Blooming Big!

Ahead of schedule, like everything else in my garden, my big double white peonies are blooming!

  I have lots of them this year; plenty to cut a large bouquet for my dining room table, with many left on the bushes. This is their third year since transplant. I also have some light pink ones, but they are always a week or so later than these white ones.

                          I swear some of the blooms are almost the size of a dinner plate!

I tucked a few fern sprigs in the bouquet also; these are Ghost Ferns. They are a hybrid between Lady Ferns and Japanese Painted Ferns. They have a silvery, whitish hue (thus the name) with a burgundy rib although mine look sort of light green in the photos. The color can vary a little depending on how much light they get.

Also showing off it's really BIG  blooms is my double clematis, which was called "Celtic Skies" by Michigan Bulb, which is where I ordered it from. The real name of this cultivar is "Vyvyan Pennell". It took a few years to get established well enough to get flowers, but they are quite beautiful. This is the first year that I have the double flowers. This clematis is a repeat bloomer and will get blooms again later in the season, but the blooms will be single flowers, instead of doubles, when it blooms a second time.

The blooms are really quite large, almost bigger than my hand. Right next to this clematis, on the same trellis, I have a dark purple clematis, a very popular cultivar called "Jackmanii". I planted it last year and it has been growing nicely so far, so maybe I'll get some blooms from it later this summer!

Thanks for stopping by!

I'll be joining A Southern Daydreamer for Outdoor Wednesday

and

Faded Charm for White Wednesday!