First, to answer your main question I have to say, don't worry, in 10 days or after the first rain, whichever happens first, there will be no white peony in your bed. Just a green peony foliage :-)) That's all beside the point that your white hydrangeas will be white not any time soon, first they have to go thru the green stage :-0
Second, it seems like you have a Festiva Maxima peony which is a first class heirloom variety. Heirloom and still popular for a good reason, trust me. Don't complain, BoB can't stand even near to FM in peonies hierarchy...unless you a peony collector, but last time I checked you was a hydrangea collector, right? :-)

Black Lace. The best speciman of it I've seen to the date. Super!
Daffodils. As soon as foliage will be on decline dig them out and replant as a clump anywhere in the middle of the bed, maybe behind the prostrate juniper on a left. This way they'll not bother you.

Good going!!!

Same thing happened to me with a Lady Banks Rose. I wanted yellow and got a white. But my nursery did not want to compensate me. I see no problem with your shrub though since nothing else is blooming white. Do you expect the peonies to be in bloom at the same time as some of the other white bloomers? For how long do peonies bloom in your area?

Thanks, George and Luis. I think that you both have got an excellent point - these midseason peonies only last for a couple of weeks or so around here, before ANY hydrangea will bloom in this area!!! LOL! So I am probably worrying too much then... thanks!

Anyway, George, I was also wondering if it were a Festiva Maxima too (yup, I am barely just starting to learn about peonies!!! :-) ). However, I thought that FM was fragrant? This one is hardly fragrant... hmm... and the red streaks were probably what made me wonder about it being FM. However, when they were in full bloom today, I did not seem to see the red streaks any more. Do you still think that it might be FM?

Thanks again for your help with this! Now, what other perennials would you add around these hydrangeas, peonies and roses in order to add some more colors?

Indeed Ostrich -BEAUTIFUL! Unfortunately we can't freeze time to enjoy these beauties for a little while longer (sigh)!

I have a row of (I think, must be- L A Duff Peony - my grand-dau calls ballerina tutus!) beautiful, fragrant, light pink - on sunny side, top of retaining wall. I dug up 2 clumps in '06 to open room for LL & QF. I was going to dig up another for Angel's Blush but thought Lime Lt might look better next to QF ... next year perhaps. These nightly tornado-like storms coupled with daytime hurling winds this wk forced us to harvest bucketsful of these beauties ... a Senior home, close by enjoys them... oops sorry to swerve! :-(

BTW Daffodils might also be nice around your tree ... can't get over what a difference a year makes, your island looks great!!! :-)))

Take your time choosing. There is no hurry, only the ever present urge to buy more of everything and anything. That is why I hesitate to order plant catalogs and why I recycle them as soon as I get any.... well, that is what.... what happens... most... of.... the.... ugh! .... time.

Until you decide, cover the area with mulch. So what color of mulch would look good in there... let's think about that: red, black, brown, yellow, youcoulduseevenpebblesasmulch... oval-shapped river stones have been used as mulch too! etcetcetcetc... Oh sigh, even selecting mulch can be tough! Good luck, ostrich!

Ostrich-Sorry , missed the ?? about other plants to add color to your beautiful island - How about KO rose bushes ... the original bright, fetchy pink!!!

Luis' suggestion great too - like cedar mulch will sent wafts of lovely, wood fragrance around!

Ostrich, would you mind to post a pictures of the whole bed taken from two points: from the deck and also from the side (between you and a neighbor)?
I guess you are not that interested in a view from the neighbor's side :-)

Hi ditas, thanks! I still have LOTS of work to be done to this island! Many more perennials etc. to be added. Like Luis said, I will need to take my time! BTW, I have some Red Double Knockout roses in the bed nearby, so I will use something else instead... good suggestion though! Thanks. In terms of daffodils, I am so sick of the foliage after they bloom!!! Sigh... so, you will see that I probably am even moving the existing ones to somewhere else as I cannot stand the sight of the foliage after they are done blooming in that bed! Double sigh....!

Luis, I appreciate your suggestion - yes, the impulse buy is so dangerous!!! I need to STOP doing that... but it's hard! Sigh... in terms of the mulch, I have the landscaping people do it every June and I always choose the fine black mulch. I guess that's the color that I like the most... :-)

George, ask and thou shalt receive! I will include the photos in the next post.

