Peony count.

[tsubasahome]

I was walking around, counting this year's peony buds, and came up with some scary numbers:

Green on White Jade Tower: 7
Blue Butterfly: 3
Moonstone(planted last year): 3
Philomele(planted last year: 0, but it looks fairly healthy.
Cheddar Charm(planted last year): 1
Louis van Houtte(planted 10 years ago): 39
Coral Charm(planted 3 years ago): 0, got the funk.
Duchess de Nemours(planted 3 years ago): 50
Paula Fay(planted 3 years ago): 1
Bowl of Beauty(planted 7 years ago): 19
Coral Supreme: (planted 7 years ago): 9
Msr. Jules Elie: (planted 8 years ago): 70
Bartzella(planted this year): 0, but it looks really jazzed.

Coral Charm has not been doing well...I honestly don't remember when I planted the tree peonies. I think it was 2004 and 2005...

Comments

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's going to be impressive when they start blooming--and you've got some nice varieties there.

[tsubasahome.livejournal.com]

I'm dying to see what it's going to look like next year. :D Right now, Cheddar Charm, Moonstone, Philomele, and Bartzella are just little nubs. ^^;;;

I don't know what the world has against Coral Charm. It got stepped on by the UPS man the first year I had it...then somebody else stepped on it the next year...I wish people would stop thinking they can just cut through our front border like that! Paula Fay also got stepped on its first year, but I think it was an animal and not a human.

Granted, it's partly my fault...I had to dig Coral Charm up last fall and replant it because I got it at such a pathetic size(it was supposed to be 3 to 5 eyes, and it only had one) that I stupidly planted it what turned out to be way too close to Duchesse de Nemours, and I didn't want it getting choked out. It seemed okay when it came up this year, but then it just got the funk and shriveled up after a day of heavy rain... I hear the coral peonies can be weird when exposed to the elements, especially when young. It'll probably still live...I never lost a peony yet...::laughs::

For this fall, I'm going to console myself with a new coral(Coral Sunset) and Buckeye Belle, and Scarlett O'Hara. ^^;;;; I'm not planning on putting them in the same part of the yard, because the colors will clash horribly! I'm particularly interested in Buckeye Belle because of its unusual brick-red color(all the other red peonies I've seen are blue-red) but I'm going to have to plant it next to Green on White Jade Tower because it will likely only look good next to a white peony.

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

Well, if the new growth on Coral Charm shriveled up as if you took a blowtorch to it, that was probably a fungus infection called bortrytis blight. The's one reason peony growers all scold you to clean up old dead stuff and get rid of it, instead of leaving all that alone when it goes dormant. If so, it's possible that variety (or the breeding line of corals) is more likely to suffer from it when the weather stays wet and nasty. We get it around here sometimes because our soil is basically clay, and stays wet forever.
Not a bad thing in the summer, when it's nine million degrees in the shade, but ugly in the winter! When it's looking like it might get bad, I try to spray with one of the rose fungicides I already have that's labeled for that, like Daconil. I used to do the peonies along with the roses, one spray period, two if I was lucky, on the first red flush of new sprouts, but not the last 3 years or so--been getting sick during that time frame. Last couple of years, I haven't been doing any of that. We'll see how they come through it...

[tsubasahome.livejournal.com]

I thought that might be it...but I wasn't sure, because it almost looked like part of it got damaged by the rain and shriveled up, then recovered, then shriveled up again. I wound up cutting the affected part of the plant off(basically, the whole plant) because I was afraid that it really was botrytis blight. I had Cheddar Charm planted on the opposite side of the bed, and it was fine. I have clay soil in most of my yard, but not that bed. We had some very heavy rain, then unnaturally warm temperatures right afterward.

Coral Charm was such a puny specimen...I heard that the foliage on the corals die back early, but this is ridiculous... The poor thing only had one stem! I'm not sure if it's something related to the cultivar, since Coral Supreme is just a sister seedling of Coral Charm, but bloomed the first year for me, and is currently 4 1/2 ft tall.*_*

I guess I'll just wait to see if it comes up next year. The Duchesse didn't have a great first year, but now it's fine. I was kind of appalled that White Flower Farm sent me such a tiny division--they charged me enough for it!

Situations like this make me want to fly back into the loving arms of my Chinese tree peonies, but they have their weak points as well, like getting crushed under 5 feet of snow. ^^;;;; It's funny how these branches that were just hanging by a thread still had 9 inch flowers on them! I feel bad about having to prune them out...

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

I understand White Flower Farm has not been earning a good rep lately.
I can vouch for the quality of these folks' stuff, I've visited their farm.
http://4peonies.com/