25 October 2010

The plan

After much nagging insistence, I finally convinced my sister, a landscape designer, to draw up a plan for my new flower bed. My requests:

1. Peonies! Beautiful, beautiful peonies. I love the big blooms and am fortunate enough to live in a perfect climate for growing them.

2. Low maintenance. Do I even need to explain why?

3. No reds or deep pinks to clash with the brick of the house and flower beds.

Here's what she came up with:


I don't know if you can read the labels, but the big pink circles are peonies, the green is iris, the yellow is tulips, and the blue is crocus. Since she didn't do any specs for exact varieties of the plants, it was up to me to make sure I selected plants with different bloom times. March blooms:


April blooms:


May blooms:


I couldn't find peony root stock locally, so I ordered those online. I got two different varieties, the Solange:


and Sarah Bernhardt:


Hopefully all the colors will work together and not fight each other for attention. My mom assures me that "peonies thrive on neglect," so it might be something even I can manage. I can't wait for spring to show them off!

2 comments:

Xinathebigsister said...

Zone 9 flowers are not nearly as nice as what you can grow. So jealous! I think I like the April flower combo the best. And I never knew about double tulips. They don't even look like tulips to me. They are very pretty. Be sure to take plenty of photos. Do you plant them now?

Sarah said...

All of these bulbs need to get planted before the first frost. It helps them build up their root systems so they bloom better in the spring. I like the double tulips better than the regular ones, probably because they look like peonies.