George, here are the photos as promised:

This is the view of the bed from the driveway:

This is from the deck:

And this is from the other end of the bed, looking towards the driveway:

As usual, I really appreciate your suggestions! You have great taste and wonderful knowledge, so please feel free to comment and suggest! Thanks.

P.S. I HATE all that residual foliage from the daffodils! Yikes! I am going to move them later...

Ostrich, sorry for not responding earlier, but I was partying in different places in NY and NJ all weekend.
Too many tequilas to connect words in a meaningful sentence, forget about to hit the right letters on the keybord :-)
I promise to give you my more detailed thoughts tomorrow, but first thing that caught my eye right away is a disbalance between front and back in pic#1 and #3.
Your yard is sloping down at the back of the island and taller plant(s) has to be in a sloping part, but you have LLight in a frontal part and LLamb in a back, if I'm not mistaken.
They should change places, IMO.
Another thing, your evergreen prostrate (green and yellow?) junipers and/or chamaecypises somehow got planted in a middle of the bed and in a short time will be invisible among foliage of perennials and deciduous shrubs. They should be relocated closer to the edges in order of not to be lost in a summer jungle.
That's it for now cause my eyes a;ready itching and fingers sliping :-((
G.

Just checking if I wrote anything stupid at 1am :-)
Seems like I didn't.
BTW, what is the sun situation there? Where is E/W?
What is the tree in a center?

Oh My Goodness Ostrich, I love your Black Lace! I have to pot mine in a bigger pot, she's soaking in a small one now, lots of rain here lately. She was a plant rescue, so I just plunked her in anything. Maybe if I put her in a larger pot, she might take off? She is showing a lot of new growth this year finally.

I love your peony, it wouldn't matter if it was white or pink. Use your store credit to buy BoB, it's all good. :0)

Does that bed stay shady enough for some hostas? They would come up just in time to cover the daffodils old foliage. Some of the more sun tolerant ones are gold or have gold streaks, and they would contrast nicely with the finer leaves of the other plants.

How many hours of sun does this bed get? That helps determine a lot of plant choices. Hardy geraniums and lady's mantle are nice edgers, along with pinks.

You might try tucking a boulder or two into the bed. Bergenias and blue oat grass look nice snuggled close to them, the bergenias need wind protection and the blue oat grass needs good drainage.

I have not tried Siberian irises yet, but you see that a lot in books. They bloom with the peonies, and then their leaves contrast with all the rounded shapes.

You really have a beautiful start, it would be lovely to see your progress from year to year. I just planted KO roses and QF this year. We like a lot of the same plants, so I'm really interested to see how someone else combines them.

Hi George and prairiegirl!

George, thanks for your comments... first, where were those parties!? It sounds like you had fun... WAY TOO MUCH fun...! LOL! Anyway, guess what? You just said it. You just had to say the things that I was wondering about this bed but was too afraid to say them out aloud myself, because they might just generate more work!!! LOL! Seriously, George, I was also wondering if the Limelight was too tall there. However, it is actually closest to the driveway, and I love how I would see the Limelight first, as it is such a showy hydrangea. Now, in order to balance things out, that's why I planted the Pinky Winky to the right. Wouldn't that get as big, if you bigger than, the Limelight? Please don't make me move them... LOL!

Regarding the evergreens, I also was wondering about the same too... but the way that they are now makes them look quite nice during winter when nothing else is around. I also have to put the golden ones next to the dark shrubs in order to provide that nice contrast. Though I totally see what you are saying. I would welcome any suggestion as to where I can move them to! Thanks.

This is a very sunny location with full sun. The Limelight faces west, while the peonies and the Little Lamb faces south. Unfortunately, it is rather windy there, esp. during winter. I am surprised that the Olga Mezitt did so well there! BTW, the tree in the middle is a Sugar Tyme crabapple. How I wished that I put a little Kousa dogwood there... but I like the Sugar Tyme crabapple anyway!

