Peony Envy!

BWAH!!!! Lookit!!!

This is "Kopper Kettle," and, unfortunate spelling choice aside, it one of a variety is a cross-breed between herbaceous and tree peony--Who knew?

Mind you, it's really not cold enough here for herbaceous peonies, but I do have three tree peonies in pots. Two came down with us in the move, and have so far just been recovering--they leaf out but haven't bloomed since the move. One was a 'freebie' that I got with a bunch of perennials lately--the 'freebies' were mixed-bag, and I ended up with (according to the label) an orange one--which, if it actually is orange, and actually blooms, will be great, as the other two are purple (and I have quite a few orange/purple mixes around and about). That one arrived dry-root with some swelling leaf buds and has leafed out quite admirably in about a week--but then it's also rained almost every day, and I'm sure that helps.

ANYWAY, I said all that to say this---that is an absolutely fabulous color, and it supposedly withstands heat and humidity, thus I would, in a fit of optimism and covetousness, SO purchase the hybrid pictured above, but for its currently outrageous price tag. Ah, well, I can dream...

I just Googled it to see if I could find other dealers, growers comments or pictures of it in people's gardens, and it appears that most people out there are actually still looking for them and asking questions about them like me. Oh, and the first two hits were from forums on Dave's Garden, but when you click on the Google option you are taken to a page where you are informed that only "PAID subscribers" to Dave's Garden can access the responses to the questions. And how much is a paid subscription, you ask? Why it is a mere $19.95 per year. Shooot! I refuse to pay that much for magazine subscriptions! I've also noticed that the site only allows people to perform 10 free searches a day---and it counts them down for you! Even if you come back later after being off-line and everything, so they obviously collect your IP address. Well, frankly, this chaps mine arse, and they can quite frankly kiss it before I head over to GardenWeb, where one registers for use of the forums, but no money is extorted---sheez!

This UK web-site has a wealth of information about the history of the hybrid varieties as well as of "Kopper Kettle" which was bred by a breeder in Wisconsin--some very nice pictures too.

June Flower-bed expansion

Here's an extension of a bed that I put in the first week of June (basically right before the folks came for a visit). I had a Texas Mountain Laurel (these have wysteria-like purple flowers in spring that smell like grape kool-ade, but they are really slow growers) in a back bed that was not getting enough sun, so I figgered I'd move it--and well, I couldn't just stick it out in the middle of nowhere and nothing could I?

So I expanded the bed beside the porch. There's lots of stuff in there, besides the two crape myrtles that were there when we moved. (I still want to dig those up and move them; they are too close to the house, but when? where? and how to do it without digging up the rest of the garden? Suffice it to say it's a big job, which is why it hasn't happened yet... There's a huge pink mum in there along with blue mistflower and Souvenir de Malmaison rose, etc., etc. So after I rototilled and raked and amended the soil, I actually took some things out of the previously existing bed to help extend the line, including two dwarf yaupon hollies, and moved a mini rose that was getting too crowded by the mum, and a pink and white flowered salvia gregii ("Theresa") that was being overshadowed in the back of the bed. Several other mini roses came from spots in the backyard that weren't getting enough sun.


But I also got some new things, including purple trailing lantana, Victoria White salvia, Purple Autumn sage (salvia greggii), Blue Mist spirea, Silver Mound artemisia, and Sedum "Rupestre Angelina" (a chartreuse-colored creeping sedum). Oh, and some daylily and dahlia bulbs in shades of purple and lavender half-off from Lowes. This should be a butterfly paradise...

They love the lantana! Below is the beautiful "Joan Senior" daylily blooming in the older part of the bed, with "Sky Blue" asters behind it.