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!



Don't forget to follow me on Instagram @ sweethome.indiana for pretty much daily updates, tips, and of course, more pics of my flowers!



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!

Spring Window Box

The weather has finally gotten to the point where I can work outside and even plant a few flowers! Flowers are my most favorite things in the world and I could not wait to get planting after this long winter!

Here in northern Indiana, the rule of thumb for planting flowers (or even a garden) is nothing goes in until Mother's Day weekend. It's just not safe to plant prior to the middle of May around here. If it frosts, your flowers will die. Some flowers, such as Pansies and Violas, are fairly cold hardy and are safe to plant sooner. 

I once read that Pansies are hardy to about twenty-six degrees and then they stop flowering. There have been a few close calls, with a couple more to come. But, so far, they are looking good and growing already! Pansies come in several different colors and I chose an awesome mix this year for my window box garden!

I also went the extra mile this year and got some Miracle Grow Potting Soil. I want to see if it really makes a difference. It promises blooms twice as big, so we shall see. I'm always looking for ways to improve my gardening game!

The orange Pansies were a must and that's what I built the rest of the colors around.

I love bright, bold colors, but I felt it needed to be a little grounded so I added just one maroon Pansy and put it right in the middle. I simply alternated the rest of the colors on either side. I didn't pack the window box completely full because I wanted to give the flowers room to grow and breathe!

This Pansy mix is so pretty, I may just leave it up all Summer! It would even look very nice all the way into Fall, but let's not get ahead of ourselves!

Don't forget, you can follow me on Instagram @ sweethome.indiana!

Spring This Year Vs. Last Year

It's that time of the year when I am just dying to get outside and work in my yard! Unfortunately, the weather is not cooperating how I'd like.

This year, winter has felt like it's gone on forever and ever! With barely a decent day in months, my flowers are all way behind last year's schedule. Only last week has my little crop of Ice Follies Daffodils started to open. Many of my other Daffodils are even still waiting to get their buds and my newest batch that I planted in my creekside garden last Fall are just barely pushing through.

There are a few bright spots in these gray days and the first is that my Coral Sunset Peony that I planted last Summer from a root is growing! I had written it off since there was absolutely no activity with it all last year. This will mark year one and with any luck, in two more years I will have some gorgeous coral Peonies blooming! It usually takes about three years for plants planted from root to bloom. That also means that I am expecting my two other newest peonies to bloom this year!

Also, my favorite place to buy flowers, Main's Flower Gardens, opened last Saturday! I look forward to opening day every year because that means nice weather is here! Or, in this year's case, it's on it's way! I have yet to make it there this year though because the weather has been so bad!

The forecast for next week looks promising, so here's hoping! I am very anxiously awaiting the true arrival of Spring around here!


This was my backyard at this time last year.....

This is my backyard this year on the same day! Quite the difference!

I am so looking forward to when all my flowers are in bloom again!

I guess that just means they will last longer into the season, right?

At least it looks like I am going to have a plethora of lilacs this year! If the frost doesn't get to them too badly!

The Peonies Are Blooming!

Peonies are some of my favorite flowers!

When I was younger, we had eight giant peony bushes in my yard. The first plant I ever got for my yard when I got married was a beautiful magenta peony.

Originally, my goal for my current yard was to recreate the peony garden of my youth. We had magenta, light pink, white, and a medium pink. I loved them so much that I wanted that exact set up. I actually had no idea there were so many different colors and kinds of peonies until I started looking around the home and garden stores.

My peony garden goals have changed a bit since I went out into the world and discovered that there are so many colors of peonies. I still want those same four original peonies, but I've found a lot more to add to the mix!

Currently, I have five different peony bushes going strong and one root that I just planted a few weeks ago. Peonies planted from root take about three years to mature and bloom. The last peony root that I bought did not turn out as planned and I am still a little bitter about it! 

