I think I'll be writing about peonies for the next few days. The one in today's picture is one of the Peregrinas, a species. They tend to have flowers on the apricot side of pink, small single blooms. We have a number of variations on this that have come from different parts of the world. Time is short today, so I'll have to leave it with just this little bit, but I promise lots on peonies with tons of pictures tomorrow.
I didn't have a clue when I wrote about free plants yesterday that it would be a 2 part post. Mid morning, Hank brought me down a wheelbarrow full of Pseudacorus Iris (picture above). They had just expanded too much in the Lotus pond where they were growing. I couldn't bear to compost them, but really didn't have any place to plant them just then. Instead I went in and posted to Freecycle to see if I could give them away. I had a wonderful response and hopefully by tomorrow, they will be blooming in 5 new gardens.
This is a lovely tall bearded iris that is blooming now. I have no idea what its name is, or even if it is a named variety. It arrived as a small plant, mixed in with one of the bags of leaves that the city of Athens delivers to us to use a mulch and for making compost. We regularly find cast offs from the town folks in the fall - ferns and chrysanthemums are the most common, but also any manner of plants they don't want to keep over the winter. We rescue them and give them a good home if we can. I've gotten some really lovely things that way. I have 2 clumps of Dianthus, a lovely pink and white, that have been here for at least 4 years now, increasing in size every years, that someone had thrown away. One of our favorite light pink chrysanthemums was originally a cast off. I pot up a piece of it every fall to keep in the greenhouse and then make lots of cuttings from it in the spring to plant out. We also, on occasion, get a whole bag full of someone's tomato plants, complete with not quite ripe tomatoes, that they have ripped out and thrown away. These fruits have ripened quite nicely in my kitchen to provide quite a few meals. In my bathroom window are 2 pots of philodendron, one with large leaves, one with small, that also arrived via the trash. I know this is not the usual way to add to ones collection, but it's always like Christmas or my birthday when I start emptying the bags in the fall, never knowing what sort of surprises will appear.
Hope you enjoyed the poppies and will enjoy picnics later today. We're supposed to have rain, but I'll take rain for the garden any day over a picnic. 
This is a plant that doesn't seem to have gotten around to gardens as much as it should, given how pretty it is. Podophyllum 'Kaleidoscope' is an oriental version of our common Mayapple. It is a terribly slow increaser and a bit picky about location. Deep shade in woodsy soil seems to suit it. We have plants from several sources and the variegation is slightly different on each of them. I think it is still a bit pricey, probably because of the slowness to increase, but if you can find one and keep it happy, it makes a good show. It is smaller than the our native Mayapple also in both height and leaf size. It makes one small flower under the leaf at the top of the stem which forms a round fruit. Our large clump is a bit farther back in the border than it should be, designwise, but it's happy so I'm not going to move it.
Something that grows in my garden but that I didn't plant. Despite that, it has been one of my favorite plants since I first saw them growing in the woods when I was a little girl. The common name is Indian Pipes, or the decidedly less lovely Ghost Plant, and they appear June to September. I expect this to be a good year for them since it has been damp. It is a perennial, not a fungus like you might think from its appearance, but it has no chloryphyll and instead is parasitic, getting its nourishment from the trees upon whose roots it attaches itself. It is virtually impossible to transplant into ones garden because of its parasitic nature. Sometimes is has a pinkish color, but usually is all white. They are small, only about 4 - 10 inches tall, but they are rarely overlooked since nothing else in the woods looks quite like them.
Something different this morning. I always knew this plant as a house plant, piggy-back plant we called it. I had no idea that there was an outdoor version (maybe it's the same plant, not sure about that), that would be hardy here. I have also taken babies of this one inside where they did quite well. It is a small, mounded perennial. Not sure about bloom since I don't remember it blooming, but is makes new plants but growing a new leaf right at the base of, and on top of an existing leaf. You can see a baby just left of center near the top. This one is a gold/variegated version, but the all green one does the same thing. The new leaf will start to grow roots after a time and you can either separate it from the parent, or if it's an outside leaf, pin it down to the soil until it is established and then separate it. The leaves are about the size of a Tiarella, so it's not a big thing. It stays evergreen here in zone 6 on a mild winter, but lately we've had pretty cold temperatures and it has disappeared, to return in the spring. I've not seen it in catalogs recently, but I'm sure someone is still selling it. Plants are very 'faddish' sorts of things, with some being popular and then dropping off while new things take their places. Nothing to do with their being worth garden plants, just fashion as much as short skirts or the newest colors. That's the advantage of having such a large garden; I don't have to get rid of the old to make room for the new. I always have plenty of room.
