Peonies and Orchids

Sorbet Peony

The peonies are blooming and I am soooo happy to be able to enjoy not only their beauty but their scent. The peony scent takes me back to my childhood and never fails to make me happy.

Duchesse de Nemours Peony

This year has been a fabulous year for peonies even with all of the rain. Yes, some were beat down but most of my peonies chose to open their smiling faces after the heavy rains passed. Here are a few for my blogging friends and family.

 'Sarah Bernhardt ' Peony

I wish I could pick a favorite but I guess I love all peonies. I recently did a swap of peonies with my good friend Naomi. She actually dug a tree peony in order to separate an herbaceous peony from it for me! The type of gardener who separates her peonies for another is very rare. I, of course, let her dig my plants too. I do not normally allow many folks to do this. Naomi is one good gardener though and my garden is enriched because of her generosity. Both the peony she gave me and her tree peony she kept suffered a lot of trauma. They will not be showcased today:(

 Unknown Red in Front Sidewalk Garden

Another kind gardener who lives south of me here in a small town called Palmyra shared a red peony with me. I've never ever met so many generous gardeners! I think peonies are the ultimate to share I have to admit that I've not shared mine with anyone-yet. That is due to change this fall when Naomi gets her piece of a peony and my daughters get a start of a few as well. I might have shared with some folks but honestly my peonies are just now getting to the 'share' point. It's not that I wouldn't share it's just that I couldn't-honest! This peony has very rich color and is paired with a very rich iris. 'May Night' salvia grows in front of the peony.

 'Duchesse de Nemours'

I hate photographing anything white. My poor 4.0 megapixel point and shoot camera just cannot pick up the subtle shades of white flowers. It did pick up the petals of this peony in the close up white peony showcased above.



A long view of a few of the peonies here. I think I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 peonies. There are four in this bed though you can see only two. Sometimes you see peony borders where peonies are all massed together in a long bed. I tried this but did not like the effect. For my garden I prefer to mix the peonies in with other perennials. Here in the south peonies can take a bit of shade too; which is great for my borders since none are in full sun.






Finally we have some hardy ground orchids. My sister Dawn first posted on these lovelies a few years ago on this very blog. This post is still an often Googled post that many people enjoy. 

I purchased my ground orchids from the Don Shadow Nursery last fall. These are botanically known as Bletilla striata or simply ground or Chinese ground orchids. They are hardy here in Tennessee but are only reliably hardy to Zone 6, possibly to Zone 5 with protection. My sister is in Zone 5 so she is smart to keep her orchids in the house. These orchids need a winter dormancy period. I have mine growing in a new garden area I just created last year when we removed our swimming pool. It is paired with a fabulous dark dark purple dwarf iris I received from a kind blogger in Texas. You can just see a bud opening in the background. The pink and purple are a perfect pairing!



Lastly, a close up of the orchid. I may have an old 4 megapixel camera but every now and then the two of us-my camera and I-get a great shot-and I love this one! This shot and the one previous one does not have any extra lighting-it is all natural and not retouched in any way.


in the garden....

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

Chinese Ground Orchids

Posted by: Dawn

I really didn't know what a Chinese Ground Orchid was, all I knew about this flower was the fact it was marked down at Wally world for $3.50 a pot. Who can resist a bargain? I bought three pots. This was September of 2008, after this pretty flower had gone by. I could see remnants of a purple bloom but I really had no idea. I felt, all my life, how exotic it would be to try and grow orchids, I've heard so much about them.

Everything I read about orchids indicated "planting is above soil, or soil less", this is a beautiful flower that thrives with water mostly.

Well, I figured with three root bound pots divided into six clumps, how could I go wrong?

I had this bottom to a free standing humidifier that had gone bust. I thought it would make a perfect plant house one day, it also has wheels which is a plus. The above photo demonstrates what my foliage looked like after transplanting. Do you suppose I'd have a few living and thriving with these conditions?

You know....I thought if any one of these flowers survived I'd put them in my blue room which has an oriental feel to it. I still had no idea what these little flowers looked like.....maybe the pot will look awesome with bamboo shading glued up and down on the sides covering the bland black? A great idea but I just need to figure out how to waterproof the pot so I can wheel my orchids outside if they survived.

ANSWER: Here are my lovelies shortly after Christmas. Slowly, one by one each leaf turned brown which was nothing but an attraction to all my cats, what remained for greens were chewed on and suffered a beating at the paws of three felines!

I continued to be diligent with my watering and spent extra hours chasing cats away from the plants. I used my shears to snip any dead leaves that showed up.

By Valentines day I started to see a payoff.....here...

there......,

everywhere. I lost one little sprout out of about eight and I never did figure out what happened, two out of the six clumps met their demise.

I've read different information on Chinese ground orchids. Some sources say they like being planted and can be hardy to zero degrees with insulation layered on top. I think I'll wait and see if I can foster more growth before I go planting these outside because I really just would like to see the flower!

My large pot spent the summer on my deck. We had to carefully tip the rain water out several times during the summer. The leaves started looking pretty good and look what happened after about two weeks of being back inside the house.

A flower bud....can you see the water drop on it?

Here is a photo of two buds together. It's hard to see the one in front of the plant but it has 2 buds. Eventually I will pull all of the dead growth. I've left some because it's bulbous and is still tied to the living plant.

This was my flower 2 weeks later. Further information tells the grower these flowers will bloom for 3 months and I suspect had I had more live I'd be enjoying a purple show until Christmas. These are also native to China, Japan and Taiwan.

One week later, I get a glimpse of the true orchid appearance, see the two lower leaves in comparison to the middle part of the flower, classic.

Can you see the water droplets on the outer part of the flower skin and on the other buds?

Upon closer inspection I found another flower.....

I tried to capture the prettiness of the purple. Here we see a photo of the same flower without the flash.

Another closer look.....just perfect nested between the fan of the leaves.

The upper view.....

Then another 2 weeks later all the flowers popped their heads out. I'm pleased to say that the final fact about this orchid is that they can have between 6 to 30 flowers on one stem. Stunning!
I'm also pleased to say.....I've grown orchids! In the Garden