Book Giveaway: Peony: The Best Varieties for your Garden

Sometimes a fondness for a particular flower can be the inspiration that creates a gardener, but more often than not, you're thrilled just to get anything to grow at all when you are a novice. 

With knowledge and experience, a preference for certain flowers develops over time. Before long there are a few plants you love so much that you start collecting them.

Peony: The Best Varieties for your Garden could well make a great guide for the novice gardener, but I think this book is even better suited to the slightly more experienced gardener who wants to collect peonies. 

The book's contents in a nutshell: 

• Introduction 

• How to use this Book

• History and Origins 

• Kinds of Peonies

• The Joy of Gardening

• Planting and Care

• Cut Flowers

• Bush Peonies

• Intersectional Peonies

• Tree Peonies

• Resources

• Further Reading 

• Photo Credits

• Index

For those who want to learn more about peonies, this book offers a comprehensive reference to different flower forms, types of peonies and how to grow them. There is also a helpful section on companion planting. 

The plant collector will love thumbing through the glossary of glorious peonies. Temptation can be found on every page in the form of beautiful photographs. 

Peonies at the Royal Botanical Garden in Hamilton.

Peonies in a private garden.

A mix of white and pink peonies at the Royal Botanical Garden in Hamilton. 


Very frilly pink peony at the Royal Botanical Garden in Hamilton.

Red Peony at the  Royal Botanical Garden in Hamilton.

Thomas Allen & Sons has kindly given me a copy of Peony: The Best Varieties for your Garden to give away. Because this book will go to a winner through the mail, I will have to limit entry to readers in Canada and the USA. 

Please leave a comment below if you would like to be included in the book draw. The draw will remain open until Wednesday, July 31st. If you are not a blogger, you can enter by leaving a comment on the Three Dogs in a Garden Facebook page (there is an additional link to the Facebook page at the bottom of the blog). As always, you are also welcome to enter by sending me an email (jenc_art@hotmail.com).

The Garden that wasn't on the Tour

This is the garden that wasn't on the horticultural society's tour. It was across the street from one of the gardens on the tour.

The neat courtyard-style front garden caught my eye first, and like a moth to the flame, it beckoned to me to cross the road. The homeowners were very busy that afternoon, but graciously agreed to let me take pictures.

For those of you looking for inspiration on a small scale, this garden certainly fits the bill. 

The house is made modest two-story home made from local quarried stone. The front yard is tiny. Rather than trying to maneuver a lawn mover around such a tight area, the homeowner decided to dispense with grass altogether, and opted for a circular courtyard of pea gravel instead. 

The plantings next to the house are older and are more mature. The plants on the other rim of the circle are more recently added. 

That is a Climbing Hydrangea right by the front porch. It's a great option to consider 
if you want a vine for part-shade.

Along the front of the house blue-green and variagted Hosta mix in with Ostrich ferns, Heuchera (deep burgundy leaves peaking out from under a Hosta) and  Pulmonaria (the spotted leaf tucked under one of the Hosta). All these plants are great options for part-shade and shade.

Peaking out from under this large hosta is Lady's Mantle, Alchemilla Mollis. 

Lady's Mantle, Alchemilla Mollis has rounded soft textured foliage. Raindrops cling to its leaves and sparkle. Sprays of chartreuse flowers appear in early summer. (This plant is a good self-seeder, so remove the spent flowers if you don't like unwanted seedlings). You will sometimes see Lady's Mantle on lists of plants suggested for shade, but I find it much prefers part-shade rather than full shade. This plant will grow in a variety of soil types and likes conditions on the average to moist side. Height: 30-45 cm (12-18 inches), Spread: 45-60 cm (18-23 inches). USDA Zones: 2-9.

The pea gravel courtyard at the front of the house extends into a path that leads you around to the backyard. 

This is the first view you see as you turn the corner at the side of the house.

Under the shade of tree, there is a little patio area. The cafe-style chairs and table

gives the area an almost Parisian feel.

Here Salvia nemorosa 'Caradonna' sits in front of a yellow Baptisia (unknown cultivar).

Hanging across the yard are strings of Tibetan prayer flags.

