Peonies and Lilacs...

do not seem to grow very well here in Washington... Kris bought 3 lilac bushes and planted them about 2 weeks ago...They did not shock at all. But I told her I have not seen a pretty Lilac bush or a pretty peonies bush since I have been here....Kris said I was just not looking right...She said there are 3 at the end of our street... Sure enough the next time I drove out i looked and there were 3 bushes all grown together over 10' tall....But they maybe had 3 blooms on them... I have yet to see a peonies...

Now Washington has rich soil. It looks like you could grow anything. It has been great for my 3 red headed Grand children. They never get sunburn, The Azalea plants are beautiful! The prettiest I have ever seen. All sorts of fruit trees just flourish here.. So I got on line and looked up peonies and lilac's...It seems they need 6-8 hours of full sun a day to bloom....Alas, that is a problem here.

This morning I cleaned out all of the grass from the front flower bed, with Michael's help, There is a lilac plant back there that must be several years old even though it is only waste high. The kids have lived here 4 years and they did not plant it. It is about 5' wide.  No blooms...Ever...I do not think Kris even knows it is a lilac plant so they may have cut it to the ground last year. Which  does not hurt the plant it just takes a few years longer to bloom. Hopefully they will have some sweet smelling lilacs in a few years. If the sun shines...

BTW Kris has a very large piece of furniture that is a computer desk...It is piled full...even has a ton of crap on the very top..I looked at it the other day and thought, 'That thing is so loaded it looks like it is going to walk off." That is another saying from mama I have not thought of in years. I am going to search google and see where it came from.