Hey friends today on Gardening with Creekside we are going to be planting four beautiful
peonies yes that is correct it is the what beginningish of February here in North Carolina
and growing zone 7B and I am already anticipating a beautiful spring and I want to add some
more peonies to my garden I'm sitting here in the backyard I have I believe it is nine
different peonies that I planted in this large backyard bed last spring by the time I got
them in the ground it was late in the season and those were some bare root peonies that
I had started that I had gotten from ordered online from my van England and so they did
not flower right this time though I am adding to the collection on the kind of directly
across from that flower bed up against the house near my naked tea olive tree that kind
of gives you an idea of where we are remember this poor tea Olive is a suffering from the
Arctic blast is defoliating a lot but has new growth where we are going to plant these
four peonies is right here at around the base of it this does get lots of sun it does not
on irrigation but it is a nice damp area moist I would say not damp we have a a drain that
comes out behind the tea Olive from our dehumidifier from underneath the house and so this gets
lots of good kind of consistent moisture and I have a hose right there so if I need to
shoot them with some water I can do that so we're going to have some fun planting these
four in here I do have some nicotina plants that I am going to pull out you can't even
see them they're just sticks right now because last year they clearly love this spot and
technically they are supposed to be an annual here but this is such a warm and toasty spot
that they keep coming back last year though they were huge and in fact because they fell
over and I believe they killed some of my Daisy May Shasta daisies because they just
were smothering it couldn't get any light and I didn't realize what was happening until
it was too late and then my grasses were interfered so the nicotina is coming out and the peonies
are going in so excited let me share with you the four different varieties that we're
going to be putting in here I have my faithful Johnny with me with all of my with all of
my supplies we're going to do one Ito peony this is Ito Julia Rose and itos are really
fun they were developed by a Japanese plant breeder his last name was Ito and it is a
cross between a herbaceous peony and a tree peony so you can see that it has really already
that kind of upright really strong Habit to it waking up quite nicely beautiful like apricot
colors turns to some yellow so it will really change about three feet tall we are also going
to use the peony and I made butcher this name The Duchess duh Duchess demore is a classic
one as well beautiful pure white flowers on that then we also have the peony this is the
Festiva Maxima and Festiva Maxima is again a very classic beautiful double white peony
and is really good for us as Southern Growers massive huge double blooms with a little splash
of raspberry coloring in there so we're using that one and then the last one that we are
using is the Carl Rosenfeld which is a beautiful big huge double red so I've got two whites
and then I've got two in that pinky apricot red color cannot wait I am so ready for spring
it's really interesting um so you know how I always tell you that I'm like you know I
helped the nursery out you know plants that don't sell I just take it upon myself because
they're feeling neglected and and they want to have a good home so we actually had these
peonies for sale we had tons of peonies in the spring last year had some that just didn't
sell because the time ran out whatever and people kind of moved on from peonies so I
am going to you know sacrifice some good Garden space here that I have and and give these
four little orphans a home so just know that I am doing my part to help you know make sure
that plants get a nice home and I will put it in my garden and I'll just sacrifice with
all the gorgeous blooms and all the fragrance and all the beautiful flowers that I can cut
and bring in my house so clearly I'm joking um first things first we got to dig up the
nicotine plants hopefully they'll just pop right out of the ground we will see get those
out and I'm going to show you how I'm gonna plant these peonies [Music]
[Music] foreign
[Music] plants came out super easy so I was very grateful for that I've had these um my
first round were the bigger ones on the end and they had been here for two years and then
I had planted some smaller ones last year the end of the season so those really just
popped out so nicotine plants are gone goodbye now we're saying hello to the peonies now
I went ahead I wasn't really sure how I wanted to place these they ended up obviously in
kind of a little bit of a curve in front of this tea olive tree tea Olive Sweet Olive
sweet ice mantis it is all the same plant it is simply kind of what region you live
in as to what they call it fantastic should be an evergreen tree shrub that does a beautiful
fragrance in the fall winter and early spring so just imagine it being full of leaves it
