It's that time of year when my herbaceous peony garden is blooming!
I’m always amazed by the dazzling display of these beautiful flowers - it’s one of the most anticipated sights at my Bedford, New York farm. Friends and family love the peonies as much as I do and rush to see them in all their splendor. When I first planted this garden, I knew I wanted many, many peonies in one large area. I chose a location across from my Winter House, where there's lots of room and full sun - a spot where I could also see the floral show from my window.
Enjoy these photos.
Hard to believe this is the peony garden in early April. The tips of the plants are just poking through the soil
In early May, my herbaceous peony bed is filled with knee-high stems and dense green foliage. Everyone is always so excited to see this peony garden explode with color. Before the flowers appear, my outdoor grounds crew puts up stakes, so the peonies are well-supported as they grow. We use natural twine and metal uprights I designed myself for this purpose.
My design includes strong steel stakes with two eye holes – one at the top and one midway. This allows for two levels of supportive twine.
Not long after, one can see all the buds atop the stems. When I first planted my peony garden, I focused on pink varieties, and planted 11-double rows of 22-peony types. I chose the varieties for their colors, their forms and their long blooming periods.
By the third week of May, the blooms appear. One of the reasons these peonies thrive here at my farm is because of the soil. It has a pH of 6.5 to 7.0, which is ideal. It is also amended with superphosphate and Azomite, a natural product mined from an ancient mineral deposit in Utah. These natural additives improve root systems and overall plant vigor, resulting in this fantastic profusion of blooms.
Look at the transformation – rows and rows of gorgeous blooms. The view inside this boxwood hedged garden is breathtaking.
The peony is any plant in the genus Paeonia, the only genus in the family Paeoniaceae. They are native to Asia, Europe, and Western North America.
The leaves of the herbaceous peony are pointed with a shiny, deep green color.
Peonies are one of the best-known and most dearly loved perennials – not surprising considering their beauty, trouble-free nature, and longevity.
Herbaceous peonies grow two to four feet tall with sturdy stems and blooms that can reach up to 10-inches wide. We spaced the plants about three to four feet apart to avoid any competing roots.
Peony blooms range from simple blossoms to complex clusters with a variety of petal forms.
The peony’s fragrance can vary, but most have sweet, clean scents. And, do you know… pink peonies tend to have stronger fragrances than red peonies? Double form white peonies are also very aromatic.
Semi-double peonies are those which have single or double rows of broad petals encircling more broad petals and an exposed center crown.
Flower colors come in white, pink, yellow, red, and coral and the various shades and tints of each.
The majority of peonies are hybrids and classified as herbaceous, or as deciduous tree peonies. The peony is showy, frilly with tuberous root systems.
Peonies are considered northern flowers – they tolerate and even prefer cold winter temperatures. They are hardy in zones 3 through 8 and need more than 400-hours of temperatures below 40-degrees Fahrenheit annually to break dormancy and bloom properly.
For the most part, peonies are disease resistant. They do, however, take some time to get established, so be patient. And if you happen to see ants crawling on your peonies, don’t worry. The insects are attracted to the sugary syrup produced by the buds. Once the flower opens fully, and the sucrose has been finished, the ants disappear.
Among the varieties in my collection – ‘Elsa Sass’, ‘Victorian Blush’, ‘Fringed Ivory’, ‘Martha’, ‘Madylone’, ‘Lullaby Coos’, ‘Vivid Glow’, ‘Angel Cheeks’, ‘Miss America’ and ‘Flying Pink Saucers’.
This is ‘Star Power’. It has pure white, large blossoms with bold round guard petals and red tipped stigmas. When using peonies for display, cut those whose buds are beginning to show color and feel similar to firm marshmallows. Always cut the stems at an angle and change the water daily.
This flower form is more rounded with a large number of petals rising in the center to form a distinct mound.
The only disadvantage of peonies is that each field yields one crop of cut flowers for a couple of weeks only once a year, and then that’s it – until the next season when they bloom with splendor once again.
My garden maze now includes arborvitae, western red cedar, false cypress, cherry laurel, and more interesting varieties of yew, holly, and boxwood.
