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When planting Peonies plant as soon as they are obtained, being careful to set the division so that the top of the buds will be from 1-1/2 to two inches below the final soil grade after the plants are watered and have finished settling. If planted too deep you will probably get pretty foliage with a few or no blooms, and if too shallow, the buds will be exposed and are likely to get broken off by Old Shep when he serves notice on a stray cat or rabbit.

You should expect blooms from three to five eye divisions the first season. Only seven of the 60 varieties I planted in my garden a few years ago failed to bloom the first year. The plants made a splendid display of flowers the third season after planting.

Digging and dividing large, old peony clumps is no easy task, as most gardeners have learned. If the freshly-dug clump is left exposed to the air for a while, the roots will become less brittle and are more easily handled without breaking. The soil which is tightly held by the roots is best removed with a stream of water from the hose.

Do not simply cut the clump in half and plant the two peonies without removing any of the old large roots. Such divisions depend upon the old roots for nourishment and seldom bloom. The clump should be cut into smaller divisions, usually with from three to five eyes, some of the older roots removed and the others shortened to about six inches. This method stimulates the production of new roots which increases the plant’s vigor and productiveness. A stout butcher knife and a hammer are good division tools. Established plants may be fertilized in early spring with a handful of balanced plant food applied in a ring around each plant and stirred into the soil.

To Preserve Color

Most peony flowers fade in sunlight and if left to open and stand in the sun they lose much of their delicate beauty. If you wish to use peonies for display in a flower show or as a bouquet in the home, cut the flowers and let them open in the dark or at least in partial shade. Do not cut stems so long that all of the leaves are taken with the stalk. This would tend to weaken the plant.

Peonies which are properly planted and maintained are seldom bothered by diseases. The foliage is hardly ever attacked by insect pests. Plants should be carefully watched and if any disease occurs the affected parts should be removed and destroyed.

Root knot, leaf spot and botrytis blight are the three most common ailments. Root knot can be avoided by planting clean, healthy divisions in disease-free soil. New plants should not be set in an old bed where root knot has occurred. If the plants are properly spaced, very little damage is done by leaf spot.

Botrytis blight is likely to be the most serious peony disease and sometimes in orchid plants. It affects stems, buds and leaves just like in caring for orchid plants. Young stalks in early spring suddenly wilt and fall over, and young buds turn black and dry up. Later on, larger buds which become infected turn brown and fail to open up. For control, remove and destroy all infected parts as soon as they appear. Cut off all tops near the crowns in the fall and burn. If severe infestation has occurred before, remove the upper two inches of soil around the plants and replace with fresh disease-free soil.

Also as a preventive measure in the spring, spray the young shoots as soon as they appear, with Bordeaux mixture 2-2-50 or a copper fungicide mixture. Two or three successive sprays should follow at weekly intervals.

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Crabgrass is in its prime during August, particularly in the southern part of the East, and will soon be producing seeds by the millions. Although it’s much better to kill it in the spring when it’s merely a seedling, it can be prevented from seeding by the use of one or two chemicals.

Crabgrass killer sold under a number of trade names can be sprayed on the grass before it goes to seed and even though it may not kill the crabgrass, which it is supposed to do, it should prevent seed production. Once in a while it misreads the label, apparently, and damages the blue-grass. But if you are desperate you have to take a chance.

Other materials sold under various trade names can be put on with a fertilizer spreader. Don’t forget that these chemicals have to be put on before the crabgrass goes to seed or it will not be worth applying. Unfortunately there is enough seed left near the surface of the ground to keep coming up for the next three or possibly four years so that the program must be carried on for this length of time to completely rid your lawn of crabgrass.

Good Value in Peat

One concern that I know, selling peat moss in small packages, tells me that most of their customers pass up an excellent grade of peat moss which they have for sale and buy a vastly inferior grade because it’s darker. In much the same way whenever you find some products being sold as humus they will be very black, very finely powdered and vastly inferior to peat either as a soil conditioner or for growing plants. Actually quite a bit of the humus offered for sale is nothing but muck or sometimes the muck and low grade peat found above the better quality in our peat bogs. Just the same way many gardeners feel that the black soil is a rich soil and that woods soil is the best in the world.

Actually when organic matter is decomposed to the extent that it is almost coal black and powdery it has lost a large part of its value for gardening. So don’t be afraid to buy the light colored peats. They should run from 85 to almost a hundred per cent organic matter which is what you are paying for whereas low grade peat and mucks will run as low as 50 per cent and seldom over 75 per cent organic content.

You can have practically three months extra enjoyment from your garden next spring by ordering spring flowering bulbs now. I particularly like the very early spring bulbs, including snowdrops, winter aconites, glory-of-the-snow (Chionodoxa) in its several forms; squills including Siberian, English, and Spanish; grape hyacinths in their several different forms that are late as well as spring blooming.

