With the weekend temperatures well above 20 C, a whole range of plants that should have flowered a bit earlier (but didn't because of the unseasonal cold snap) are catching up now. My tree paeonies have all started flowering in response to a bit of sunshine. P. delavayi in the red border has produced lovely dark red flowers with maroon stamens, while two P. rockii hybrids produce white/silvery pink flowers in the white border (unfortunately unknown cultivars, i picked these up rather cheaply in a local garden centre; I'll be getting my next ones from Phedar nursery). All are perfectly hardy, and i get more flowers every year. I do however seem to lose one or two of the woody branches every spring, so the plants never reach 'tree'-like proportions. Especially the P. rockii plants tend to grow top heavy, with little growth coming from the base. I would like to prune them to rejuvenate the growth, but i am not sure the plants would recover well.
Talking about pruning, our Wisteria floribunda var. 'Macrobotrys' is also producing more flowers year on year. This plant was one of the first we planted, now 4 years ago, and it produced about 8 flowers in that first spring. What a difference a good double pruning regime makes over the years! If let loose, this plant would cover the house in no time with lots of green growth (but few flowers). I cut the long wispy growth mid July, followed by a second pruning in middle of winter to create as many short, flowering spurs.
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