As many of you know, I am in the process of planting a living maze in a lush pasture just outside my Winter House. More than two-thirds of the three-acre area is completed and growing nicely. As each puzzling path bed is cleared of sod, the spaces are measured and marked, the plants are carefully counted and placed, and then planted, watered and top dressed with nutrient-rich mulch.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
I knew these specimens would make excellent additions to my maze. I designed the maze with a variety of interesting trees, hedges, espaliers, and shrubs that would all grow tall enough to prevent walkers from seeing the paths ahead.
Many of our new plantings are from Monrovia, a wholesale plant nursery specializing in well-nurtured shrubs, perennials, annuals, ferns, grasses, and conifers with several nursery locations across the country. Tiny Tower® Green Giant Arborvitae is noted for its upright, compact habit with lively green foliage that is soft to the touch.
Here is a closer look at its rich green evergreen sprays which remain green through winter.
We’re also planting Hick’s Yews. Yews are known for being slow-growing, but in the right conditions, yew hedge trees can grow about a foot per year. These yews are spaced closely, so they become a closed hedge in time.
The long, upright-growing branches of Hick’s yew have dense, glossy, green foliage that naturally forms a narrow habit.
This is Tight Squeeze Western red cedar. This evergreen has a great, compact growth habit that develops into a uniform, narrowly conical tree with shiny foliage.
Paul’s Gold threadleaf false cypress, Chamaecyparis pisifera, has year-round golden green foliage and is a great contrast to the darker green specimens.
The soft sprays of Paul’s Gold threadleaf false cypress emerges yellow in the spring and retains its gold color throughout the winter.
Green Tower boxwood is a nice evergreen hedge for tight spaces because of its upright and narrow growth habit.
It features lustrous dark green leaves with lighter green undersides.
Gold Coast English holly is a small evergreen shrub that holds many branches of dense, small, toothy, dark green leaves edged in bright golden yellow.
Red Beauty holly has
bright red berries combined with glossy, dark green foliage. Many varieties of holly, Ilex, have compact habits and glistening leaves that’s excellent for hedges, borders, and yes, mazes.
Volcano cherry laurel is a versatile evergreen shrub with a rounded, compact form and attractive, dense, leathery, glossy foliage.
Here’s Ryan placing nicely sized dense spreading yews which are low maintenance and do excellently in well draining soil.
For each section of plantings, the first step is to remove the sod from the designated area. The sod is used in another section of the farm, so nothing is wasted.
Each hole is dug precisely with enough room for the plant’s root ball. The rule of thumb when planting is to dig the hole two times as wide as the rootball and no deeper than the bottom of the rootball, similar to how it is in its pot.
Each potted specimen is placed into the hole to ensure the hole is the right size and depth. When planting, always check that the plant is positioned with the best side facing out, or in this case, facing the path.
The plant is taken out of its pot and the rootball is scarified. Scarifying stimulates root growth. Essentially, small portions of the root ball are cut to loosen the roots and stimulate growth.
The specimen is then placed into the hole and backfilled with soil. It’s that easy to plant! Next, all the surrounding soil is raked, so the bed looks neat, tidy, and finished.
My overall plan is to plant as many interesting trees, hedges, espaliers, and shrubs as possible in this space and to create a fun and challenging living maze. Follow along and see it develop with me!
Today in the Northeast, we’re expecting scattered thunderstorms and partly cloudy skies, but so much continues to flourish here at my Bedford, New York farm.
The scenery changes rapidly from day to day, week to week, especially this time of year with all the glorious late spring blooms. If you follow my Instagram page @MarthaStewart48, you’ve seen some of the recent photos I’ve shared - the lush trees, the colorful blooms, and all the fresh green foliage at every turn. The gardens are magical.
Enjoy these photos.
When I first moved to my farm, it was a blank slate. Over the years, I’ve planted thousands of trees, shrubs, and plants. Here are Japanese maples planted in a garden near my tall and majestic bald cypress trees. Everything is so lush this time of year.
Behind my long carport not far from my Winter House are the blooming “Miss Kim” Korean lilac standards. The upright, compact lilac blooms later than others extending the season with pink and lavender flower clusters.
The little flowers are not only beautiful but amazingly fragrant!
Near my Basket House, I decided to plant heuchera. Heuchera is a genus of evergreen perennial plants in the family Saxifragaceae, all native to North America. Common names include alumroot and coral bells. This is a ‘Northern Exposure Silver’ Heuchera. The burgundy foliage becomes heavily frosted with silver, forming a dense mound.
