Gardening Backwards

Most gardening advisors will tell you to design your hardscape and then your plantings. I usual do this by putting in paths, building structures or walls and then plant around them. My latest garden is developing in the opposite manner. I have placed a few plants to see how they will grow and will then build the garden structure around them.

Growing up, peonies were often associated with Decoration or Memorial Day. While we didn’t do it every year, I recall my mother cutting a peony from the garden that we would place on her parents’ graves. I never met my grandparents and my mother rarely had much to say about them and what she did impart did not make them seem particularly likable.

Until a few years ago, I did not know there were different types of peonies. Many people decry the influence of the internet. For me it is an endless source of knowledge. A Facebook group I belong to for the Hudson Valley featured photos of beautiful peonies growing in the Rockefeller State Park Preserve. I was mesmerized. An introduction to a serious gardener, Kai in Newburgh, further peaked my interest. Last summer I ordered my first tree peonies.

There are three types of peonies. Herbaceous peonies, the kind grown most widely in home gardens. These peonies die back to the ground each year. They grow into a small bush with a profusion of large, many petalled flowers. Itoh peonies are a cross between a tree peony and the herbaceous peony. They die back to the ground each year, but their leaves and growth have similarities with a tree peony. A tree peony is distinctive in that it does not die back to the ground. The plant has woody stems that can grow tall, five feet in some instances. Tree peonies like sun, and well-drained soil. Some afternoon shade can be beneficial.

Andrew and I were recently fortunate to tour the New York Botanical Gardens tree peony collection.

The large flowers, some a foot across are exuberant.

Last year, I had 6 Norway maple trees cut down on a sloping part of the yard. Norway maples are invasive in New York. They pop up everywhere and crowd out more desirable trees. The 6 I had cut down had been allowed to overshadow a large Japanese Umbrella Pine. It was a tragedy this had been allowed to happen over so many years. These pine trees grow at an extremely slow rate. It was a mature specimen, but it had lost the ability to grow where it was shaded by the maples. I hope to save the pine now that the maples are gone. For those of you who think we have no regard for trees, demonstrated by cutting them down, we carefully plan each tree removal. We have cut down very few trees. I recently did an inventory of trees we have planted and reached a count of 250.

The removal of the trees left a sunny spot near the base of the umbrella pine. Late last summer, I determined this would be where I started a peony garden. I bought three bareroot peonies. The plants arrived in November, when it seemed almost too late to plant. I put them in the ground and hoped for the best. Two of them came up this spring. The third tried hard to bud, but ultimately did not leaf out. I am happy to share, one of the tree peonies has bloomed!

Shunjitsu Getsu Nishiki tree peony.

I also planted 4 Itoh peonies nearby. Two of the Itoh peonies have leaves, the others did not come up. Ultimately, I hope to establish a peony garden with tree and Itoh peonies on either side of a path. Taking stones from around the yard, I am slowly building a path, but this is not the final configuration. It will take time for me to place the plants and then design a path and steps around them.

It does not look like much yet, but hopefully one day it will be a lovely garden.

This photo shows the area just below the tree peonies. I have planted 4 iris rhizomes. Last year, I joined the Historic Iris Preservation Society. This is a group of people, from around the world, who come together to propagate and encourage the growing of old iris varieties. The organization has championed the preservation of more than 2,000 historic iris varieties. Last year, I bought 9 rhizomes. None are blooming, but they all survived winter.

One day, I will make a distinct path up the hill to the peony garden. Today, here are some things growing that are growing next to the proposed path.

This is a special rhododendron growing by the start of the path. Deer ate most of the buds, but they left one, which as you can see, is a beautiful color, with wonderful markings on the petals.

The garden has been a true delight, with thousands of daffodils early in spring and more flowers bursting into bloom every week. The next big show will be lupines and allium. To grow a garden is to grow a kaleidoscope of color and wonder. Happy Spring.