As promised, typing between rain showers, here are my Persicarias. The one above is 'Red Dragon and is a lovely thing, happiest in shade and a woodsy setting. The one below is (or was) 'White Dragon' and not, apparently, happy here at all. There may still be a little piece left, but I'm not sure about it. It was never very happy here.
The flower on both is the same, these tiny white ones. Flowering is in the fall.
I'll probably have time to post tomorrow morning. This morning was an early run to the post office to send boxes of plants and I didn't get back to the computer until now.
In case you didn't notice, I tend to like variegated plants. These two photos are of Tovara virginiana, the top one is 'Painter's Palette' and the bottom one is just called 'Variegata'. I think there are too many variegatas, which makes guessing at the name easy, but as one who likes unique and creative names, I find it not all that satisfactory. Both of these prefer dappled shade or maybe morning sun. They are not picky about much else; just give them good garden soil and enough moisture and they will grow in your garden. They don't seem happy in full sun. I do have some that grow there, but not because I planted them, these self sow and give you small colonies where the original plant was and occasional surprises in other places in the garden. They don't do this to the point of being invasive, but expect more of both of these if you have one in the garden.
This next one is Yucca filamentosa 'Golden Sword'. It is the reverse coloring of the last one, yellow with a green edge.
This one, Yucca linearifolia, is one that seems to like growing in a desert-like spot and is at the edge of the large cactus bed. As its name implies, it has quite linear - and skinny linear - leaves.
Hopefully I'm back on schedule now with no major distractions to keep me from writing.
As promised, more on Veronica. The one above is called 'Sunshine' and has yellow leaves, at least when it is in enough sun. It has not done quite as well here as the 'Georgia Blue' that I posted about yesterday which is extremely dependable. Not enough sun and this one not only loses its yellow color and fades to green, it might just fade away all together. It also seems to be more prone to damage by slugs.
Veronica's come in so many shapes and sizes and I was always told that they were difficult to grow. This one proves all of that wrong. It is a ground cover that thrives in full sun and doesn't even seem to mind drought too much, though I expect that even this one has its limits. It has dark green leaves and flowers of that shade of blue that seems to be electrified. The flowers are not even a quarter of an inch across, but what they lack in size they make up for in sheer numbers, totally covering the plant. It has its biggest bloom in the late spring, but will bloom sporadically during the whole growing season. It makes a low mat without ever bothering its neighbors. I'll do a more comprehensive post on the Veronicas tomorrow.
Just the time of the year when I have sooooo much to write about in the garden I have soooo little time to write. Yesterday was a very early trip to town for provisions and then home to try and get something done before the rains came. And they did come. We are pretty well caught up on rain, at least for the last few weeks, but we got another 1.75 inches yesterday between about 2 and 6. A bit more than we really needed. I took advantage of the time to get all of the paperwork done for the orders which I should have started shipping last week, but didn't because all of the daylily beds were too wet to dig into yet. Hopefully I'll be able to finally start to ship next week.
A quick post this morning. Sylvia had the most answers correct on the quiz. Thanks to all who joined in, including those who were shy about posting their answers on the blog and emailed them to me off-list. I think I made this a bit too hard, but it started out as pictures of things that looked not quite like themselves as they emerged in the spring, and just evolved into a guessing game. Hope you all enjoyed trying to figure them out.
The second one we grow is Convallaria majilis 'Albo Striata', this despite the fact that it has yellow/gold stripes and not white. It spreads a little less enthusiastically, but it does spread. You will find a few unvariegated leaves and you just remove them.
Flowers on both are white with that unmistakable Lily of the Valley scent. My favorite perfume back in high school, when I still wore such stuff, as Muguet des Bois, French for lily of the valley. I still like the scent. Enought nostalgia for one morning.
It comes up and blooms about when the other weedy ones do, but it is pure white. I've tried collecting seeds and starting them, but with no luck. Fortunately, it self seeds a bit around the garden. We started with one near the house, gotten from friends, and there are now probably about a dozen plants of it in that vicinity. The curious thing is that one appeared at the back of the garden, quite a distance away. That has formed an even bigger colony. I've never tried to dig one up to share, but with so many now, maybe I'll do that. I know how hard it is to dig the weedy ones out, so I just haven't done it. Most would be impossible to dig since they seem to like to seed themselves into very rocky places. Not sure if you can see it, but this one is growing out from under a rock.
We're expecting some amount of rain every day for the next week. I guess I'm just going to have to be wet since there is so much to do and every day of rain just makes the weeds grow more.
No answers on the quiz yet???? If you don't want to post your guesses for all of the world to see, you can send them to me at jane(at)hootowlhollow(dot)com I'm the only one who has access to that account. Remember, the most right wins even if that's only one right answer.
Jane
