Yes, please, Annette!

Wow, I go away one day and lots of posts. Thanks for posting the photos! I've heard that clematis like cool or shaded feet. Planting a peony on the west side of a couple of my clematis may help them a lot. I would do that with a row (of clematis) I have planted against the south side of a building, but there is no room. I just try to keep those watered and rocks cover their roots.

Kayleigh, the clematis are such a wonderful addition to the peony beds. I have the shorter growing Arabella in the middle of the beds, and the taller clematis at the back of the beds on the fence. It's wonderful to see the peonies and clematis blooming at the same time.

Liz, Klehm's Songsparrow has an amazing clematis selection, just in case you pick up a few plants on your shopping trip at the American Peony Society Show in June😊

I just looked at the KS clematis, they're beautiful.

I got my first few clematis from Bluestone Perennials years ago, but the majority of my clematis come from Brushwood Nursery. They send beautiful plants that do really well here, and it's wonderful that they're located less than 2 hours from where I live, so that helps with shipping charges.

Kayleigh, I forgot to mention that I mulch my clematis with pine straw. It gets so hot here in the summer time, I'd be concerned that rocks at the base of my plants would cook the roots. They're so many other plants in the peony beds, that the foliage also helps to protect the roots of the clematis.

Thanks for the tip, Tracey! I'll take a look! Maybe they'll have varieties that'll survive here.

Brushwood is wonderful . And they really will email you when a variety becomes available again.
I like to buy plants that are grown nearby. That way there is less adjustment needed to the growing conditions.

I agree LG, and they carry a great variety of plants at reasonable prices.

Kayleigh, your peony weigelia combo was gorgeous, hope you can get that look again with smaller weigelias.

Annette, have you seen lupines growing in your area? I've tried them many times but they always suffer horribly when hot weather comes and typically die before ever blooming. I love them so much, seeing photos of gardens full of peonies and irises accompanied by lupines makes me covet them terribly!

Not as showy and colorful as lupines, but I do like baptisia with peonies. They similar spiky form is a nice contrast with peonies.

Neal, one of our local nurseries sold lupines in pots that I bought years ago, they lasted for 1 season, then never came back. I had a hummingbird and butterfly seed mix that I sprinkled outside my daylight basement several years ago, and I noticed a lupine plant growing amongst the other plants last year. I should have tagged the spot where I saw it.

I plan on winter sowing some lupine seeds, along with a few others, for plants for the peony beds. Here are some of the seeds.


I agree about the Baptista, I grow several varieties behind Curonne d' Or (peony bottom left of the pic)

Ooohh, I love your golden yellow baptisias! Do you know the variety name? The yellows I have are soft yellow.

Unfortunately, I don't remember the name of the Baptista. I've had them for years, planted when I was a newbie gardener. I would have to check to see if I saved the tag. The plants are carefree, they don't get fertilized, and they bloom reliably every year.

I have a baptisia in my patch of the worst soil and its huge and happy! I love that about them- guess it has to do with being legumes and accessing atmospheric nitrogen.

Same here, mine were planted in red clay soil years ago, when I didn't know I needed to amend the soil, LOL!

My plants produce a lot of seed heads every year, are they viable? I didn't know they were legumes, thanks for sharing that info.

I believe the seeds are viable, but would likely vary from the parent since most are hybrids these days. I do find self set seedlings around my species B. australis, but haven't found them around the hybrids yet (but they've only been here 3 years).

Thanks for letting me know. I may save some seeds next year and try to winter sow them.

I have the blue version called False Indigo and its seeds are viable. I wintersowed some 2 years ago and they were some of the most prolific sprouters! None have bloomed yet--even the parent plant didn't last year because of our Mother's Day blizzard and the extreme cold after, but most survived and put out new growth last spring/summer. If I have blooms this year and anyone wants seeds of the blue variety I'd certainly collect and send them. I've seen quite a bit of variation in what's sold as False Indigo, I'll post pics of my blooms (hopefully!) this spring.

Nice peony combinations Kayleigh, Annette and Meiko. I also love Baptisia combo with peonies.
Here are a few pics from my garden.

Lily, what is the dark red peony in the last photo? Its gorgeous, and so are your combos!

It's Buckeye Belle, Neal. Thanks!