The picture on the package was of a beautiful red Karl Rosenfield Peony. I waited three years for that peony to bloom. When it finally did last year, it was a hot pink Bowl of Beauty Peony (I think!) I really wanted a red peony! Talk about a let down! Understandably, I am a little leery of buying plants from root now! It is still a beautiful flower, so I am slowly learning to love it. I just wish it was red. 

I did decide to take another chance on a peony root this year when I saw a brand new coral colored peony at Lowe's. I really, really hope that it turns out to be what the photo advertised! It was so beautiful, I couldn't help it!

 In addition to my magenta and "Bowl of Beauty," I have an awesome yellow peony blooming right now called a Bartzella. I can't help but wonder if it was named after Bart Simpson!

Last year, I rescued a peony from one of our job sites. It was growing right where the house was going to be set and the construction guys would have just killed it. So of course, I had to rescue it and take it home with me! We didn't have a shovel and all I could find was a screwdriver to dig it out of the ground with. I was worried that I didn't get enough of the root, but I must have because it is in it's second year now and growing taller and stronger everyday! I think it will bloom next year and I can't wait to see what color and kind it will be!

I've run out of room for any more peonies in my two little backyard garden areas and I am already planning a new garden so that I can plant even more! For now though, I am enjoying the ones that I have!

This was the first peony that I planted. My husband actually bought it for me because he knew I had been obsessing over this particular color. It's grown a lot over the past few years and gets more and more blooms every year!

It is so gorgeous! This color is my favorite. It's one of the ones I had in my yard growing up.

Here's a bud getting ready to pop! It's so amazing to me that such a giant flower starts out like this!

I would really love to cut these off and put them in a vase in my house, but I have a hard time doing so. They just look so pretty outside, I don't even want to take one bloom away! I'm sure I wouldn't even miss it, because there really are a lot this year. This peony is about six or seven years old now.

The possible Bowl of Beauty Peony. I'm just going to call it that unless I find out otherwise!

Closed up tight! Look at all the ants trying to drink the sap off it. There's some debate on whether or not the ants aid in the opening of the peonies or they are just there for the sweetness.

Although not what I expected, I really do love the color of this peony when it first opens. The color fades to a lighter pink fairly quickly after opening. In fact, peonies are very short lived. I try to water them as much as possible (from the bottom, not the top!) in order to prolong the bloom period.

View from the top!

This is the fourth year for this peony and I am growing to love it more!

Here's a little toad that was sunning itself in the peony garden. I was weeding it and almost didn't see him, he blends in so well!

The view from the deck! I wish this would stay like this all summer!

In between my magenta peony and the possible Bowl Of Beauty lies my rescued peony! It has done exceptionally well considering I cut it out of the ground with a screwdriver and hoped for the best! This is it's second year of being in my yard, so I am hoping it will bloom next year. I'm also hoping that it will be either a medium pink or white peony.

This is my pride and joy ~ a yellow Bartzella Peony. I got it on clearance at Meijers two years ago and it has bloomed every year since!

It's not everyday you see a yellow peony! I love the orange in the middle of it. It looks so tropical! The leaves are different from most other peonies too.

Last year, there was only one bloom on this plant and it only lasted one day! I have five blooms this year and they are lasting a bit longer, I think because of the rain.

My newest peony garden! It started with me just plopping down the yellow one two years ago and then last year I made it into an actual garden by adding a brick border. I also added another peony last year next to the Bartzella. It is a light pink Sarah Bernhardt peony. It's only in it's second year, so it should bloom next year! On the very right end I just planted my newest peony from a root.

 I really hope it comes up! It's been two weeks and so far nothing. It's making me very nervous! After the last peony root fiasco, I swore off buying them from roots ever again, but then I saw this gorgeous Coral Sunset Peony at Lowe's and I just had to try it! It's a brand new kind! I guess I'll see in three years if it's the right color this time!

The Bartzella and the little Sarah Bernhardt!