<p>YW. Enjoy!</p>
<p>
I have several different peonies in my main perennial garden in PA and highly recommend them. Mine are just now blooming. I got them as plants and went for those known for heavy fragrance. A bouquet brought indoors is heaven to me!</p>
<p>Sorry, I am out of state at the moment so don’t have the cultivar names but perhaps when I am back in PA I can share them. Feel free to PM me in a week if you wish. Mine are white or pink.</p>
<p>They seem to be quite hardy (I am into very low maintenance plantings) and live for decades needing little care, apparently. I do now stake some up (using those circular things) to keep them from drooping with their heavy blossoms.</p>
<p>Enjoy!</p>
<p>Just sent a PM to you, chocchipcookie, but for any others interested:
I have peonies called Paconia l. “Primavera” (white and very fragrant), “Festiva Maxima” (also white and fragrant with a touch of crimson), “Pink Luau” (Pink, clearly! with a yellow center) and “Vivid Rose” (deep pink). They are a joy to me at this time of year, and among the more dependable plantings in my perennial garden. I am outside Philadelphia in zone 6.</p>
<p>Red Robins and Black Seamans going into outside pots today!</p>
<p>I’m in upstate NY (zone 5b) and mine just started opening up a few days ago. They are so beautiful. Roses are just beginning to bloom, too. :)</p>
<p>My vegetable garden report:</p>
<p>Two of my six tomato cultivars have nice green tomatoes (Concord Red Grape and Better Boy). My pea vines are sprouting white and lavender flowers (love them as much for the lovely flowering vines as for the product!). My rhubarb is finishing up – today I will make my fourth rhubarb pie of the season. (I HIGHLY recommend rhubarb for a totally care-free edible crop – a pest-free almost zero maintenance perennial that takes dividing well.) I have several strawberries turning red and we have enjoyed lovely salads from my early lettuces. Herbs are doing well (as usual, mint is doing TOO well and I will be digging lots up today). Beans (Kentucky Wonder, Top Crop and Tenderpod) are just starting to sprout (got those seeds in the ground a bit late but they are hurrying to catch up).</p>
<p>Broccoli plants are growing well but all leaves so far.</p>
<p>Thanks again to emilybee and JEM on helping me out re: Peonies! We bought the Pink Luau ones that JEM mentioned today and they will be planted tomorrow. (Kinda hot up here in New England today)</p>
<p>We have only a few vegetables going:
Lettuce… doing very well
3 types of tomatoes…so far only the yellow sunburst are coming in
3 types of peppers
carrots
strawberries</p>
<p>We’ve had so much rain up here lately that now that things seem to be drying off, maybe the plants will start growing more in earnest.</p>
<p>“Broccoli plants are growing well but all leaves so far.”</p>
<p>Eat the leaves! Yummy!</p>
<p>^^We planted Broccoli and Cauliflower last summer and both did well, but the Cauliflower grew much better…in fact it was a Cheddar Cauliflower and grew in Orange! It was yummy. I bet Broccoli leaves would be yummy too…</p>
<p>Both broccoli and cauliflower are in the cabbage family, and the leaves of both can be wonderful! (I especially like purple broccoli leaves, and also gai lan leaves - same family.) Best of all are brussel sprout leaves.</p>
<p>I love to cut a couple peony blossoms and float them in a glass bowl with some green glass pellets (idk what you call them) in the bottom. I have this “arrangement” on my kitchen island as long as they are blooming.</p>
<p>I spent the day splitting plants; I am trying to fill a lot of space without spending a lot of money. It is probably late to be doing this but the hosta don’t seem to mind. Sadly, a couple of my more exotic hosta did not come back this year. :(</p>
<p>This summer I am concentrating on the landscaping and leaving the veggies to the real farmers (though I do have four varieties of tomatoes I am trying).Tomorrow I need to get the tender plants and seeds in the ground. I don’t know what I’ve been waiting for; it’s been pushing ninety for several days.</p>
<p>1moremom, I had a new shade garden dug today and likewise and going to split some plants and move some others to fill up the new space. I don’t like to do it until fall or very early spring, so I picked up several hosta and some shade annuals (coleus, new guinea impatiens) to fill some of the space for now. Not a lot of money and it would bug me to no end if it was empty all summer. </p>
<p>I also had some hosta not come back this year. First time that has ever happened to me.</p>
<p>Worked more compost into the soil for additional containers. Hope the composted goat manure works as advertised. The seedlings in my many pots thus far are: Gretel Eggplant, Pinstripe Eggplant, Yellow Zucchini, Jubilee Tomato, and Cherry Tomato. Tomorrow Lemon Cucumber, Cherokee Purple Tomato, Japanese Eggplant and Sugar Snap pea seeds go into the soil.</p>
<p>I grew poppies this year for the first time. Spread a few packets of seed around last fall, sprinkled them with straw and waited. They came up very well, mainly the “regular” variety with a few California poppies too. I have a pink one, CA variety, I didn’t know they existed! The other ones are pink, red and variegated. Very, very beautiful!</p>
<p>They are very pretty but one of the plants just keeled over and I wonder if that is what they do when they are finished blooming. If so, I’m about to have a big mess on my hands. Does anyone know if I can eat the seeds?</p>
<p>emilybee, This was also a first for me. One hosta that “went missing” was a sweet variegated “mini” that I bought last year. That didn’t surprise me too much but I also lost an old Sum and Substance that was probably over three feet across. It was surrounded by sweet woodruff which I doubt could have choked it out. A mystery.</p>
<p>I grew celadine poppies at my old house. We were surrounded by woods and they grew into a golden carpet that was visible from the house. I wish I had taken pictures.</p>
<p>Last year’s cherry tomatoes went gangbusters and outgrew the stakes, tomato cages, etc. The beefsteaks did nada, and what little I got the birds ate. So this year I did patio tomatoes, basil and arugula. The arugula was supposed to be in the fall but I never got around to it. Hopefully it wont be too hot for it.</p>
<p>jym - you can usually outwit the birds by picking your tomatoes before they are red. Some birds are attracted to the color red (gray catbirds) and you can wait and wait until they are ripe and then there’s a few bites pecked out. </p>
<p>You can pick them as soon as they show the slightest blush tinge (even earlier, when they are green and show a white star on the bottom but that shouldn’t be necessary). Let them ripen at room temperature inside. You don’t even need a sunny window.</p>
<p>greenwitch-
I’d see them looking perfect one day, go out to pick them the next and find a big hole in them!! :mad: Surprisingly, though we were awash in cherry tomatoes, they pretty much left them alone. So this year no uglies or beefsteaks-- just the patio tomatoes.</p>
<p>I have replanted tomatoes due to frost, replanted broccoli due to rabbits and my peas are rather sad. My onions look good as does zucchini, pumpkins and cukes. We have had two rhubarb pies and tons of asparagus. I have just tried microwaving it and it was great! (sprinkle with sea salt, wrap in damp paper towel for about 3 minutes)</p>
<p>I wonder if last year’s drought hurt some of your hostas? I know people think they are drought tolerant but I think newer plants really want water. I have noticed that plants that are in drier parts of my yard do not do as well as plants in other areas.</p>
<p>Onward, what kind of tomatoes?</p>
<p>Mini, have you tried Okra leaves. Tried them myself for the first time a couple of years ago. Taste okay but as tough as leather. I guess they’re similar to collards and need to simmer for quite a bit.</p>