 Penstemon 'Husker Red' has foliage that is beet-red in spring and fall and somewhat greener in the summer. Butterflies love the flowers which are such a pale pink they are almost white. Full sun. Normal, sandy or clay soils are all suitable. Average to moist growing conditions. Height 75-90 cm, Spread: 30-45 cm. USDA Zones: 3-9

Pink Peonies bow down to the ground with the weight of their many-petaled flowers. A Miscanthus (ornamental grass) and Ostrich Fern are just in behind them.

The view down the length of the property.

 An old metal bucket is a water feature or container planting in the making.

The back garden is a work in progress. This courtyard area next to 

the fence isn't quite completed.

You'll note that the homeowner has used vivid blue ceramic pots as a recurring theme. It's a smart design decision as it links different areas of the garden into a cohesive whole.

This garden might be small, but it's charming. It is amazing what you find when you are looking for something else!

A Walled Garden of Peonies & Roses

The guide for the 25th anniversary Through the Garden Gate tour advised, "If you can see one garden, make it this one."

Many of the gardens on last year's tour were designed and planted by professionals. They were fabulous, but often somewhat impersonal. 

This garden was different. 

The design and the choice of plants all had a definite personality behind them.

When the homeowners bought the property 15 years ago, there was little in the front garden and just a few structures in the back, but no plants. New garden beds were dug down as much as a meter, and the clay soil was replaced with a combination of clay, peat and sand.

At the front of the house, the garden gate opens to a curved path and a collection of barberries, spireas and perennials. A climbing hydrangea winds its way up the pillars of the double verandah.

A huge glass vase filled with peonies greeted visitors on the front porch.

At the back of the house, the land falls off steeply into a ravine. A path leads visitors along the edge of the ravine to a small brick folly.

Turning to our left we enter an expansive walled garden.

Here there is a solarium, a greenhouse, fruit trees, roses, peonies and assorted perennials.

The homeowner and gardener spends her summers working in the garden. You can feel that personal touch throughout the space.

This year, Through the Garden Gate offers garden lovers a peak into 19 private gardens in Forest Hill and South Hill in Toronto. 

For those of you living in the GTA, mark June 8 and 9th on your calendars for this two day event. For more tour details on tickets informaton click here.

Roses & Roses that don't Look like Roses

Ironically, as we head towards the hottest part of summer, there was a definite chill in the air at dawn this morning. I hate to the 'f' word, but with the nip in the air, it felt like fall. I am sure when a cloud of humidity descends over the city in the middle of July and settles in for a few weeks stay, this cool early morning will seem like a distant oasis from the relentless heat. 

The light was wonderfully golden this morning. As we took our morning stroll, the dogs and I disturbed the big brown mosquitoes from their resting places. I swear these retched vampires are the size of small birds! At least you can see them coming and feel them landing.

In the garden, there is a general changing of the guard. The last of the peonies have finished and the soft pink spirea have faded to a deep tan color. Roses have stepped into fill the void. The hostas have hoisted their mid-summer flags and the deep pink spirea are filling in nicely for their pale pink cousins.

'Graham Thomas' here and in the opening shot.

The deep pink spirea

In the front garden, there is red Monarda with their crazy mop heads.

The evening primrose is still going strong.

 At the side of the house there are big white daisies...

and little white daisies (Feverfew).

There is also a tiny Moonbeam coreopsis in flower.

Along the front of the picket fence, the 'Fairy' is beginning her magic.

Keeping the 'Fairy' company, are a few roses that look more like apple blossoms than standard roses. This is the Musk rose 'Robin Hood'.

There is also the Polyantha shrub rose called "Marjorie Fair'.

A "clearance" clematis hangs down over the picket fence.

Just inside the picket fence is this little soldier 'Vigorosa Raspberry'.

My favourite is still got to be the 'Mary Rose'. 

And you can't beat this workhorse. Canadian Explorer series rose 'John Cabot'. 

The back garden is quieter. There is too much shade for it ever to be a riot of blooms.

Still, there are more subtle forms of beauty worth taking a moment to appreciate.

 The work of the new veggie beds is almost complete. This is a project that 

seems to have dragged on forever!

Hopefully soon, there will be more zucchini than I know what to do with. More about that later...

'Carefree Beauty'

For today, I end on a rosie note.

Today I am going to link to the Creative Exchange and later in the week to Cottage Floral Thursday at Fishtail Cottage. To see other great posts, simply click the links.