Pear and Plum Blossoms Plus Peonies! May 20

Pear Blossoms

Pear Tree

The pear blossoms have been blooming for over a week now. They are always the first to bloom. Another sure sign of spring!
This year the plum blossoms popped open not long after. It smells so heavenly right now, walking up and down the deck stairs past them. The crab apple blossoms are showing a lot of pink and they are not far behind in showing off their beautiful display. By this weekend, I think they will be in full bloom.  One really has to make a point of going out an admiring them. They last such a short time.

The wild Saskatoon bushes in and around our property are all showing off their while blossoms now was well. Last year there were hardly any berries, so I am hoping for a better crop this year.

Last year's light pink peony (Triangle bed)

Peony success! For those gardeners who find growing peonies a snap, this may not sound like much,   but for me who has never had much success getting any peony to bloom which I have planted myself, this is a real milestone! The beautiful pink Sara Bernhardt peony which I transplanted last fall from under the spruce tree to the side of the house bed, has a lot of healthy growth and even buds! I thought that they usually won't bloom for a few years after transplanting but it seems to like its new location.  I don't know for sure how old these roots were, but they were already well established when we moved here 9 years ago.

Medium pink Sarah Bernhardt peony is doing really well from having just been transplanted!

Gorgeous Sarah Bernhardt blossoms from a previous year

 And the red Dominion peony which has never bloomed for me in four years has buds now, too!   I moved my red Dominion peony last fall as well. The wild bed that it was in was getting less and less sun as the nearby Saskatoon shrubs were getting taller and taller and it was not thriving there.  As long as I keep the peonies well watered, the buds should develop into flowers. Yay!  I fertilized them with blood and bone meal last fall but maybe it wouldn't hurt to give them another round this spring, or would that be over-kill, I'm wondering...

One Peony down side though, is that my white peony (Alba) seems to have bit the dust. I noticed last year that its location at the far end of my long perennial bed was very wet and after 2 or 3 white blossoms opened, the rest rotted and so did most of the stems. I wonder what I could plant there that would like a moist semi shady location???

I moved my Miss Kim miniature lilac bush from the side to the centre of my triangle bed. I dug out and composted my spirea.  It was mostly dead and really has not been growing well for several years inspite of trimming it, fertilizing it, etc.  I planted a new peony in the corner where the lilac had been (after digging up a massive amount of overgrown bearded irises.) The new peony is called Julia Rose. It faces east and will get mostly morning sun there, with a little noon day sun.  It only needs 3 to 6 hours of sun apparently so we'll see how it does. It looks like it have pink and pale yellow blossoms.

Julia Rose Peony new addition to our family

I looked it up online and I really lucked out with this choice. This is what one site had to say about it:
Paeonia x 'Julia Rose'. Full Sun to Partial Shade. Deer tend to avoid.

Impressive 8" flowers open strawberry red and lighten to apricot, then pale yellow with plum edges – gorgeous! An especially vigorous variety, with a spicy scent.  

This spectacular group of peony was originally created by the late Toichi Itoh by crossing herbaceous and tree peonies. The result is a dense, rounded plant only 2-3' tall and wide, with a great abundance of large 6-8" blooms in an expanded palette of colors. They are borne on strong, non-flopping stems atop handsome foliage that stays attractive all season. Even better, they bloom weeks longer than either parent, producing more than 50 blooms over an extended 6-week period from late spring into early summer. And they take more heat and cold.  

- See more at: http://www.springhillnursery.com/product/julia-rose-itoh-peony#sthash.IPlvukAV.dpuf
Sounds perfect to me!

New clematis called Integrifolia Durandii.

I bought a new clematis this year to plant in the side of the hues bed next to the Nellie Moser (which I planted last summer.) This new clematis is called Integrifolia Durandii. The flowers are a dark purple (it was blooming when I bought it.)  The tag says full sun to part shade so that east sun location should be perfect. It also only grows about 6 feet tall so it shouldn't outgrow the trellis. I think the tag said it was good to zone 2 so it should be able to survive the prairie winter here.   I thought that would be a nice contrast to the Pink and white Nellie Moser blossoms.

Penstemon Schmidel, Red Riding hood series

Two other new additions are a lavender Augustifolia which needs full sun, 6 + hours per day, and  Penstemon Schmidel, Red Riding Hood series.  I have another penstemon called rubris in my Triangle bed and it has grown and bloomed faithfully for 3 years now. Not sure yet where this new penstimon will end up. I looked it up online and judging by the colour, it might be a variety called Pink Chablis.

I have never had any luck getting lavender to live through the winter here, but I'm willing to treat it as an annual if need be. I love the blue spikes.

Another "new kid on the block" is a blue flox perennial that I acquired at the plant swap in town on Mother's Day weekend. Looking forward to seeing that bloom as well.

Tulips!  I am so pleased with my tulips this year. They are sunny and beautiful and lasting quite long. A few of my old red ones started blooming at about the same time as well, but they are all done already.
I noticed a couple of pink ones from a few years ago that just opened and are quite pleasing. The daffodils did finally bloom and were a welcome sight. I just wish they would last longer.


My pretty little creeping flox at the top of my rock garden are still blooming so prettily. It is a pleasure to see.

tiny creeping flox

And today I noticed that my wee little Forget Me Nots are starting to bloom in my Stack Stone bed. Can't forget them! :)

I'm thrilled to see my tiger lilies peaking out as well as some of my other lilies. I think it's time to spray another round of bobbed as I saw a little brown bunny running past me this morning when I was checking my flower beds. Our little grey car Nahla tried to catch it, but it easily out ran her and raced to safety in the environmental reserve next to our property. Watch out for the horned owls, little guy!