for a bouquet!

Honey Gold has opened up now.

As well as Coral 'n Gold.

Oh, those are so nice too Laurie! The ants are so mean I can't even touch the flowers or they attack me. >:0(

Here's a better pic of the inside - yes the flowers are quite big.

I like how the petal edges are so fringed on that one Gillian.

Miss America opened today.
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Close up

Laurie

I do have one that is different after all... the plant is much smaller and shorter than the white one.

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These were just in bud when i took the picture, but several of those buds bloomed by later in the afternoon:

I also have several kinds of peonies around the yard.

Right now two kinds are blooming by the front entrance. Gay Paree is in the foreground and Mons Martin Cuhuzac is the dark dark pink peony at the back. Notice our border collie behind Mons. Martin and the hummingbird at the feeder.

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Festiva Maxima has such huge blooms. This picture was taken from the side. You can not see the few red petals in the center in this picture.

Honey Gold also has large flowers. The outside flat petals have a hint of a pink tinge to them while the puff ball in the center is a little on the yellow side. It has taken a few years to mature and have nice flowers on it.

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I have no name for this peony. It is blooming for the first time this year. I love the coral pink coloring of its wide petals and the yellow center it has. Laurie thought that it was just slightly different than her Pink Hawaiian Coral. Maybe when it blooms in the future it will be able to be identified.

Sarah Bernhart has such large full flowers. I love the way that the salvia just matches the color of the peony so well.

This peony also has no name. It was one of the many kinds of peonies that were planted here in the grass on the west side of the greenhouse when we bought the yard. It is a medium pink and has the fullness of Sarah Bernhart but the flowers are not as large.

This is a Japanese form. It is Tenufolia or Smouthi.

Of course, I can't forget the Fernleaf peony, the first peony in my yard to bloom.

This peony is a darker medium pink, also one that was here when we bought our yard. It has kind of a wild look to it.

And of course, I can't forget the new 2007 acquisions. I have purchased 15 new peonies this year and need to plant them in their permanent homes yet. It will be a few years before they will be flowering. There are new herbacious, japanese and one intersectional peony in the containers.

Don't you just love the fragrance of the peonies? Last Sunday when my DD and future DIL were here they both took home a few of their favorite peonies from the yard for centerpieces on their kitchen table.

Brenda

I'm 98% sure my white is Festiva Maxima now. Some of the later blooms have red streaking inside. The ironic thing is, I always wanted Festiva Maxima and bought it last fall at a garden club auction. Now I have 9 clumps of them!

This is the first time that I have seen blooms on Angel Cheeks. She is definitely a keeper.

I was playing with my macro on this shot.

Brenda, do the leaves look different on the Itoh peonies?

Shelley

Shelley,

I went out and took a picture of my Julia Rose Itoh peony.

Note the leaves have more cuts to them then the following pictures.

I placed it under a Festiva Maxima...

You can really see that the FM has large oval shaped (with a point on the end) leaves whereas there are lots more points on the JR.

Under my Mons Martin Cuhuzac peony the same thing...

I am still umming and awwing over where to plant it yet. Until then, it has to stay in the pot, I guess.

Brenda

Angel Cheeks sure is a keeper Shelley! Love that macro shot too......it makes me feel like I could just jump into it.:0)

I'm glad that you posted those pictures Brenda. The size of your plant looks fairly decent too. I'm going to be checking with you and Laurie next spring to see how the Itoh peonies faired the winter. If they did well, then I'll be doing a purchase next year.

Shelley

I sure hope the Itoh peonies do well here Shelley! Actually, there are a few people in Brandon who have one, so I'm thinking that they should be pretty hardy then.

If you scroll up this thread to the pics of my tree peony, you can see that the leaves are similar to the Itoh leaves.

I've got a noid peony that just opened up in the last couple of days. Would anyone have any guesses as to the name?

It's a pale pink when it first opens.
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And then fades to almost white after a couple of days.

