Party, the Peonies are available

Who would have ever expected that I would ever offer Peonies on the Fluwel website. It had to happen at some point because actually, I had forgotten, I have been in love with the Peony since I was young. When you are young you do something crazy and a couple of those things that I have done in moments of total madness is buying 1 bulb of the Narcissus Jetfire for 200 American dollars and 1 bulb of the Narcissus Tripartite for 125 British pounds. But, yes I had really forgotten, I also once spent an insane amount of money on a Peony; the Red Charm. Red Charm

That was about thirty-three years ago, nice that I can now give you the opportunity to do something crazy by offering you the Peony Seidl's Super... do something crazy 😊 Carl G. Klehm

With great pleasure I have put together the best possible assortment of Peonies for you, really enjoyed it. Seen a lot, been to new companies and new places and especially spoke to a lot of nice people. Are there real plant lovers who are not nice, it really seems to be true that the people who regularly put their fingers in the soil are well-grounded people. But what struck me most was the enthusiasm of gardeners about the Peony as a garden plant. Almost everyone starts with the Peony because of its enchantingly beautiful flower, nothing is as beautiful as a Peony rose, but afterwards there is always a lot of praise about the plant. Its strength and its reliability, indestructible, a plant for life. Garden Treasure (Itoh)

The Peonies are still growing in the field and will be dug up in September, if Mother Nature doesn't go crazy. These are the Peonies that have been in the ground at the grower's for two or three years. These Peony plants are too big to pack and send and are first carefully cut into pieces to a plant with a root system of 3 to 5 eyes. This is what you can expect from our Peonies, a beautiful, freshly dug plant with healthy roots. The Peony is a real perennial and it feels most at home in the ground, so plant it as soon as possible after receiving it. Delivery will take place in the second half of October, depending on the weather, and the intention is to send them at the same time as the Amaryllises. For further planting and cultivation instructions, you can always look at our website under the heading 'flower bulb information'. It is recommended to read through it because a mistake is easily made. Tulip 'Avantgarde'

Lame joke, this is the Peony Flowered Tulip Avant Garde. Just in case you start to think that I have become a Peony farmer through and through, we of course also have plenty of other flower bulbs in our shop. That reminds me that I also have to give the annual harvest forecast. Normally I am reminded of this by fellow bulb growers, but this year no one asks. I understand how it happens, everyone knows that no one knows. What we do know, we know for sure even, is that it is not good. 'The weather was on our side' is a very polite and polite way to describe the biggest cause of the exceptionally variable harvest. But I also heard a Tulip grower say 'it is starting to calcify a bit in Mother Nature's little head, this weather is really completely ridiculous' after another hundred millimeters had fallen. We will see, we will wait and see, the harvest is really disappointing here and there. It could be that we have to send a message later that something is not available. More about this next week, we were talking about the Peony. I have to say that, I thought when I was working on my photos; Those very beautiful double Peonies are not always equally double. We always beautiful but not always double. Especially the first year after planting, when the Peony has not yet reached full maturity, the flower can be more or less single and show an open heart. Also, side flowers that are on the same stem next to the main flower sometimes show flowers that are less well filled. A seasoned gardener knows this, but I can imagine that if you expect a beautiful filled flower and an open flower with a yellow heart appears, you immediately wonder whether everything is correct. In the two photos of Snow Princess below you can see what I mean. The beautiful double and filled flower is from a mature plant, the also beautiful but more single flower with its open heart is from a younger plant or a side flower. Snow Princess

But slowly it's time to stop again, I hope you enjoy taking a tour through our Peonies.

Oh yes, one more thing, almost forgot. This might be the time to, if you choose to do so, top your Dahlias . By pinching out the top of the Dahlia plant, the plant will expand a bit more, resulting in a nicer, fuller plant. A small disadvantage is that it will come into full bloom a few weeks later, but as a reward it will give considerably more flowers. This is how you do it:

After pinching out the top, you will see that two new shoots are growing out of the leaf axils. Instead of 1 stem, you now have two, and two is more than one 😊 . It slows down the flowering a little, but it does result in a fuller plant with more flowers. The best way to do this pinching is to pinch off the shoot above the second or third pair of leaves. There may be readers whose Dahlia is already too big to do this, especially the people who have forced the Dahlias, but in my case they are now at the stage where this is possible.

Kind regards,

Carlos van der Veek Peony please; Paula Fay