Peonies!

The peonies are just starting to bloom. Coral surprise is leading the way, along with an old magenta variety that I planted almost 40 years ago- still going strong.

The intersectionals are budded up and several are starting to emerge.  What's an intersectional?  It's a hybrid of a tree peony and a regular perennial peony. Sometimes they are called Itoh peonies, after Toichi Itoh, who successfully crossed the first tree and herbaceous peonies in the '40s. These are big beautiful plants, which have a long flowering season, sometimes producing up to 50 blooms from secondary buds. The Julia Rose is a smaller plant, new last fall, and is so far, not terribly impressive.  However, Cora Louise is out with a couple flowers and looks great and my favorite itoh so far, the Bartzella- big beautiful, pale yellow just opened the first bud today.

Cora Louise Itoh Peony

Bartzella Itoh Peony

What else is new today?  I took a few photos of the peonies, the poppies, some blue-eyed grass and the elusive painter's palette (Persicaria virginiana var. filliformis).  I enjoy the multicolored leaves, looking like someone spattered them with paint, but it never overwinters where it was planted, seeming to prefer to surprise me by popping up other in places.  The last couple of years it has turned up at the base of my stone stairs, along with Greek oregano, and a few stray foxglove plants that have escaped from their plantings.

Today's Photos