Peony Prospects

This year, I wonder, which of my peonies will put forth unexpected and extra effort and serve to delight me? There always seems to be one special player, sometimes anticipated, sometimes almost forgotten, who will make this a memorable peony spring. No matter how harsh the Winter has been, no matter how cold the Spring, how dry the Fall, or how destructive the dogs, one of them, I trust, will come shining through.  Which will it be in 2011?

'Buckeye Belle'

 Will it be 'Buckeye Belle', purchased just last year and planted in full, deep dark red flower?  'Buckeye Belle' is an old peony, introduced by Mains in 1956, but it recently found new life as the 2011 Peony of the Year, the 2010 Gold Medal Winner, and 2009 American Peony Society Award of Landscape Merit Winner.  I have high hopes for this variety and placed it in the front tip of my peony bed.

 



'Immaculee'

 Or will 'Immaculee' get the nod this year for best peony of my garden?  This white anemone bred by Van der Valk in 1953 has the most consistently perfect and delicate blossums of any peony I grow.  Closeups of the center of this flower are like the surface of another world.  



'Paeonia tenuifolia'

I was extremely lucky several years ago, to have a friend who gave me starts of the very early-blooming species, 'Paeonia tenuifolia'.  First to bloom, first to disappear for the year, this bright red peony can be a real showstopper when a large clump gets established.  And the tiny fern-like foliage is always perfect!



'Pink Spritzer'

 Recent variety 'Pink Spritzer' is always good for a striking new bloom and probably the most asked about peony that I grow.  I obtained it about 2 years ago directly from the hybridizer, Roy Klehm, after hearing a lecture he gave at the National Arboretum.  My weakness for stripes got the better of me.

'Festiva Maxima'

The old standbys like 'Festiva Maxima' can usually be counted on to provide a good show.  Heirloom P. lactiflora  variety 'Festiva Maxima' is a French variety introduced in 1851 and if I were betting, I'd put money on this being the most widely grown herbaceous peony across the planet.  I had a little trouble starting mine, either from the purchase of small roots or a little weakness in the variety, but I finally succeeded.  I didn't admit my troubles, though, to my father, who has a specimen that was probably planted in the late 1940's and receives no care except a yearly mowing.  




'Bowl of Beauty'

  And, of course, the Japanese anemone named 'Bowl of Beauty' can usually be counted on for a beautiful show.  I've grown this peony for about 8 years and this one always draws a few extra glances from visitors. The great contrast of 'Bowl of Beauty' between the ivory center and rich pink, cupped outer guard petals draws the eye. 

My best hope however, for an exciting show this year is from a peony I just planted last year.  Browsing a nursery in May last year, I came across 'Prairie Moon', a creamy white peony with yellow centers that has enormous blooms that vary from single forms to almost double in some years.  Even so, I thought that the cost of a potted clump was a bit expensive to purchase the first time I saw it, but it kept wearing at my conscience all summer, and when it didn't go on sale, I purchased it in the Fall.  I couldn't resist either the prairie reference of the name, nor the fact that this peony was introduced by Fay in 1959, which happens to be the year of my birth.  I don't have pictures for you yet, but this is a peony that I hope will light up that area of the garden from a long distance away for years to come.   

Deer Rat Regrets

I really should have shot the four deer when I saw them that morning in the mist.

Normally, deer don't often bother me or my garden.  I don't grow a lot of choice deer-loved plants (except for the roses).

For instance, I grow but a few tulips, even though my wife likes them.  They simply don't display well in my Flint Hills garden, high on a windswept hill where the prevailing gales are sure to decimate their flowers in a few days.  Daffodils, despised by the deer, do better in the wind anyway and so I plant loads of those.

I do, or did, however, grow 50 or so bright red tulips in a single small raised bed at the beginning of our driveway.  I do it despite their expense and the transitory nature of tulips on the prairie in a blatant effort to gain brownie points from the missus. They are probably 30 or so feet from the next living plant (not including the mown prairie grass).  So how did the darned deer find them?

Mrs. ProfessorRoush is not happy, so I and the Security Council (the Brittany Spaniel and the Italian Greyhound) are declaring war.  It'll be nastier than most.  There will be vast quantities of soap and other human scents expended.  We'll have to extend the electric fence ramparts.  We will form mutually-supporting treaties with neighboring territories and their barking dogs.  I may resort to motion-activated defensive devices.  The nuclear option will be considered.

Or I may just stop growing tulips.  Mrs. ProfessorRoush will probably get over it someday, although I'm not going to hold my breath.

How Long the Rose?

During that dreaded time period that pulls many gardeners reluctantly away from their Spring gardens (i.e. tax preparation time), I happened across some important information that I want to reproduce here for the benefit of other rosarians. While I was hauling off the truckloads of worthless annual paper and filing the few sheets of information that are actually important to my life, I found my copy of a February 1992 Horticulture article by Ian S.Ogilvie and Neville P. Arnold titled Roses From the North.

