Summer in my garden - peonies

Finally, I can write a post about peonies - all of them are blooming now, also the latest one - "Bowl of Beauty", which showed its first opened bloom 3 days ago. Last year - here - I have written down all the peonies I have, only 1 is missing which I bought later when the post was done. It's called "Mother's Choice" and will certainly be one of the highlights among my peonies once it will bloom well (may take some more years; this year it only shows leaves and no blossoms at all).
This summer is surely a summer of peonies - all of them have SO MANY blossoms. I guess the snowy winter really suited for them.
The first peony which opens in my garden, is "Rubra Plena", a deep red very early peony. This year, it showed its first blossoms in June 3:

The two next peonies in full blooms were "Festiva Maxima" and "Sorbet":

I got "Sorbet" accidently - I bought a deep red peony "Peter Brandt" from "Hansplant", but when it showed its blossoms a few years later, it was not "Peter Brandt", but "Sorbet". I was a bit disappointed, because I wanted a nice assortment of red and white (Festiva Maxima), but now I'm used to it. However, I am still thinking of have a red peony in this flower bed as well.

"Sorbet":

"Festiva Maxima":

I have another "Festiva Maxima" together with "Edulis Superba" (pink one, which you see in the following photo), "Karl Rosenfield" (it is later, so in this photo, it doesn't bloom yet) and "Sarah Bernhardt".

"Edulis Superba":

My peony "Boule de Neige" which is white, but has a yellow heart and some red stripes, is still small, but her blossoms are already quite lovely:

"Karl Rosenfield" is indeed a catchy peony - with its deep red colour and yellow heart, it looks just beautiful. Its blossoms are not very heavy, so it doesn't bend to the ground like many other peonies do.

"Karl Rosenfield":

It has both double and half-double blossoms, I do not know why it's so - whether the plant is still too young and the half-double blossoms are a "fault" or it is just it's speciality.

In this photo, there are 4 different peonies together, but from distance, it's hard to distinguish them, except "Karl Rosenfield" which is much darker than other 3.

"Sarah Bernhard" - so beautiful... I have 2 of them, but one doesn't show blossoms, yet.

The latest bloomer among peonies in my garden is "Bowl of beauty". I find it more special than others, because it's Japanese-blossom type peony and therefore different. I like it a lot:

I have 2 plants of them, the second one started to bloom just this year. I do not know what to think, because the blossoms are like that:

Doesn't look like "Bowl of Beauty" at all... but something with simple blossoms! However, you cannot trust the peony blossoms during the first summer. Sometimes, it shows the right ones only when it's bigger and stronger. So I won't make any conclusions, yet. If it remains like that also next summer, then obviously the seller sold me something else!

Peonies are so beautiful, but when it's hot, they bloom too short time...

Summer in my garden - peonies

Peonies - my favourite summer flowers with roses - are in blooms right now. The earliest have already ceased flowering, but the others are still in full blooms and look absolutely beautiful! I find peonies very, very pretty due to their big romantic blossoms (and so good smell!) and it seems like I cannot get enough of them - in garden markets, I find myself buying new and new ones... Since they need some time to get used to the soil, then it usually gets around 2-4 years before they start to bloom. Therefore, not all my peonies are blooming, yet. But a lot of them are, and I can show you them.

My peonies are the following:

1. "Rubra Plena" - a red peony which is very early (blooms about 2 weeks before others) and I always wait for its first blooms to open - then I know, that peonies' time is there and the summer can start! :) I got this peony from Kristi's mom.

2. "Festiva Maxima" - it is a white peony which I've got from Kristi's mom (+ one I had here in my garden before we moved here).

3. "Karl Rosenfield" - bought 2 years ago from "Hansaplant" and this is the first year to see its beautiful dark-red blossoms. I love it!

4. "Sarah Bernhard" - a light pink peony which I absolutely love... I have 2 of them, one I bought from a gardening centre and another was already here before I got the owner of the house.

5. "Edulis Superba" - this is a pink peony which is the most well-known in Estonian gardens, I have 3 of them, but unforutnately none is blooming this year. 2 are too young, yet (I got them from Erik's mom in August 2009) and one is probably planted too low - I have to dig it out and re-plant it in August.

6. "Buckeye Belle" - a very deep red peony, early, which is blooming in my garden for the first year. It's beautiful when white peonies are next to it.

7. "Sorbet" - a white-pink peony, which I never knew I had. I bought another one (a red one), but got "Sorbet". Well, it looks nice, so I don't mind; but now this red one is still in my list of wanting-to-have...

8. "Bowl of Beauty" - one of my favourites again, Japanese-blossom type peony. I have 2 plants, one is already blooming (for the 2nd year), another is still too small.

9. "Boule de Neige" - a white peony, which also has a little bit of yellow and some red stripes. I got it from "Juhani Puukool" and it seems to like to live in my garden, because it bloomed already this year (being only 1 year old) very nicely.

10. "Early Scout" - I bought this red early peony only this Spring, so I have to wait until I see its blossoms. It is the only simple blossoms (instead of full- or half-full blossoms) peony I have in my garden.

KARL ROSENFIELD:

RUBRA PLENA:

FESTIVA MAXIMA:

SARAH BERNHARD:

BUCKEYE BELLE:

SORBET:

BOWL OF BEAUTY:

BOULE DE NEIGE:

Summer in our garden - Vol I

Summer has arrived already weeks ago. More and more flowers are blooming, and some have already finished. One of the flowers blooming right now (and soon will end) are PEONIES. These are also called as "grandmothers' flowers" in Estonia, as they have been grown in the gardens for hunders of years and are still very popular. In my garden, there are 11 spieces of peonies, but all of them are still young. The oldest is here in my garden for 6 years, but since I re-planted it last autumn, then I got only 1 blossom this summer (peonies do not like re-planting at all and usually vegetate about 2-3 years before they start to bloom again). All other peonies are very young - four I planted last autumn (3 of them I got from my friend Kristi's mother), luckily three of them also bloomed; and the rest I planted just this spring (of which 2 were blooming).
Here they are:

This peony is called "Bowl of the Beauty" (belongs to group Paeonia lactiflora) is a Japanese type peony with carmine-pink blossoms with dense, creamy white centers consisting of many crowded, narrow petaloids. I think it's the prettiest peony among Japanese peonies.

This is my oldest peony which was here before I moved in to the house, planted by the previous owner (it was actually the only flower which had peen planter here!). It's called "Sarah Bernhardt" (among group Paeonia lactiflora, developer: Lemoine, 1906) and I like its lovely fragile light pink colour and double blossoms. I hope it is not very angry at me that I re-planted it last autumn and will give a lot of blossoms next summer.

This white double-blossoms peony is given to me by Kristi's mother and I tried to determine its name, but I'm not completely sure about it. The closest looking peony is called "Elsa Sass" which is a late bloomer and produces large, double white flowers.

This peony, received from Kristi's mother, is called "Edulis Superba", a well-known species which grows in many gardens in countryside of Estonia. It's developed by Lemon in France in 1824.

This red peony is an early bloomer and belongs to Paeonia officinalis group. The name of this peony is "Rubra Plena" and it's lower than others having lighter green leaves. It's a very old peony, at least from 17th century.

My very new peony, "Belle de Neige" produced only 2 small blossoms - I hope much more next year. It should have double-white blossoms with a few dark-red stripes inside.