Peonies & Black Dahlia's? I hope so! :)

This beauty, this beauty right here - is from a listing I have in my etsy shop - I used this lovely to add some color to the listings landscape and to show off the flower. 

After all it had come from my yard and was equally fragrant as it was beautiful :). 

 In 2010 though, we transplanted the huge peony bush and things haven't been the same since. :/

The peony plant that was once a flourishing flowering plant only gets this big after transplanting years ago.

***Dawn to the rescue!!!***

The peony bush is the tall plant in the middle. I had such high hopes for this transplant from 2010! The bush was so overgrown when we first moved in in 2009... you can see it to the far left of the house in the picture below, its covering the corner of our neighbors garage right in front of their truck:

Clearly it was a flourishing Peony bush before we moved to the back yard - but hasn't done well since.. 

no more flowers for me :(. This will not do!

Saturday my sister and I went to Home Depot after taking stock of what landscaping items we had, and found an perennial Black Dahlia. *swoons* When it comes to plants - I love anything white, light pink, dark purple and green. These color combinations just make me happy what can I say?

Back at the house - it was transplanting time!

Let the planting/transplanting begin!

BEFORE

We used to have this eye sore of a plant just parading around the the down spout and would share some orange flowers near fall season. 

I didn't much care for it and it just looks like a big mess with spiders most likely lurking in its leaves. 

No thank you!

AFTER

A bit of an improvement eh? ;) 

With my sisters help we dug up all the roots of the other plant and added a bunch of soil before placing the peony. I also added the Black Dahlia bulbs spacing them out in line with the rocks. 

Top View :)

 We set down newspaper and then added dirt under the rocks in an attempt to ward off having to weed too much. I don't mind weeding, I just hope the crab grass stays at bay!

 I am *so* hopeful this lil one takes off. I miss my peonies! :0)

They smell so wonderful and look amazing when they bloom! 

Of course I'm also excited to see how the Black Dahlia's do too! I've never planted flowers before, my history has been more in vegetable gardening and helping my mom when she would transplant flowers growing up in Iowa. Iowa soil is so much nicer than the clay soil in Virginia. 

We're working with what we got though! :) A Home Depot down the road a ways and some tender loving care to get these lovelies blooming! :) 

I will keep you posted on their progress! :) Are you planting anything new this year? 

Best, Dawn

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**Good News**

I know it's only been a few days since transplanting the flower on 4/27/13 but today 4/30/13 I am happy to report the peony leaves are already stretching out and growing! We've had a lovely light rain/misting the past few days which is perfect right after transplanting/planting these! :D