Gillian, isn't it funny how the later blooming flowers on some peonies are different, like on your Festiva Maxima? I took a picture of the last flower of Pink Hawaiian Coral, and is it ever different from the first picture I posted of it on this thread. Now it looks like a semi-double, whereas the first flower was a single form.
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I think I like the semi-double look a bit better than the single on PHC, but it's sure interesting how much it changed appearances. Has anybody else noticed a change of flower shape in any of their peonies? I know colour changes happen quite often, and are part of the show of some cultivars, but I don't think I've heard of shape changes before.

Pink Hawaiin Coral is a beautiful peony Laurie.
That picture made me want it.
BTW it is now ordered.

Shelley

Shelley, I'm sure you'll love PHC. Last week after our garden club tours, there were a few people who were looking to order it after they'd seen it in bloom. I just wish I had paid more attention to the rest of the flowers to see if there were more semi-doubles. Maybe when the plant matures there will be fewer single flowers on it....I hope.;^)

PHC is absolutely yummy. I'm enjoying all the eye candy while waiting and waiting here..savona

Most places have PHC listed as semi-double. So I'm sure as they improve with age. How old is yours Laurie?

Not to worry about your peonies yet Savona, mine are just starting. I've got a beautiful colored pink that will be opening soon. I know it is mislabled because it was supposed to be a single. It was purchased in the spring of 06 so this will be it's first blooms for me. Plus I have 4 others that will bloom yet this year.
Unfortunately 2 divisions that I got from my grandmother last year are not going to bloom this year.

Shelley

Shelley, my PHC is 3 years old. I looked it up at a nursery and it does claim to be a semi-double, so hopefully next year it'll have more semi-doubles. This year it had about 9 or 10 blooms, and I think it was only the last one that bulked up.

This evening, i took some pictures. My white peony, 'Festiva Maxima' is gorgeous right now, but my camera will just not photograph white flowers very well. Which could be a problem for me... LOL Anyway, i'll try taking some more tomorrow to see if they'll turn out better.

Gorgeous Peonies everyone!
Finally I'm getting some blooms.

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P. lactiflora Festiva Maxima

Sharon

Harriot Olney is blooming for its first time this year. At night the flower closes to look like this...

During the day it opens...

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Also for its first blooming year, Susan Brown has a flower...

Also I have a few unnamed peonies that were planted along side the west side of the greenhouse, in the grass when we bought the acreage.

This light medium pink one is amazing...I love the huge bloom on it...

This light pink one is not as high a bloom.

Brenda

I am quite pleased with Lavender. This is one flower that I do not mind when it fades out.

Festiva Maxima

Sarah Bernhardt

Jean Ericksen

An unknown pink

An unknown white

Shelley

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P. lactiflora Sorbet

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P. lactiflora 'Felix Krousse'

Sharon

My very last peony bloom on Sarah. I can't believe how long this one and Festiva Maxima have bloomed this year.

Shelley

Wow, that is a late one, Shelley! The last one on mine faded out about a week and half ago. It's sad to see the peony season go, but I did pick up a tree peony for $2 at walmart yesterday.:) Not sure where I'm going to go with it yet.......

My peonies didn't last long at all this year. I guess all the rain was too much for them. However, a few years ago when we had a really cool summer, i had peonies blooming in August!

Laurie, you can always plant the tree peony you bought yesterday at Walmart in my flowerbed beside the one I bought today for $2 at Walmart (thanks for letting me know, I got the last one).

I have never had a tree peony before. This will be a new experience. But for $2. Why not?

(I also bought a 1 gal sized Pink Champagne and Warsaw Nike clematis for $2 each.)

Brenda

Yes, for $2 you just can't go wrong!

"Laurie, you can always plant the tree peony you bought yesterday at Walmart in my flowerbed beside the one I bought today"

Gee, well, thanks for the offer, but I'm sure I'll be able to squeeze it in somewhere!lol

Actually on mine there was a little piece of paper stapled around the stem, about the size of a fortune note out of a cookie, that said it was called Naniwanishiki. So I googled it and came up with the link below. If it really does bloom like that, I'll be a happy camper!:^)

Here is a link that might be useful: Naniwanishiki Tree Peony

Wow, if your tree peony blooms like that let me know, I want to see it in person.

My tree peony had no name tag and no price tag. If it blooms the same color as yours should, that would be great! Of course, that means that I also have to keep it alive in my yard through our cold winters.

Brenda