Peony time, oh yes. Here my first peony to bloom was 'Mollis', ephemeral but lovely, and now the tree peonies are in bloom to be followed later by the herbaceous peonies. I have a notion the Officinalis varieties precede the Lactiflora peonies. And P. peregrina is flaunting its lone fire red bloom at the moment. Our bloom times may be odd compared to a normal year, though: I know the tree peonies in town bloomed well before mine did. I suppose all my tree peonies are common kinds, they come from the big commercial nurseries, but they're wonderful. I just wish the nurseries would assign them their proper names--sometimes they do, sometimes they don't--so I can relate what I have growing in the garden to what I read in books. Paula, I do like you do, add one or two every year. And I'm interested in those intersectional peonies, too: who couldn't be? Suzy, is your P. delavayii luteus possibly what my book calls P. lutea var. ludlowii? It sounds like a wonderful plant. Both times rust has struck here has been during a prolonged wet period in middle-late spring when temperatures are warm. Our usual weather pattern is that as temperatures rise, precipitation diminishes (this is why we can live without a dryer), but there is the occasional anomalous weather. DH read in the paper yesterday that this has been the wettest spring ever recorded in Piacenza since they began keeping records back in the 1860s. The winter rainfall was triple that of an average year. I went and checked one of the rolled-up leaves: no larvae. I think it's fungal. Poor 'Vanity' has every single leaf rolled up. Yesterday was glorious and I looked up now and then from my work to admire the garden. DH has been mowing the last couple of days. He got most of the paths, and by the time he was done the garden looked like a garden. Corners of it were pretty lovely, too. The rain came back last night. My first roses to bloom are usually R. hugonis and 'Sanguinea', then a gaggle of Chinas and Teas get going along with the Banksiaes and R. foetida. 'Souv. de St. Anne's' has been blooming, too--facing the wrong way so I can't see it--and yesterday I cut the first flower of 'Gloire des Mousseuses'/'Mme. Louis Leveque'. The bloom was four inches across and full of folded petals. The flowers and plants of this variety always remind me of a tightly corseted Edwardian beauty, very robust, and beautiful. I like a lot of flowering weeds, too, and they make the bees and other pollinating insects very happy.

Aimee, of the roses you list, I can only speak directly about Mme. Antoine Mari. At 5 years in the ground, she is about 5' tall and 6 - 7' wide and seems more inclined to get wide than tall. She has leaves all the way to the ground and only this year got noticeable mildew after the first flush (tough year for that here). She has gotten past that now. Very resilient: during this year's first flush we had heavy rain with ferocious winds. She, and others of the twiggier teas, got weighed down and blown about and big ugly gapes opened in the tops of bushes. MAM, in addition, had a huge branch (close to 1/4 of her top) break off. She looked bad. But within about 3 weeks she honestly looked like nothing had happened whatsoever and was blooming like crazy (while Alliance Franco-Russe is still showing the effects of that storm, a bit). She is, hands down, the most floriferous tea in my garden so far (I have Le Vesuve, too, but she's too young to make a fair comparison; however, it's going to be hard to beat "constantly in bloom", as MAM is). Her colors do vary. The first flush, in cooler weather, is ivory in the center blending to, as Sherry says, pale porcelain pink outer petals with a touch of carmine. This time of the year, she opens the same way, but quickly goes rather pink, lighter in the center, darker outer petals. The blooms on the north side of the bush stay paler. Despite a reputation for having few petals,some blooms I checked in the first flush this year had more than 100 petals/petalloids. Later flushes have fewer petals, but still have beautiful form. Her blossoms have that opalescent luster or texture that I just love. Her pink is more on the purple-ish side than the red or coral side, if that consideration is important to you (it is to me, unfortunately: my neighbor across the street has a large planting of Sexy Rexy blooming under a pale lilac pink crape myrtle -- oh dear). I think General Schablikine wants to be taller than 6', based on the ones at the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden, where they have pruned him and many other teas to a fare-thee-well and he is still at or over my head. Perhaps Le Vesuve is amenable to pruning, but I still planted mine on a 12' center (hopefully not presuming too much!) after reading the account of the "Grand Avenue Giant" at the Le Vesuve entry in the link below, because I want mine to look like that, eventually :-). Here is a link that might be useful: Cass's Garden with Roses

Mtn, I agree thaT Mad Men was deeper (much) than DA. While all the characters were flawed (some deeply), this served to often accent our pleasure with their honorably-achieved "highs". The questions of ethics and morality were addressed in every episode. And then - Jon Hamm. I would be looking at him and DH would be looking at me and grinning. I also Loved the women's costumes. Thinking about other family viewing. There is the BBC production Fall of Eagles, magic for history buffs, so perhaps payback for all those romcoms your son has watched? This is the story of the four dynasties which ruled Europe prior to, during, and after WW1 - British, Russian, German, and Austro-Hungarian, and what happened to them. Beautifully produced, splendid acting, and the story is made quite clear, although it would be good to have a large map of Europe available in order to follow the action. Nothing that we would call sex and no cussing. No explicit violence that I can recall; e.g. the assassination of the Russian royal family is mentioned, but not shown, and the battles are described via maps and shadowy figures, but nothing gross. Patrick Stewart as Lenin is wonderful! And then - also for history-loving folks. The American 1980s PBS production Oppenheimer, with a young Sam Waterston (in IMO his very best role) as J. Robert Oppenheimer, "father" of the atomic bomb, and the Manhattan Project. At times exciting, but also talky, with the complicated romance and marriage of Oppie to his unlikeable wife. It follows most of Oppie's life, including what the government did to him following the war, with good questions about not only the dropping of the bomb, but also about how the feds treated suspected Communists (I have no sympathy for Russia-loving Communists of that era, but Oppie was an innocent man unjustly pursued). Also no explicit sex or cussing or violence. There is a suicide, but if the kids sat through Barrow's attempt, this will be okay. DH and I agree that this is our favorite PBS-style series of all time, although MM might take precedence now. Maybe not. Waterston is terrific, as is the actor who portrays Poirot as Edward Teller. The story of our pursuit of this series after we first watched it in the early 80s is a saga in itself, which I'll spare you!

She makes a beautiful plant in your garden, Jeri! I was also surprised by this double bloom, which is why I posted it. Maybe the winter chill here in Seattle this year caused her to kick it into high gear for her first flush of the season? That was the first bloom of the year to open for this rose, so I'll be watching the rest to see if they do the same, or if they are normal.