Hi there! Welcome to my blog. I get so excited every time I go into the garden these days, as there is so much going on (and that’s with the weather not even cooperating). The highlight for me is that peony season is well underway, and I have a few different varieties to showcase this week. Adding some vibrant purple color to the yard are the allium that also are now in bloom – purple sensation is my favorite. I also have a couple of new plants to show you from my adventures a few weeks ago. I’ll be joining The Propagator’s Six on Saturday meme, which you can also join or visit! Let’s get started!

1 – A spring flower arrangement. I just had to use these flowers as there were so many iris this year! It would have been a shame to not use them. The peony are very early blooming, and were all bent over – which I suppose worked fine for the arrangement. There are three types of allium: white, purple sensation, and not purple sensation (although they were sold as purple sensation). The bright, vibrant colored allium is purple sensation, the other ones are nice, but more of a dull color, which is nice for contrast. It is a pretty commanding arrangement, but it fits perfectly in our family room.

2 – Peony ‘Hillary’. This is a Itoh peony, which is a hybrid of garden and tree peonies. The coloring on this one is rather unusual, and in fact, as it ages it turns yellowish (which is not my favorite part, if I’m honest). It has loads of buds on it this year, which is great. I finally have a perfect place in mind for this and I plan to move it in the fall. It is currently in the rose bed with pinks and purples, which is not ideal.

3 – Tree Paeonia Renkaku. This beauty had two flowers this year, double last year! I think it is *finally* happy with its location. It took a long time to figure out where it would be happy. The flowers are so pretty, although I do with they’d last longer!

4 – Allium. These were planted this past fall, and I am so happy with how they look as a group. These are supposed to be purple sensation, but they are very different from my previous purple sensation allium (they are bigger, and the little flowers are further apart). I do still like them, though. They were especially pretty when the cherry tree was still in bloom.

5 – Easydendron Rhododendron ‘Marcel Menard’. I bought this on my trip to Altamont gardens a few weeks ago. This Rhododendron doesn’t require acidic soil, as is normally the case with Rhododendrons. The color is not what I thought I was getting, but turns out to be much nicer! I’m delighted with it, and could not believe how many flowers it had in full bloom. Fingers crossed that it settles in well to my garden.

6 – Cornus Kousa ‘Claudia’. Another purchase from Altamont gardens! I have wanted a flowering dogwood for many years, so I am delighted to finally have such a lovely one. The flowers start out green, turn to white, and then they should finish pink (I’ll let you know).

OK, not the most glamorous of pictures, but these are the plants that I bought on my adventures a few weeks ago to Altamont and the Rare & Special plant fair. I didn’t do too badly! Hopefully I’ll cover all of them in the blog at some stage.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the tour of my garden. Thank you for visiting! 🙂