A Walk Among the Peonies

My peony bushes just keep getting better and better every Summer! It always surprises me how many more blooms I get from year to year. Although peonies are actually considered a late Spring flower, they signify the beginning of Summer to me.

Peonies are among my most favorite of flowers and I wish the blooms would last more than a week! I always try to keep them well watered at the base so they don't dry out and drop their petals quickly and I think that usually helps prolong them a little longer. Of course, this year we had a major heat wave the week my peonies decided to pop out, so that didn't help. And on top of that, we then had some pretty severe storms that knocked all the flowers off. So sad! 

I was able to salvage a few peonies before the rain hit and this is the first time that I've actually had enough blooms to be able to make a bouquet! I always hate cutting them because they look so pretty on the bush, but I barely missed them outside, I had so many!

Currently, my peony bushes number six, with four blooming and two still growing. It usually takes about three years for anything planted from a root to bloom, so I am hoping next year is the year for my mystery peony that I rescued from a jobsite with only a screwdriver. I cannot wait to see what color it's going to be! It'll probably be another two years or so yet for my Coral Sunset Peony that I planted from root last summer. I am very excited for that one as well.

My yellow Bartzella is really my most prized peony. It's so unique and rare and I love the orange in the center. The blooms are huge and it just screams tropical. And I am all about anything tropical!

This is my very first bloom on my Sarah Bernhardt Peony! I'm usually more into brighter colors in my garden, but I am loving the delicate, light pink color. 

This is my first peony that I planted in my yard and one of my faves. It shows up a lot lighter in photos, but it's really a dark magenta color. I'm actually beginning to suspect it's a Karl Rosenfield Peony!

This lovely mysterious peony started as a root and it was supposed to be a red Karl Rosendfield. It most definitely is not, but I really like it. I'm still on the hunt for a red peony though!

I just love how peonies start from these closed up, tight little buds. 

The peonies really make my back deck area pop and after they are done blooming, the greenery looks good until Fall. I am thinking about putting some peonies in my front landscaping, but it's so shady that I'm afraid they will not do well. But, I think I'm willing to give it a try at least!

This might be my favorite pic ever!



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Happy Summer!

Spring Garden Tour

Spring is finally here!

It's a toss up between Spring and Fall for my favorite season, but I have to say, Spring may just be winning. With all it's gorgeous flowers and budding trees, it's almost no contest for a flower lover such as myself. 

Every year, I add more and more plants and flowers to my gardens for each different season. Tulips and Daffodils are often the most thought of flowers for Spring, but I've discovered that there are so many more Spring blooming flowers out there! I like to add different and new items whenever I come across them and I am very happy to report that every new bulb and plant that I put in last year has come back!

Spring came very late this year to northern Indiana and all my flowers bloomed much later than in previous seasons. I was hoping that maybe, just maybe, the bloom season would be prolonged somehow, but sadly, most of my Spring flowers are already on their way out. 

I have to say that my gardens are really rockin so far this year and I am already making plans for what to add next year! The most wonderful time of the year has begun!

New favorite flower alert! Crocuses are some of the first blooms in Spring and these tiny little flowers are actually perfect to plant in your yard since they will be gone by the first mowing. I got a small bag of them last Fall as an experiment and I will definitely be planting more in my yard and in my flower gardens next year!

I've seen yellow, white, and purple crocuses and mine were either purple or white. I love these purple ones with the white striations!

Above is my creekside garden in all it's Spring glory! My favorite thing about it is the border of purplish-blue Muscari. This is my favorite spot in my whole yard. When I moved in, it was just an overgrown eyesore filled with poison ivy. I had to work very hard to get it into shape for a garden and I am very proud of it!

Muscari make perfect garden borders and they multiply like crazy every year, so it only gets better and better!

Last year I planted a mix of Tulips that I got for free, not knowing what color they would be. I was hoping for red and luckily, most of them were! They look awesome next to the yellow Daffodils and blue Muscari.

These tiny little Daffodils came from a mix bag and I have never seen anything else like it. They are tall like regular Daffodils, but have several small clusters of flowers on them. They are very unique and I am glad they are in my garden. That's the thing with a mixed bag, you never know what you're going to get!

I think the best smelling flower may be the Hyacinth. Get around a group of them and it's absolute heaven! I am going to make it a focus to plant more this Fall. Possibly as a border somewhere. I wish I could find this exact color of purple again, it's the only one I've seen and it's much brighter than others.

Inspired by Foster Park here in Fort Wayne, it's been my goal to plant as many different kinds of Tulips in my yard as possible. I love these new orange ones that I planted last Fall and the different color variations on them.

These Lilac bushes literally began as sticks from someone else's yard. Lilacs are very easy to transplant, but they take a while until they bloom. This is the first year that all three have bloomed and I was even able to harvest a few branches to bring inside and put in a vase!

I was asked if they all have different smells and they do! The dark purple ones smell a little fruity to me and the white have a spicy smell. 

Funny thing about this tulip bed. I started it three years ago as a white, purple, and pink bed. My friend had gotten a Tulip bouquet of those colors and it was so pretty. Last year only one white Tulip came back, which I later found out that for some reason, white Tulips are notorious for not coming back like other colors. So I planted more white ones. This year, only one pink Tulip showed up to the party! I guess I'll be planting more pink ones this year! And probably some more white too, just in case!

I'm totally one of those people who can't seem to bring myself to cut my flowers and bring them inside. They just look so pretty in their natural element! But I desperately do want to one day be able to! This is my sole Daffodil, an Ice Follies, that I brought in this year and I only did it to save it because it had gotten cut off somehow. I am planning on starting some sort of a cutting garden so that I can have gorgeous floral arrangements in my home too one day!

I will wrap up the tour with my apple tree that finally blossomed this year for the first time! I am hoping to be eating some delicious Gala Apples from this tree in the Fall, but even if that doesn't happen, these blooms made it all worth it!


Thanks for stopping by and follow me on Instagram @ sweethome.indiana for daily updates on my flower gardens and all other things home!



Next up, Summer here we come!