Dirty Tales from the Garden II

And we come to chapter II of our peony saga - the story of Bernie's Peony (read here about how I name plants).

When we bought our house in 2001 the gardens were very neglected and overgrown, so even though the house was a 1929 we were essentially starting from scratch on many beds.

A good friend (Bernie) was very generous and used to let me come over with buckets and shovels and dig freely - lilies, iris, black eyed susan's, seedum, and much much more.

One 4th of July weekend we were "garden and swimming pool sitting" while they were out of town. She told me as long as we were going to be over there to take cuttings of anything, and that I could have an entire peony plant that was in her side garden down behind some bushes.

It was HUGE! I was so excited- knowing I could divide it and get at least 5 separate clumps out of it. And knowing the peonies I already had were white/yellow, I was excited to get a different color.

Imagine my embarrassment when they returned from their trip and I learned that I had taken out the WRONG plant!!!

Dirty Tales from the Garden

This time of year finds me out in the garden more than inside - when circumstances allow.

Tricks, tips, mishaps - I've got a few of each to tell so I think this will become a recurring category of posts.

Let me start with the peonies.

I had never grown peonies before we bought our house in 2001. I'm not even sure if my Mom did, and she had some pretty extensive gardens. When we discovered ONE peony plant growing right on the lot line edge of the property, perched precariously at the tip of the neighbor's driveway, I decided to read up on these plants and figure out how to transplant it somewhere closer and safer.

I carefully divided it - leaving enough behind in case my little transplants failed to thrive.

Well - they thrived -and then some!!! The tough thing with peonies is that they like to bloom during the blustery late days of spring/early days of summer, and often get blown away in the wind.

The picture above is of one of Monnie's Peonies - from one of the transplants. (Monnie was the previous owner of our house, so plants that were here are tagged as Monnie's) This was taken BY ME this year - I am getting better with my nature photography and really like how this photo turned out.

More peony drama in our next installment...