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I wish Peonies bloomed all summer long!

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I wish Peonies bloomed all summer long. They are so lovely, so delicate and oh so short lived!

My peonies are long gone … they finished blooming in late June, but I just realized that I never posted a photo of my Peonies.

I only took pictures of my Peony Pecher Peonies this year. My Karl Rosenfield Peonies bloomed, but we were going through a very rainy period when they bloomed and then right after that it finally warmed up here in Toronto at the end of June and the blooms faded fast … too fast for me to capture them while they still looked beautiful!

Anyway … here’s a picture of my lovely Peony Peacher bloom.

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This peony has a beautiful scent. In fact, after a huge rain storm in June, back when we discovered one of trellises had broken and snapped some rose branches, I gathered some lovely scented Baron Prevost roses, one peony and a few hosta leaves for accent and made a bouquet to bring indoors to enjoy. The rose and peony scent filled the house for two or three days! Once the rose scent faded, the peony scent took over for another day or so. Simply lovely to have such scented flowers indoors!

Do you grow Peonies? Do you bring a cut flower or two indoors so you can enjoy their loveliness and beautiful scent? What other flowers do you enjoy bringing indoors?






Deluge of rain – at least we needed it!

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It’s about time that I wrote a Green Thumb Sunday post! I knew it had been a while, but didn’t realize that it’s been about two months since my last GTS post!

Sorry guys! I’ve been so busy lately and sick! It’s been hard to do my regular posts let alone special GTS posts.

Now, as I’ve said in the last few posts this summer is pretty much a write off! It’s been cool and up until a few days ago we didn’t have much rain. Boy did that change! It’s been raining fairly steadily since Wednesday evening.

Saturday and earlier today we heavy heavy rains. Like enough to form puddles in the backyard within minutes! My yard drained ok and my basements dry, but others in Toronto have had flooded basements and several streets turned into ponds! Talk about a deluge!

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The one good thing about all this rain is that I’m sure my plants are loving it … well they will if it stops soon! I also think it’s going to be a little warmer this coming weeks so maybe between the rain, the lightening adding free nitrogen into the air and some much needed warmth we’ll have new blooms in the garden soon.

It’s been so overcast in June and July that the pictures I’ve taken of the garden just don’t look as nice as they normally do. It’s hard to take pictures in the afternoon when the light seems like mid-evening!

Right now the daylilies, phlox and lavender are the stars of the garden.

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What plants are the stars of your garden this week?

Cool and dry in Toronto – a strange gardening season

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I don’t know what’s going on, but this summer is just a non-starter here in Toronto.

We’re several degree’s below the normal average this month and it’s been cloudy and overcast for most of June and July. Plus … even though most days forecast rain, we’ve only had a little bit in our area … well, up until last night and today that is!

You might remember that I started this growing season talking about how we were having a warmer than normal early spring and how my plants were ahead by two to three weeks … yeah, well forget that now! I’d say most of my plants are behind by two weeks now.

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My roses have only flowered once and are slow to develop new buds this month (although a few roses have had some repeat blooms).

The sunflowers … they’re only maybe three feet high and haven’t really developed flower heads yet!

The cosmo’s, cleomes, daisies etc are just beginning to bloom … sporadically.

I have green tomatoes on the plants, but they don’t seem to be growing all that much … and my cherry tomatoes and tiny toms have totally stalled and have yet to produce any tomatoes! I can usually count on my tiny tomatoes before my regular sized ones!

I barely saw any strawberries in June … of course it’s possible that the birds, squirrels and even my dog might have got to them before me! We do have raspberries that are starting to mature now though … so maybe with this rain and hopefully some true summer heat (next week?) the berries and all the flowers will come along.

Actually I’m sure the rain will help – as I said it’s been dry in our area … even though I know it’s rained in other areas of Toronto … still the weather people say we’ve had a lot less rain than we normally do in July as well … so it’s cool and dry.

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How are things in your area? Is your garden a little behind because of cool weather or is your garden delightful?

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