Prairiegirl, thanks for the suggestions! I think some boulders might look nice there too. Where should I put them? I would love some hostas there, but unfortunately, it is too sunny for those lovelies, and also my bambi friends around here like them just a bit too much too! So I have given up trying to grow hostas around here... sigh! BTW, let me post another picture of the Sambucus for you! I am just totally amazed by how fast it is growing this year. However, this is its second or third season... good grief, I have lost track!!! LOL!

Thanks again for looking! I look forward to more of your suggestions.

Prairiegirl, just a couple more photos just for you! :-) I love the Sambucus Black Lace next to the Golden Princess spirea, the Old Gold Cypress and then Old Gold Juniper...

Enjoy!

Personally I think your bed looks incredible. I love the way the peony looks in the middle of your bed. I take that back it looks terrible and you should dig it up and send it to me!

Oh thank you ostrich, that combination is stunning. I am also interested in trying a rhodie, have made a mental note to look at Olga. How long has she been in this full sun bed?

My BL is still pretty small. I am potting her up, not sure what to underplant her with. I have a thing for B&W combos, any suggestions? I did find a beautiful silvery-leaved cyclamen with stark white blooms for when she is finally planted out, it'll be a houseplant until then.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hardy Cyclamen

I'm sorry, but this bed is not ready for perennials yet.
Kill me for this, but you have to redo shrubs part of it having few things in mind (all IMO, of course):
-LLight is too big for the front of the bed no matter how you like it. In another two years it will close the whole view from the driveway. I hope you not having an intention to prune it to 3-4' every year. LLamb will perfectly serve the purpose of 4-5' tall shrub in front of the island without much of the use of the pruners,
-you may still call it a 'hydrangea bed', but four paniculatas in one bed of such size is way too much, at least one has to go somewhere else (I'd say PW),
-at the lower end of the bed you desperately need tall focal evergreen point. IMO it could be something tall, blue and narrow, similar to Cedrus atlantica 'Glauca', but more suitable for your zone or pyramidal/conical and yellow like Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Crippsii' (which is perfectly hardy in z5 and would be my choice #1 for your situation cause it is very color-compatible with practicaly any deciduous green-colored shrubs),
-if LLamb will take the spot currently occupied by LLight your two yellow-colored spireas could easily go in front and slightly on flanks of it and nice size clump of daffs could be planted between them in front of LLamb (spireas should be cut to 6-8" every spring and will not obstruct daffs in bloom, but later will hide their withering foliage),
-don't be fulled by physocarpus current appearance- it is a 8-10' tall and equaly wide shrub if let grow to its natural fountain habit. Surely you could give it a marine haircut every other year, but the whole beauty of it will be lost IMO.

Those are some random thoughts (with a good intentions) without even taken into consideration eventual size of the crabapple and shade it may possibly cast in a future.
BTW, what is that singly growing shrub between you and a neighbor?

Thanks, Bigshoe213! Unfortunately, with this crazy hot weather that we have been experiencing (who would have thought that we would get 3 days of persistently hot weather in the 90's here in NE Ohio!? What a joke!) the peony blooms lasted for a few days only... not even an entire week! Sob!!! Maybe next year...

Prairegirl - I have a suggestion - how about some artemesia? Don't you think that the silver foliage of the artemesia would look incredible next to the black foliage of BL?

Hi George! I guessed we both posted at the same time last night, so I didn't see it then. Let me read your suggestions more carefully tonight and then get back to ya! Thanks!!!

I like the white. It stands out against all of the green and black in your bed. I just planted a whole shade bed of green and white only. I am calling it my moonlight garden. I know you didn't get what you wanted, but some of the best discoveries are made by mistake!

Hi d_giffin, thank you so much! I like the white peonies very much now. Yes, sometimes mistakes can make it better! :-)

George, I want to first of all tell you how much I really appreciate you giving me all the advice! Thank you!

You know, I actually realized that I might be overcrowding these paniculatas. However, I did it anyway, thinking that I might be able to severely prune these lovelies every year to keep their size down, and more importantly, I did it for a selfish reason - I know that this is not my forever house, and I probably will only be here for a few more years. I wanted to enjoy these paniculatas and so I just planted them there, realizing that they may not be fully grown before I leave... ouch! I hope that is not too selfish. You know what? The worst thing is that someone or myself will need to chop down the shrub(s).

