The Peonies are Blooming!

Monday, May 3, 2021
Hello friends,
I’ve checked the forecast from two different sources, and other than a chilly Tuesday evening, I think I’m okay to plant out those “after all danger of frost” plants in the garden. The tomato plants are all out. We have quite a large variety of experimental plants this year. Purple, Russian heirloom, oval salad, San Marzano as well as the standby’s Early Girl, Whoppers, and Celebrity. I saved back a couple of each kind for just in case something happens to some, then I have some spares. If I don’t need them, well, good. I’m out of room for tomatoes.
The peonies are blooming! As some of you know, my mom is a peony hybridizer, and has been making crosses by pollinating different varieties for many years. If you see little bags on a stem, that’s where she has carefully opened a flower and gathered the pollen, then forced open another bud from the receiving plant and made the cross. The little bag is to keep the bees etc. from confusing the issue. Then in the fall, she will collect the little seeds and baby them until she has a new plant. Lots of things can go wrong so its pretty exciting when she finally gets a blossom from one of “her” crosses, and it’s a desirable flower. Right now, she is mainly working on the plants she has given me over the years, but this fall we will be bringing more of her parent plants……