This is ‘Northern Exposure™ Sienna.’ It is long lived, hardy, and rust resistant and adds a pop of bright color to the shade garden. New leaves emerge green, then transform in summer to burnt-orange with yellow edges. And see the bright pink flowers and stems above the compact foliage.
I also have lots of Cotinus. Cotinus, the smoketree, or smoke bush, is a genus of two species of flowering plants in the family Anacardiaceae, closely related to the sumacs. Their smooth, rounded leaves come in exceptional shades of deep purple, clear pinkish-bronze, yellow, and green.
The hostas are so profuse with their varying leaf shape, size, and textures. Hostas have easy care requirements which make them ideal for many areas. I have them all around the farm.
This is Syneilesis – a tough, drought-tolerant, easy-to-grow woodland garden perennial that prefers moist, well-drained, slightly acid soils. If in the proper environment, syneilesis will slowly spread to form an attractive colony.
This is Pulmonaria, or lungwort – a beautiful, versatile, hardy plant. Lungworts are evergreen or herbaceous perennials that form clumps in the garden. The spotted oval leaves were thought to symbolize diseased, ulcerated lungs, and so were once used to treat pulmonary infections. The flowers are on short stalks that appear just above the foliage and have gently nodding heads.
Epimediums are long-lived and easy to grow. Epimedium, also known as barrenwort, bishop’s hat, and horny goat weed, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Berberidaceae.
This is blooming lady’s mantle, Alchemilla mollis. It’s a clumping perennial which typically forms a mound of scallop-edged, toothed, light green leaves. In late spring and early summer, the plant produces chartreuse blooms.
Known botanically as Podophyllum peltatum, this plant goes by various common names. “Mayapple” is used most often, but among its other nicknames are “duck’s foot” and “American mandrake. Mayapple is a native woodland plant that is widespread across most of eastern North America. This herbaceous perennial of mostly unbranched 12 to 18 inch tall stems are topped with umbrella-like leaves.
And this is Solomon’s Seal – a hardy perennial native to the eastern United States and southern Canada. These plants produce dangling white flowers, which turn to dark-blue berries later in the summer.
Japanese painted ferns are beautiful mounds of dramatic foliage with luminescent blue-green fronds and dark central ribs that fade to silver at the edges.
In contrast are the ostrich ferns – a light green clump-forming, upright to arching, rhizomatous, deciduous fern which typically grows up to six feet tall.
And popping up above its own green foliage are the columbine flowers. The columbine plant, Aquilegia, is an easy-to-grow perennial that offers seasonal interest throughout the year. Its flowers come in a variety of colors, which emerge from dark green foliage that turns maroon in fall. The bell-shaped flowers are also a favorite to hummingbirds.
Above my azaleas not far from my stable are several paulownia trees, which are broadleaf and deciduous. The flowers are pale violet and grow in 20 to 30 centimeter long panicles. The scent is a lovely vanilla fragrance.
I’ve planted several American horse-chestnut trees around the farm. These two are at one end of my Boxwood Allée. Aesculus hippocastnum is a large deciduous tree commonly known as the horse-chestnut or conker tree. It’s easy to spot by its showy bright pink flowers.
Here is another American horse chestnut in glorious bloom. These trees have dark green, coarse-textured foliage that bring out the bright salmon pink flowers.
There are very few plants that can compete with a tree peony in full bloom. They flower from late April to early May but the season often varies from year to year. These are in my Summer House Garden.
This is one of the many tree peony flowers. Tree peonies do not die back to the ground in autumn. Like a rose bush, tree peonies drop their leaves and their woody stems stand through the winter.
Iris is a genus of 260 to 300 species of flowering plants with showy flowers. It takes its name from the Greek word for a rainbow, which is also the name for the Greek goddess of the rainbow, Iris.
And here is one of many, many lupines that I grow. Lupinus, commonly known as lupin or lupine, is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae. The genus includes more than 200 species. It’s always great to see the tall spikes of lupines blooming. Lupines come in lovely shades of purple, pink, white, yellow, and even red. All my gardens are bursting with color and verve. They all look so great this year.
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