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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

The Wet, Wet Garden


After worrying about the rain deficit (we were below normal for April), Mother Nature generously rewarded us with an abundance of rain this past week. I am not going to complain although I do wish it would skip my off-days.

Today (Saturday) is an especially wet day. I ventured out briefly and took a few shots. The plants grow so fast from the rain.









Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy

Comments

  1. Wow, it is so lush and colorful. Stunning!

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  2. Glad you got much-needed rain, but I do hate when it hits on Saturday! That’s work day, for sure.

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  3. I'm envious, Phillip! Your garden looks lush. Our rainy season is effectively over, although there's a slight chance of rain tonight but the forecast is 0.01/inch :(

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  4. Oh so lovely. Still waiting and hoping on a few things here. Yours look grand. Cheers, Phillip.

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  5. Your garden looks so lush for all that rain Philip. I understand the disappointment of not being able to get outside comfortably to do work in the garden.

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  6. Wow, Phillip! Your garden is beautiful, I agree with all the others calling it lush. Magic rain and all your work. I love the pic with the grass path, how gorgeous.

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