2 Feet of Snow and I Bought Peonies

[Beekissed]

Granny called them "pinies" too!! I love that!

 

[frontiergirl53]

@Nyboy I wish I could trade weather with you! Right now it feels like it's in the mid 70's, not a cloud in the sky! It's already seed starting here, but of course Lowe's didn't protect their plants and there are no good ones! Honestly I miss the cold and snow, but that's what the 115 degree Arizona weather does to a Colorado native!

 

[Smart Red]

I just got a whole bunch of glads!

Gladiolas should multiply each year. In this soil ... they dwindle ... even lifted and carried downstairs every autumn. Probably, I should have a special little nursery for tiny corms.

Glads!

Steve

Glads were my dad's favorite flower. I always have to plant a few of them.

Steve, last year I had some that looked pathetic -- "failure to thrive" is what I diagnosed -- but I suspect the soil was too rich for them and most of them never flowered.

Usually they grow very well. I put 4X4 fencing about two feet off the ground for them to grow through. That keeps them from falling over onto the path.

For the corms, I collect them (can't toss anything that might grow) and plant them in a wooden box with hardware screen in the bottom. I "plant" the box right on the ground. This way I don't lose the babies as they grow like so many blades of grass. After two years, the bigger ones get moved to a bigger wooden box. By three years, the biggest are ready to be planted beside their relatives -- small and not likely to flower, but big enough to find at harvest time.

Do you store them in saw dust or peat moss? I have better luck with one of those than just keeping them in storage in bags.

 

[Smart Red]

I had to pick up some supplies at big box store. Right when you walk in the door where spring bulbs and seeds. I was just going to look, needing some hope for spring, knew its to early here for planting. Bag of 3 peonies where calling my name. Buying them made me feel spring will be comng soon.

I understand totally! Much the same happens to me way too often.

This year my weakness was hydrangea plants. I think I have $100 worth of them on order -- all at the best of sale prices. I even think (maybe, perhaps, I hope) that I have a good spot already planned for them and they won't need to sit long waiting for their forever home.

I have a few peonies already, but I'm a sucker for anything new and really NEED a coral, a yellow, and a fern-leaf red peony to brighten my collection.

Good for you, @Nyboy! Restraint never built the perfect garden.

 

[Nyboy]

Red did you try leaving a few glads in the ground to overwinter. I never dig mine up they come back every year. maybe its cause I dont really like them, I always think of them as a funeral palor flower.

 

[thistlebloom]

Good idea about the screen bottom box for babies @Smart Red !
I avoid growing anything that I have to remember to lift in the fall. That would be too demoralizing to have so many failures on my watch.

I want a yellow Itoh peony. Or three.

 

[Smart Red]

Good idea about the screen bottom box for babies @Smart Red !
I avoid growing anything that I have to remember to lift in the fall. That would be too demoralizing to have so many failures on my watch.

I want a yellow Itoh peony. Or three.

Mum-m-m-m-m-m! Me, too!

For the plants that need lifting I have designated beds. The few I stick here and there amid annuals or perennials are left to their demise in the fall. The designated beds are dug each fall for winter storage. Those are dahlias, glads, and begonias right now -- I have tried Caladium as well. The other "winter storage" plants are my water lilies, papyrus, and curly rush.

 

[thistlebloom]

Curly Rush overwinters fine here Red. if we're talking about the same plant. That would be zone 5.

 

[digitS']

... Do you store them in saw dust or peat moss? I have better luck with one of those than just keeping them in storage in bags.

I have used peat moss but they seem to do just fine in wood shavings.

The corms make it through winter like that, well enough. There will be a fair number of the smaller ones that survive the winter, outdoors.

Steve

 

[Jared77]

Good for you! Given the winter the NE has had this year I don't blame you. Are they double blossom @Nyboy ?