Time to sit back and enjoy the peony show
The work comes in the fall, which is the best time to plant or divide them.
By Tom Atwell
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Peonies, like this Paeonia lactiflora, come in many flower shapes and colors. The white, blush and pink ones are the most fragrant. Natali22206/Shutterstock
When wandering through flower gardens for the next couple of weeks, the blossoms people are going to see most are peonies. The flowers are big, bright and gorgeous.
Other than cutting a few to bring inside and watering the plants if our pattern of minimal rainfall continues, you can just enjoy them for a few months.
Maine Gardener: An argument for annuals
Yes, you need to buy them and plant them every year. But there are a few good reasons to do so.
By Tom Atwell
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Sunflowers, like this one blossoming in Benton, are true annuals in Maine, meaning they grow, flower, seed and die in a single season. Many annuals in Maine are actually perennials from tropical climates. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel
Some gardeners have a prejudice against annuals. They consider them a waste of money and a creator of work because, as their name says, they have to be purchased and planted every year.
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Making plans for the 2021 gardening season
By now, columnist Tom Atwell can grow vegetables in his sleep. This year, he ll focus on ornamentals.
By Tom Atwell
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Sunlight and shadow on a hosta leaf in columnist Tom Atwell s Cape Elizabeth garden in 2020. As you can see, the hosta looks beautiful in summer and fall, but over snowless winters, the spot is brown and bare. Atwell may add a second red-leaved ‘Midnight Ruby’ rhododendron there to address the problem. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer
This is going to be a busy gardening season. It already has been. My wife, Nancy, and I began working outside in mid-March.
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Community gardens spring to life in Greater Portland
After a long and lonely winter, gardeners are getting outside to tend their beds, and there are more of them than ever thanks to the pandemic.
Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer
Gardeners in the Portland area opened their shutters and pulled on their work gloves Sunday, as warming weather made way for growth after one of the loneliest winters in recent memory.
At the North Street Community Garden on Munjoy Hill in Portland, D.J. Nelson prepared his beds for a mix of beets, eggplants, lettuce, tomatoes and sundry herbs. He pulled weeds from the earth and spread a mixture of coffee grounds from home and compost from a local retailer.