Jun
10
Coral honeysuckle plant
Filed Under FLOWERS, Spring flowers | Leave a Comment
Our coral honeysuckle plant decided to have flowers…
Which we appreciate very much because as an ingredient it’s on our toplist of edible wild honeysuckle recipes.
But since it’s +25 degrees Celsius today, there won’t be much cooking going on. In stead we will add the flowers of our coral honeysuckle plant in our fresh salad.
We don’t feel like shopping today, so we will make do with what we can harvest in our garden. Luckily we do have some egg produce, so that kind of covers the meat section 
If you have even more use or recipes with the flowers of your coral honeysuckle plant, please leave a comment!
Jun
5
Peony supportdouble
Filed Under Peonies, Peony | Leave a Comment
Enjoy your peony flowers longer using strong double peony support called peony supportdouble at your garden supplier, or DIY with 2 by 2 inch stakes.
Peonies need support, especially the double peonies. Their large blooms get heavy, especially after a rain shower and tend to bend towards the ground. Too much wind could have a similar effect and the colour of the double peony flower will fade. So some support is needed.
My peonies are next to a low "chicken-wire" fencing, so the fence already supports one side of the peony bush. Another good idea is browsing through some peony catalogs and only buy peony varieties with strong stems. That’s our 2 times lazy way to take care of a peony
But to make sure you should give your double peony some support. You can do it yourself using 2 by 2 inch stalks that you paint a shade of green to match the peony foliage and hide the stake behind the plants. If painting is not your forte, you can use several green bamboo stakes together acting as 1 thick stake.
Then it’s up to you to routinely staking the plants every year in spring.
- A single pass of twine, placed about a foot below the flower buds will be enough on some strong-stemmed cultivars.
- A second pass of twine may be placed about a foot below the upper loop.
Make sure not to use tomato rings as they are usually not strong enough to support the weight of a mature double peony in bloom.
If DIY is not your thing and you have about 3$ to spend, you can buy a ready made double peony support.
These heavy-duty two-ring thick-gauge metal supports have been specifically designed to support peonies.
The peony supports are 30 inches high with an 18-inch diameter top ring and an extra second supporting 14-inch lower ring. These double peony supports are readily available at your specialty garden suppliers and are known as peony supportdouble.