The physocarpus is Summer Wine, which is actually supposed to be only half the size of Diablo and Coppertina. So it is much more compact.

The crabapple is supposed to be about 12' tall when fully grown. Yes, it may create some shade, but with crabapple, the foliage is not that dense so it should not be too much of a problem.

The neighbors' shrub was always a mystery to me, until recently! They did not even know what it was - they just planted it there several years ago!!! Anyway, it's a lilac... yikes! It might get big. The thing that gets me is that the buds get eaten by the deer every year before they bloom! Sigh... I am going to advice my neighbors to prune it hard every year! LOL

Anyway, if I do want to move the Limelight, since it was in a 5 gallon pot before and this is its 3rd season now, how deep and widespread should I expect the roots to be? I want to make sure that I will dig carefully just so that I won't damage the sprinkler system. The trouble is, if I did move it, I am not sure where to put it then...

Hey, George, if you remember, I already removed the Pink Diamond from this bed to another corner after your advice last fall!!! :-)

Thanks again!

Limelight in a third season will be not a big deal to move. Roots will be more wider than deep at this point.

'The trouble is, if I did move it, I am not sure where to put it then... '

Instead of the neighbor's lilac :-)
Or next to it. Or on a side of the neighbor's house where YOU will admire it. Don't laugh at me, but my three neighbors already growing 12-15 of my 'unwanted anymore'/'don't know where to plant'/'too big for a place' or just simply propagated for a fun of it shrubs. They are happy, plants are happy and I'm happy :-)

ROFL! I am enjoying "my" climbing red rose that is now planted on my neighbor's front fence. We just didn't get enough sun for it, it clashed with all my warm reds, and it "bit" me every time I came near it! He is doing a fine job with her. I shared a few other plants, hope that he might share some tomatoes, LOL... I have seriously considered planting the male pollinators for some winterberry hollies behind my other neighbor's garage, they are renters who could care less...

ostrich, now I'm wondering if I shouldn't just plant BL in the ground. We're doing a huge new bed beside our garage, which is white, so the BL would really stand out against it! I had no idea (I know, read the label, LOL) that it would get so tall. I was expecting a low, mound of lacy black foliage, kind of like artemisia, only black? I do B&W planters, but my bed is bursting with color, so the black would be a nice foil.

George, I am working on it! So far, I have not found an appropriate location to relocate my baby yet... so it is staying with me... OK, I know, I am having separation anxiety!!! LOL

Prairiegirl, this BL Elderberry does get tall! If you want something with very dark foliage in a sunny location, have you considered those dark leaf weigela's such as Wine & Roses and its newer and more compact sisters? I am not a fan of them but they seem to be well-liked by many. Take a look at those! They are not as tall as BL but then the leaves are much less interesting too....

Funny you should say that, I have W&R as the "focal point" shrub. I'm going to plant my BL and see what happens. I wouldn't mind a little height in that bed, LOL.

I just planted my Quickfire with two Snowflake viburnums, one on either side, in a long bed along the fence. After studying your photos I'm going to get Little Lamb for the little shade garden beside the deck (morning sun, afternoon shade). Good grief, I was going to put QF there, glad you saved me from doing that! Is that your Olga next to your QF?

I absolutely must get Limelight!! It would look great in the front yard, with my Summerwine ninebarks and bright pink KO roses, don't you think? :)

Good morning Prairiegirl!

Yes, it's Ms. Olga next to my QF. She was planted last fall, and I simply can't believe how well she had tolerated this spot, which is rather windy and with full sun!!! I thought that I would just try it and so far it has worked!

It's great to have the viburnums and QF together in order to extend the blooming period! Great plan.

Yes! I think that the Limelight, Summerwine Ninebarks and Pink KO roses would look smashing! Now, you might want to get the DOUBLE Pink KO roses if you can. I think that the double form is so much prettier, but then they are really new and not available everywhere yet.

Do you have any photos yet? :-)

Not yet, working on it. Feels like I potted up and moved every plant in my entire yard this year. :)

Now I'm rethinking the whole viburnum/hydrangea thing. I may still move them while they're (very) small, for one thing I'm afraid it's not enough sun for QF. And I've read so much conflicting advice regarding the size of the viburnums, I really don't know what to think.