It was misty this morning and hot and muggy this afternoon

It's Tree Peony week in Washington DC

That's my sister Val sniffing a semi-double magenta in our front garden prior to a big Easter Sunday plant buying trip. The others are from the Asian Collections today. Though we're not the official Tree Peony Collection of the Arboretum, we have far and away the most plants. They will all flower this week. Because it's going to be so hot what is always a short season will shorten even more. Still, when these are finished, the herbaceous peonies will step up and they're beautiful too.

November two years ago the very generous owner of Peony's Envy, a vendor of tree peonies donated a large number of tree peonies to the Arboretum. We planted them but they had already started into growth and did not do well that first winter. None died that I know of and they spent last growing season recovering. I saw a handful of flowers total on about 20 plants this spring but they all look healthy, have grown considerably, and I expect a lot more flowers next spring. Peony's Envy will be among the vendors at the FONA Plant Sale this coming weekend, and will, I'm sure, have a good selection of plants.