was before the Arctic blast right there at Christmas and nice really glossy green leaves
kind of like a holly but without any it was not prickly the peonies coming around and
in an arc and basically so Julia is on the far end because it'll be the I think it's
gonna be the tallest beautiful reddish apricot kind of colors then we have I think the duchess
is the white is next then we have Carl which is a red and then we have Felix in the back
off to the side which is that double white and because I think the Felix and Julia will
be the tallest ones I still have room down here in the front in between if I wanted to
come back and add like later on this spring or even you know whenever right I could add
in some low growing perennials around here or annuals but I was thinking perennials this
bed tends to be a perennial bed for me and it would be beautiful against that you know
foliage of the peonies so what I am going to do is I have my handy dandy power plant
or auger so I'm going to grab my auger and we're going to do the holes when you're planting
your peonies of course you need them in as much sun as you possibly can they are they
enjoy a nice dose of starter fertilizer so of course I will be using my biotone starter
fertilizer and just a little bit of compost in the hole mixed in with the original soil
you're going to do that and then I'm going to come back and top dress with the land and
Seed compost on that as well so I'm going to scoop back the mulch get them planted since
they are in containers and their little eyes are already popping up like I can see that
new growth I want that because I have clay soil I want that soil that's in the containers
to be just slightly above great I do not want to sink it because I do not want water to
go in and pool and sit around the crown of the peony it will rot it so I will plant them
just a little bit High I will show you how I do that again top dress with some Landing
seed around it and then pull the mulch back and that is it so a really simple easy job
to do today I am not watering because my Heavens if you are in the South you know that we are
like have had tons and tons and tons of rain and this is the first like sunny day we've
had so the ground is adequately moist I do not have to worry about adding moisture to
this flower bed whatsoever at this time if I was planting these in more of the heat of
the summer obviously you water them I'm not going to do that so without further yapping
we are going to get these holes dug and get these plants in the ground [Music] [Applause]
[Music] thank you foreign
[Music] okay my friends so we got the four peonies planted they are all nice and snug
in their new home cannot wait for late spring early uh early summer and they will be absolutely
gorgeous pretty basic y'all dig your hole throw in a little bit of compost mix it with
your native soil use your great starter fertilizer like that biotone put your plant in it was
a little bit above the grade of the soil top dress with your compost and then bring your
mulch back now you'll notice that I did go ahead and install the peony cages on them
depending on where you are and how your peonies do a lot of times there's a complaint about
peonies as in when they're in full bloom that they tend to be too floppy because they have
these massive Blooms of course and then you get winter rain and they flop over that's
why we have these little peony like grow cages I went ahead and put them in simply for me
like to tell people hello there's a plant here please don't step on me please don't
dig anything up and so that's more why I have them here then obviously I don't I don't need
plant support right now and then because as my husband says I have the memory of a gnat
sometimes I went ahead and labeled each one with that gorgeous little copper plant tag
I got both of these um the plant tags and the plant supports from Kinsmen Garden company
one of my favorite all-time like garden supplies supports all sorts of things Garden Kinsmen
has it I know Gardeners Supply also has the um the grow cages so just depends on where
you like to shop those are very common and so like I said wanted to get that support
in just so that because this is new plants they're already starting to show their little
eyes are popping up and I just want people to know that there are plants there me to
remember there are plants there don't go walking through here don't go doing something silly
in there there are gorgeous plants that are give us beautiful beautiful flowers so of
course I'll keep you updated as the season progresses but it feels good to be back out
in the garden it's a beautiful day like you know what was it this weekend it was a freezing
cold I mean it was cold and then this week is going to be 70. I mean that's just North
Carolina for you it can literally be 20 one day and then two days later it at 70 75 so
this is what makes living in North Carolina fun but I am loving this blue sky feels good
to be in the garden as always hope you found this fun interesting look for peonies at your
local Garden Center in the springtime they will be there and as always we appreciate
you have a great day see you in the next video bye friends