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First name or nickname
Joe
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Some info about yourself
Botanical horticulturist working at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. I manage Kew’s collections of peonies.
American Peony Society
- 2025 Convention 2024, November 29thArtistry in Bloom Beaver Dam, Wisconsin 2025, June 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 Show and Education Venue – Beaver Dam High School (open to the public on June 14 & 15) Tours – Gardens at Oak Lawn Cheese Factory; Experimental Aircraft Association Museum, Sisson Gardens & Ovans’ Peony Farm Lodging & Social – Comfort Inn […]
- Winter 2024; No. 412 2024, November 22ndThe Winter 2024; No. 412 Bulletin is available to members for online reading! Enjoy and have a great winter dormancy. Log in to the Member Portal to view this Bulletin and other recent publications. The post Winter 2024; No. 412 first appeared on American Peony Society.
- Fall 2024; No. 411 Bulletin 2024, August 26thThe Fall 2024; No. 411 Bulletin is available to members for online reading! Enjoy and have a great start to the 2024 peony season. Log in to the Member Portal to view this Bulletin and other recent publications. The post Fall 2024; No. 411 Bulletin first appeared on American Peony Society.
- Summer 2024; No. 410 Bulletin 2024, May 25thThe Summer 2024; No. 410 Bulletin is available to members for online reading! Enjoy and have a great start to the 2024 peony season. The post Summer 2024; No. 410 Bulletin first appeared on American Peony Society.
- Spring 2024; No. 409 Bulletin 2024, February 19thThe Spring 2024; No. 409 Bulletin is available to members for online reading! Enjoy and have a great start to the 2024 peony season. The post Spring 2024; No. 409 Bulletin first appeared on American Peony Society.
- Winter Bulletin 2023; No. 408 2023, December 1stFall 2023; No. 407 Bulletin is available for online reading through the Member Portal at: https://americanpeonysociety.org/member-portal/pages/the-bulletin-online/ The post Winter Bulletin 2023; No. 408 first appeared on American Peony Society.
- Fall Bulletin 2023; No. 407 2023, September 4thFall 2023; No. 407 Bulletin is available for online reading through the Member Portal at: https://americanpeonysociety.org/member-portal/pages/the-bulletin-online/ The post Fall Bulletin 2023; No. 407 first appeared on American Peony Society.
- NEW! APS Publication Downloads 2023, March 12thAPS is moving away from physically printed book sales and has a new option for anyone who loves peony reading! Most APS publications have now been digitized and are available as pdf downloads, at the low cost of $5.00. While these are not in a reader format, pdf files are easily read on most any […]
- Frost Damaged Peonies 2020, May 4thSpring in the north almost always brings the challenges of frost damaged peonies. Often damage by light freezes is visible through wilting stems in the morning and plants bounce back later in the day. Occasionally colder nights produce lasting damage exemplified by dead shoots, which do not recover. Generally temperatures which fall below 25 F […]
- Why Plant Peonies in the Fall? 2019, December 6thPlant in Fall, Purchase in Winter/Spring When to purchase-when to plant This post comes a bit late in the season, but we were busy planting our peonies! Peonies are sold through much of the year, but the best time to plant them hasn’t changed-FALL only! Why? Peonies grow nearly all of their roots in the […]
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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