The endless battlefield
Prairie Peonies
- 2024 APS Grand ChampionAnd the Queen of the Show is... One of my favourite images (and stories) arising from the 2024 American Peony Society Convention in...
- Hello, 2024; Pantone & Peachy PeoniesWhen it comes to peonies, peach hues have always held an irresistible allure for me. Perhaps this is because...
- APS 2023 Convention Garden Tours: Day 1 - The Garden of Frances MillardAs the days started to lengthen and warm up after the calendar flipped to 2023, a sense of excitement and anticipation was exponentially...
- 2020 Canadian Peony Society Floral Design Demonstration, by yours truly.I'm beyond excited to say that I've been asked to contribute to the Canadian Peony Society's Virtual 2020 Peony Festival.
- WelcomeI was left wondering: if I was to start a project up, how would I approach it? What would I bring to the table that is different and unique?
Leo Smit’s species peonies
- Squirrels and Roses, Blue Jays and beeches 2012, August 27thIt seems the squirrels were reading this blog; a day after I wrote the previous entry they were hard at work eating the rose hips off the other clumps of R rugosa, and not wasting any time about it either! Within 3 days there wasn't a rose hip to be seen anywhere on the property. […]
- When Rose Hips Go All Squirrelly 2012, August 16thA few days ago I was surprised to see some nicely emptied-out hips from Rosa rugosa, a species having large fleshy hips and originally from Japan but very adaptable and salt-tolerant and so now widely naturalized along many sea coasts. Lots of it in Nova Scotia too (but mine were deliberately planted). I had never seen […]
- Curious Seeds 2012, August 13thI haven't had much to post about this season, or maybe just lacked the motivation. Today's break from habit is due to a mystery or curiosity of sorts. A bit of background: over the past couple of years I have finally had two plants of Paeonia anomala f. alba flower (mind you, not from seed […]
- Variants, and something cute 2011, June 10thPaeonia peregrina, usually deep red but varying towards salmon/coral in some populations in the wild. This is the first non-red flower that has shown itself here. Quite a standout.This cute little thing is Arisarum proboscoides, called the Mouse Tail Plant. Its foliage is the arrowhead shaped stuff in the next photo down. The genus name […]
- More of White Anomala 2011, June 6thAs hoped, a better photo of the flower.And a close-up of the reproductive parts. The stigmas seem very small.My report of the possibility of a few more coming into bloom shortly was premature. Along the lines of "don't count your peonies until they flower"; all the others were the normal pink/rose. The relative paleness of […]
- An Anomaly of the Anomaous Peony 2011, June 1stAfter years of waiting, and from the wrong seed batch!, blooms of a Paeonia anomala forma alba: the white-flowered form of Paeonia anomala. One bloomed after a fashion last year, but the flower was stunted and damaged by weather and insects, so this year's is really my first. There is again some insect damage to […]
- A Sudden Outburst of Sun-- and Peonies 2011, May 31stThe cold and grey of most of May was good for one thing: watching the Giro d'Italia (Tour of Italy) bike race on tv. The Spaniard Contador, after whose exploits I've named a peony, was in a fine fettle, lit up the race a few times, and won the thing. Great style to watch on […]
- The 2011 Peony Season Commmences 2011, May 21stShockingly, an update to this blog. Spring has been wet, and cold until just recently, but plants are either ahead of normal or somewhat behind: no consistent trend that I can figure out.Last year I finally planted a Paeonia mairei in a bed, so I now know that it blooms about at the same time […]
- Not about Plants this time-- Jan Lisiecki Recital 2010, September 22ndThis is worth writing about (and it fits into here better than any of the other blogs I do.)Last Friday night after a recital (good but not outstanding) in Wolfville by soprano Wendy Nielson I found out by accident that the young (15 now) Calgary pianist Jan Lisiecki was performing there the next night. I'd […]
- Appropriate Colours 2010, July 11thIn the prime of bloom just in time for World Cup Sunday, the very late-blooming Azalea "July Jester" vibrant in Oranje. A good choice.Somewhere around abouts are flowers of yellow and flowers of red but they're not co-located so the "other side" is unrepresented here.Although really, I'm not particular about who wins the thing just […]
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