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The First Peony - 'Shima-Nishiki'

The Tree Peony 'Shima-Nishiki' is the first to bloom. The name means "fire flame" in Japanese, an apt title to describe the red blooms striped with white. Occasionally, there are solid red blooms. Every year this peony gets better and seemingly overnight, the puny-looking bare branches are suddenly fleshed out with a tremendous profusion of leaves. The bush is dense, forming a 4 ft. mound. Our plant resides at the top of one of the terrace beds in back where it gets some morning sun and dappled sun (mostly shade) for the remainder of the day.  We have many peonies in the garden and they all came from Adelman Peony Gardens in Salem, Oregon. It is worth a drive just to see their beautiful display garden in May. Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy

Stewartia Fall Color

 


Fall color on Japanese Stewartia (Stewartia pseudocamellia). This tree was planted four years ago.

Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy

Comments

  1. Lovely fall color, even better with the pergola's structure and green foliage not yet turning as a backdrop. I read small and slow-growing--perfect for specimen. "Intolerant of drought" so not for CA.

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  2. Just gorgeous! Fall colors are just about my favorite thing on earth. I miss them already!

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