'Champlain'

The purpose of Ogilvie and Arnold's article was primarily to review the history of the breeding of hardy roses in Canada, but they have an interesting table in the article that provides an extra bit of information I wish was available for all roses in commerce, particularly for those that are blurring the boundaries between once-blooming and remontant roses.  In a table listing the Canadian cultivars, their color, habit, number of petals, and hardiness zones, they also listed the number of weeks each cultivar was in bloom between June 1st and September 30th, presumably at the L'Assomption site, and the relative blackspot resistance there:

Cultivar                                     Weeks of Bloom                  Blackspot Resistance

'Assinaboine'                               9.0                                        medium
'Cuthbert Grant'                           10.0                                      high
'Morden Ruby'                            8.9                                         medium
'Adelaide Hoodless'                     8.8                                        medium
'Morden Amorette'                      10.0                                      medium
'Morden Cardinette'                    10.0                                       medium
'Morden Centennial'                    10.7                                       medium
'Morden Blush'                            12.3                                      medium
'Morden Fireglow'                       9.0                                        medium
'Martin Frobisher'                        13.3                                      medium
'Henry Hudson'                            13.4                                      high
'David Thompson'                        12.7                                      high
'Charles Albanel'                          11.3                                      high
'John Cabot'                                10.3                                      high
'William Baffin'                             10.4                                      high
'Henry Kelsey'                             9.0                                        medium
'John Davis'                                 11.6                                      high
'John Franklin'                             14.0                                      medium
'Champlain'                                 13.6                                      medium
'Alexander Mackenzie'                9.4                                        high
'J.P.Connell'                                8.1                                        medium
'Capt. Samuel Holland'                12.2                                      high
'Louis Jolliet'                                14.5                                     high

I know this table reproduced from Ogilvie and Arnold leaves a lot of questions for those of a scientific mindset (how many years of bloom were averaged to obtain these numbers, spraying protocols, etc), but this information from two individuals involved in the breeding of these roses is still priceless for gardeners who are choosing roses for their landscapes. Yes, I agree that it would be nice to have disease resistance ratings and bloom periods like this for various climates and locations (in Virginia versus Kansas for instance), but for now, this information is the best available and I think that it relatively fits what I see for these roses here in Kansas.  'Champlain' for instance is almost never without bloom and perhaps once or twice in a bad year I have sprayed it for blackspot, compared to 'Cuthbert Grant' who seems to have several cycles with rest periods in-between, but whom I've never sprayed for blackspot.

It also encourages me to keep better records. I grow somewhere around 150 roses at last count.  Information on the dozen Buck roses I grow, for instance, might be of interest to others.  If only I didn't have to earn money to support the lifestyle the missus has become accustomed to, I could just walk around Thoreau-like with a notebook jotting down the blooming periods of roses.  I'm sure that someday I'll have the time.  I should perhaps plan for reincarnation as a bumblebee.  I'd have time to visit all the roses and the ability to sting those who annoy me.  Not a bad life, eh?

Russell's Brand of Gardening

This isn't the blog I had planned for today, nor is anyone likely to stumble across this blog by combining a search for "Russell Brand" and "gardening," but a news headline today, "Russell Brand: Katy Perry helped me swap sex for gardening" caught my eye.  I simply find that I can't refrain from commenting on it, especially since I don't know how long the link will last before people believe I just made it up.

Please allow me to state unequivocally that I'm not a Russell Brand fan, in fact I've never seen a single movie or comedy act by him. I've glanced at his autobiography in a bookstore, but never purchased or read it.  I  barely know who the man is, although I will admit the previews for the upcoming move "Arthur" look interesting. My tastes in humor run towards the extremely dry genera and I've never found the British slapstick, ribald comedy types very funny.

But Russell has been quoted recently that his sex life has decreased significantly since marrying Katy Perry (another celebrity of whom I have only a vague knowledge), compared to that during his single life, and that he's become "a bloody good gardener."  Those quotes will evidently be expounded on in a Piers Morgan interview yet to be aired.

To quote Bruce Willis in the first Die Hard movie, "Welcome to the party, pal."

If I could speak directly to Russell, I'd say that I understand, even though I'm almost an old man (but not yet dead), that trading a 20-a-week sex life for gardening may be disappointing to you, Russell, but perhaps your new wife might be more willing to help you control your rampant wild oats if you talked less dirt, particularly about her abetting the improvement in your personal gardening time.  And  while trying hard not to play the typical male "who has the bigger green thumb" game, I would also be careful to point out to Russell that I, myself, am only a moderately good gardener due to other demands on my time.

It is not surprising to me that gardening is Russell's alternative to sex.  Gardens certainly share the juxtaposition of alternating relaxing and strenuous activities of the latter.  Both have their peaceful, serene and beautiful moments, and both are at times messy, wet, and noisy.  Both have their enjoyable aspects whether performed outside on sunny afternoons or inside on rainy Sundays.  Both occasionally lead to strained muscles and can increase the incidence of heart attacks in old men engaged in the activity.  They only differ in that one may lead to a delightful,soul-restful experience while the other can possibly result in teenagers. 

There was one useful aspect to the inappropriate Russell Brand quote.  Someone named "Fluffy Flowers" commented to the article that if you listened to Dave and Jon's Gardening Calendar podcasts you could have both (sex and gardening).  I've only listened to one, episode #10, but I'm definitely downloading  the rest to listen to while I...err...garden.