Plants You Can't Do Without - Part 3

My trees will arrive on Tuesday. In the meantime Let's get back to those wonderful plants you just can't do without. For me, one must have peonies! They are the ideal herbaceous plant, beautiful and fragrant while blooming, forming a lovely low green hedge when the flowers are done, and then when you need a place to scoop the snow, they die back until next year. Add the fact that these plants will live over 100 years, and you get the idea why you must have some.
When I was growing up in western Nebraska, we had a row of peonies along our back yard fence. Peonies were the preferred flower for "Decoration Day" (or Memorial Day for the rest of the country). My family would go to the cemetery at Trenton and "decorate" the graves of the Campbell forebears. My great-grandfather was a Civil War veteran, and so we remembered and honored him. It was always a race with the peonies, however. Would they open in time? We would go out on May 29 and look at the ants crawling over the still unopened buds and encourage them along. If a little warm weather came along, we were golden. Usually though, my mother would go to Skinny Anton's grocery store the night of May 30 and buy peonies that had been shipped in from warmer climates (eastern Nebraska, I expect.)  Here in New Hampshire the peonies don't bloom until mid June. 
All peonies are beautiful, but my favorites are the Japanese peonies. These aren't the old fashioned bombs that you have to stake for fear of them falling down at the first hint of a shower. They have a single row of petals with the fringey pom-pom in the center (I'm sure it has a name). The best can grow 6-8" wide.
For the last 15 years I have been welcomed at the beginning of summer by the wonderful deep pink blooms of Paeonia "Bowl of Beauty". Three plants grow in the little peninsula next to the street at my house, and cheer all who drive or walk by. They must present over a dozen flowers apiece. Their pink, tipped with gold, frilly centers seem to glow on a cloudy day. If the weather stays a little cool, they last and last. Although they make beautiful cut flowers, the fragrance can be so overwhelming, you may want to move out of the house if you bring them in for an extended time.

These wonderful perennials should be planted in the fall. Make sure you find the right place because they don't much like being moved. Plant with sufficient compost and be patient. Peonies take two or three years to really get going. The roots have little red "eyes" that you don't want to plant too deep, or you will never see any flowers. Just read the instructions and you will be fine. I have also noticed that peonies don't like to be smothered in mulch, so just take it easy and you will have a display fit for an emperor.