Favorite flower/shrub?

[razz]

Oh dear, what a decision. I once saw a peony that was so perfect, so flawless and pure in colour, white with a hint of soft yellow cream and vivd centre that I stood looking at it breathless so peonies have ever since been part of my life. I had a long row of them from snow white to shades of pink to deep red but left them most behind when I moved. Now I go to large public gardens and accessible private gardens to see them. One has the largest collection of peonies in North America. http://www.whistlinggardens.ca.

Second would be daffodils. I loved Wordsworth's poem as a child. I planted a 1/4 bushel of these all around my farm house buildings. DH used to watch for the first bloom each spring and bring it to me in triumph and delight. It is those precious little memories that bring tears to my eyes.

[iris lilies]

Oh dear, what a decision. I once saw a peony that was so perfect, so flawless and pure in colour, white with a hint of soft yellow cream and vivd centre that I stood looking at it breathless so peonies have ever since been part of my life. I had a long row of them from snow white to shades of pink to deep red but left them most behind when I moved. Now I go to large public gardens and accessible private gardens to see them. One has the largest collection of peonies in North America. http://www.whistlinggardens.ca.

Second would be daffodils. I loved Wordsworth's poem as a child. I planted a 1/4 bushel of these all around my farm house buildings. DH used to watch for the first bloom each spring and bring it to me in triumph and delight. It is those precious little memories that bring tears to my eyes.

I love peonies, they are stunning, so fragrant and beautiful. But here, peony bushes do not get huge, it is too hot and humid I guess. Up North in Iowa I see peony bushes as big as cars, well, almost. Also, peonies bloom at rhe same time as tall bearded iris, and I am so busy running around with a focus on iris that I seem to miss mich of their bloom.

I have a cRefully chosen collection of 11 peony bushes that I keep dividing and apreading ober multiple,properties.

Daffodils are so charming, I love them too, but have a hard time distinguishing cultivars. i could never be a Daffodil
society judge where you have to identy around 100 cultivars, cold, to pass the judging test.

At my Hermann property we will have tons of daffodils because they are safe from deer, and the premier daffodil hybridizer and grower of my state lives there. I will buy many many daffodils from her.

[catherine]

Oh dear, what a decision. I once saw a peony that was so perfect, so flawless and pure in colour, white with a hint of soft yellow cream and vivd centre that I stood looking at it breathless so peonies have ever since been part of my life. I had a long row of them from snow white to shades of pink to deep red but left them most behind when I moved. Now I go to large public gardens and accessible private gardens to see them. One has the largest collection of peonies in North America. http://www.whistlinggardens.ca.

Second would be daffodils. I loved Wordsworth's poem as a child. I planted a 1/4 bushel of these all around my farm house buildings. DH used to watch for the first bloom each spring and bring it to me in triumph and delight. It is those precious little memories that bring tears to my eyes.

Lovely. I love both of your choices also.

We have one peony bush right on the path to the entrance to our house in NJ. It's been there for years--we got it when we had the dog prior to my last one--so that had to have been in the early '00s. But because it was a few steps outside our front door, it was unfortunately the first place our male dog stopped on our walks, so we always called it our "Pee-On-Me."

[nswef]

Yes, peonies. I love the scent and fluff of them! Mine are from my college roommate's mom's yard- we dug them up in about 1980 in York, PA, I think her mom planted them in about 1956. I brought them to MD and have shared them with many people. They are about 2 feet tall. Most are the pale pink. The deep pink ones seemed to die out or fade. I have 2 of those.
Oh, and I love larkspur. We can't get delphinium to grow and I remember Dickon in The Secret Garden saying Larkspur were poor people's delphinium. The humming birds like them and I love the deep blue. Carroty leaves.

[iris lilies]

Yes, peonies. I love the scent and fluff of them! Mine are from my college roommate's mom's yard- we dug them up in about 1980 in York, PA, I think her mom planted them in about 1956. I brought them to MD and have shared them with many people. They are about 2 feet tall. Most are the pale pink. The deep pink ones seemed to die out or fade. I have 2 of those.
Oh, and I love larkspur. We can't get delphinium to grow and I remember Dickon in The Secret Garden saying Larkspur were poor people's delphinium. The humming birds like them and I love the deep blue. Carroty leaves.

It was a great year doe larkspur here. i have the deep blue variety and a light pink. A darker pink grows in our community garden so I harvested seeds last week from it. It self seeds and it so cheerful and easy.

It is one of te few plants I count on being in bloom during garden tour season. Our neighborhood’s garden tour is the first weekend in June, and that is always after iris bloom but before lily bloom. Our weekend place in
Hermann will also be on garden tour one of these years and it is the same damned weekend, between crops so to speak. So larkspur will be a featured plant.

[razz]

Never having grown larkspurs, I looked them up. Do they actually grow up to 6-8 feet?

[nswef]

My larkspur don't get much taller than 3 feet. I haven't had the dark pink, just pale pink, pale blue, white and the deep blue.

[rosarugosa]

There are too many - it depends on the season and where I am.
I just finished my annual love affair with the Linden trees in front of our local town buildings. The fragrance is so delicious and I love seeing all the pollinators. They aren't too lovely the rest of the year though, so I'm glad there are several within shouting distance and I don't need to devote real estate to them.
As a New Englander, I do of course love lilacs. Peonies are another favorite and we have quite a few of them. I also love lily of the valley and of course rosa rugosas, oh and lavender, so I guess fragrance is pretty important to me.
From a garden design perspective, I would not be without hellebores and heucheras and hostas and hydrangeas. I love and grow a few members of the hamamelidaceae: witch hazel and corylopsis and fothergillas. So maybe the letter "H" is important to me as well.
I am sorry that I can no longer grow rudbeckia or echinacea or phlox, but the groundhogs have wiped them out.
I am just crazy for all the adorable little succulents out there: sedums and sempervivums and paddle plants, to name a few.
I am sure to think of another dozen favorites as soon as I finish this post!

[iris lilies]

Never having grown larkspurs, I looked them up. Do they actually grow up to 6-8 feet?

No, here mine are 2’ to 3’. But in Iowa, where we recently toured at the lily cnvention, her larkspur had a whole other “story” than mine had and were, say, 3.5’ to 4’. But that's in rich Iowa loam, the best soil in the world.

[frugal-one]

The past few years have been planting Nicotiana .... flowering tobacco. It requires little care, is pretty and blooms profusely!