I'm with you on tree peonies. I add one or two every year or so. I added an interesectional peony this year, one that is a cross between the tree and the herbaceous peonies. I'm interested in seeing when it will bloom. Here, first all the tree peonies bloom. Then as soon as the last one is done, the herbaceous peonies bloom. That is happening right now here. Some people believe that you cannot grow peonies here because we get so little winter chill, but in my part of California, at least some peonies do quite well.

I'm not seeing a lot of rust here just now. The west coast gets a lot of rust in general but I have slowly removed most of the worst offenders. I've kept a few favorites, and I've kept a number that rust only in the fall, or only in a bad year. We had nearly all of this year's winter rains late in 2012, and very little since then. We're probably done until next fall so it is another drought year for us. I would agree that lots of rain seems to encourage it. I'm sure there is a temperature component as well, or else it would be more common in eastern United States, but I don't know exactly what that temperature is.

Good luck with your crop of spring cuttings!

Rosefolly

Mmm, paeony time - I have so few of these but waited for 5 years or so for my common, but lovely delavayii var.luteus - the leaves alone were a delight. Have no room at home for more than 1 miserly herbaceous paeony but a few had been appearing at the allotment.
Sounds like you have the bloody leaf-rolling sawfly - just take the rolled leaves (there will be a bunch of larvae inside) - it is more annoying than deadly so you could just ignore them.
So, was this your first rose bloom, Melissa? Just seeing pink in Madame Greg's buds and the hulthemias are quick off the mark too. Tulips just going over...and the cow parsley is just about to burst into full froth - the ox-eye daisies are opening too. In previous years, before most of my allotment was tamed,
the top third was dense with swishing foaming white flowers, hovering around chest-high - for a few weeks, it was swooningly over the top - a confection rather than a garden.
I am sure you know when to stop fiddling and faffing about and enjoy having a properly lush and gloriously bosky garden with wild bits and woodpiles - I kinda miss mine (although the space went for roses so.....)

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.

Years ago I got 5 tree peonies. Two were named varieties, Kamata Nishiki, which have come true and three were simply labelled "white". These 3 were all pink, which is OK, but still. My favorite was a very light pink, double but showing stamens, so maybe semi-double. What made it my favorite was the scent which was true rose. Most tree peonies have so-so scent at best. It died several years ago. Oh how I wish I knew what it was so I could replace it. And I almost forgot the P. rockii. which, after several years, has remained under 2' tall. Gardening is sure a quirky business.

Cath

Hear, hear, Cath. I've like every tree peony I ever bought, but if you want to color coordinate it certainly helps to see them in bloom first. I got one this year that was labeled purple, and when it flowered it was a rich Gallica wine color. It's a lovely shade and I'm very glad to have to the plant, but it's not what I was aiming at.
I have a notion I would like your garden.

I know you had to wait so long for spring and I'm glad you can enjoy it now. The wildflowers will be beautiful after all the rain and the trees will grow happily in the moist soil. I think most trees love a cool moist year as long as there is no flooding. They have to endure drought here so often that I am happy for them when they can enjoy growing freely without stress. There must be many native plants that are glad for the moist conditions. Someone will have a big crop somewhere. Maybe it will be a good year for wine or grains.

I think about my camellias the way you do about your peonies. Beautiful jewels of the garden to look forward to. Every year the plants get bigger and I enjoy their progress. I would have some peonies if the climate would allow it. They are one of the most magnificent flowers.

Melissa,

I would love to have you see my garden and would love even more to see yours. I keep wondering what your garden design is and whether you look out over the countryside from your hilltop like pictures of Italian gardens in books. (I think it must be on a hill at least, if it is in danger of slumping.) In fact it would be wonderful to visit ALL the gardens described on this forum.

Cath

Kitty, I've been spending a good of time lately with 19th century art as I plow through a big book on Thomas Eakins. Thanks for the good wishes and the picture (though I do think Botticelli was more convincing).
The rain continues. Here is has been bad for just about everything, except trees, perhaps: hay, cereal crops, fruit. I don't know about grapes. The grass has grown exceptionally, but the weather has never stayed dry long enough for the farmers to be able to cut and bale it. Most of my roses are pretty happy, though I have more disease than usual. The clematis are doing unusually well.
Cath, it's unlikely I'll get to you; you to us? We're halfway up a hill, not on top--not to mention that our house has nothing of the villa about it--we do have views, and, though the countryside is beautiful, it doesn't look like Tuscany, which is the mental picture many people have when they think of the Italian countryside. Our garden, at least the big (sunny) garden, is still in its childhood. I'll begin to feel like I'm getting somewhere when some of my plants get taller than I am.
Melissa

This has been a much different gardening year from my three previous springs and summers here. It's been sunny and warm. Summer is defined as that time when the temperatures reach 75 F, and we've seen numerous of these days. In previous years, summer did not begin until late July. Much different, this year.

I seem to count years by the springs and summers, interspersed by the grey falls and winters which are just a waiting time before the beginning of another growing time. That is one of the things about moving, I have to start over. Sometime I will start a thread and ask how many years old is your garden. I've been growing roses for about 15 years but every garden is another starting over and waiting. As you say, Melissa, "I'll begin to feel like I'm getting somewhere when some of my plants get taller than I am." But I'm grateful for the moves in many ways; I learned about deer in Colorado, I learned about teas and chinas in Texas and Alabama. Here, I am learning about albas and gallicas, the portlands, the rugosas, the mosses.

Funny about peonies; in Texas and Oklahoma where I spent many years, they were rare because of the heat. Here, they are common and I am so happy I have a few and even an Itoh which I bought recently. And I do thank you Melissa, for the emails you sent with peony information; it was very thoughtful of you.

So, the sun and blue sky have not been a stranger during this spring. A few polys are open as well as two of the rugosas. Madame Cornelissen has many fat lovely buds, and I look at Tuscany nearly every day and wonder when its buds will show some color. I do love that rose.

Rain next week here, more normal weather for May. I am glad, anyway, Melissa, that you are not in a drought. Gean

This post was edited by harborrose on Mon, May 20, 13 at 1:03