Pansies for Spring

If you have never grown your own pansies, look online for pansy seedlings, order them for early September delivery. If you will mix about one part peat to two parts soil, preferably in a cold frame and set the seedlings four inches apart you should have magnificent pansies to set out in your garden next spring. Depending on how severe your climate, you want to give them a few inches, at most, of straw mulch over winter.

If your yard gets as dry as mine during August you want to plan to put on equivalent of one inch of rainfall per week even you are in a vacation, it is good to have a vacation watering system to keep your plants healthy. We adjust our irrigation system to have good coverage during the hot summer or a water plants vacation.

All of the books and bulletins tell us that we should start our new lawns in the fall, but they forget to tell us how we can get Mother Nature to put down the necessary rainfall. It’s true that you will have weed-free lawns if you will seed them in the early fall, but the problem is to have enough moisture to get your seed to germinate and grow. If you are going to plant seed this fall, start getting your fertilizer now and all the saw dust (fresh or weathered ) or peat moss that you can lay your hands on to rototill into the top four inches of soil unless you have marvelous top soil. Throughout this entire area Kentucky bluegrass is still the best lawn grass or you may prefer to use a slightly superior strain. You will only need a pound to a thousand square feet if you will mix it with a pail of sand and scatter it both ways or use a fertilizer spreader to distribute the seed.

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It’s time to dry everlastings, bells of Ireland and celosias for winter arrangements. Cut the flowers when dry, tie in bunches of not over five stems and hang in a dry, airy attic away from the light (in strong light the colors will fade).

Feeding the Lawn and Hydrangeas

Give the established lawn a feeding early in August. Be sure to soak the soil well after the application, so the lawn will not burn. Feed peegee hydrangeas liberally now to increase the size of the flower heads.

Controlling Red Spider

If evergreens or roses suddenly take on a rusty appearance, red spider mites may be the culprits. The easy way to spot them is to shake the branches over a white paper and then examine the paper for very tiny, moving red dots. Red spider mites are very difficult to see on the dark green foliage. For control, spray with Neem oil (organic natural) or malathion.

Chores in the Eating Garden

There is still time to sow lettuce, radishes, snap beans and turnips for late fall crops. Blanch celery if you like it yellow, but remember that the green PASCAL celery doesn’t need blanching. Remove canes of raspberries that have fruited, being careful not to injure the new young canes which will produce next year’s crop.

Any spots in the vegetable garden that become vacant should be seeded with winter rye. It will keep out weeds, use up excess fertilizer in the soil and produce humus for next year’s garden.

Sowing Pansies and Delphiniums

This is the time to sow pansies and fresh delphinium seed. Be sure to sow the delphinium in the coolest spot available, for it germinates best at a cool 60. Watering the seed bed with cold water will help to keep the soil temperature down.

Caring for Dahlias and Chrysanthemums

Disbud dahlias and dracaena houseplant for bigger individual blooms and keep feeding them with a low nitrogen fertilizer. However, to produce the big show blooms of your dahlias or dracaena houseplant, use a balanced commercial fertilizer such as 6126. Keep watering hardy chrysanthemums so the stems won’t get woody. Stems that are very woody always flower poorly. An application of fertilizer will improve the size of blooms.

Keeping soil moist under a mulch. Inspect the soil under summer mulches, for often it will dry out completely showing no signs until the plants suddenly wilt. Water the soil liberally in early morning.

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Too many people in the North believe that lawn making is mainly a springtime activity and not many know that late summer is a very good time to come to the aid of an established lawn or build a new one. The weather is ideal for grass seed germination starting early in August in the far North and a week later for each hundred miles southward.

Mid-August is a good time to sow grass seed in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. The days are growing shorter, nights are cool, temperatures are lower, dew and showers provide moisture, and weed seeds do not germinate. This last is a very important factor in favor of late summer and early fall grass seeding. The sprouting seed and young seedlings do not have to compete with weeds, a distinct advantage over grass started in spring.

Seed sown in August and early September will produce a good stand of grass that will not be in exceptional danger of winter injury. Seed sown after mid-September (in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area) will be susceptible. Each day’s delay in seeding after that date, increases the risk of injury.

Applying Fertilizer

The periods mentioned for seeding also apply to fertilizing. In August and early September fertilizing is especially beneficial because the weather again becomes favorable for good growth of grass after a mid-summer slump. An ample supply of nutrients should be available so that the best growth can be made. But fertilizing should be done not later than mid-September so that the new growth will have time to mature and harden before winter arrives. Late fertilizing makes the grass lush and soft and subject to winter injury.

August begins the fall planting season, a good time to plant evergreens and garden perennials. Weather conditions are as good as they are in spring and plants are in excellent shape for transplanting especially if you have just finished planting coleus plants from seeds. This is the best time to grow coleus plants, peonies, irises, bleeding heart, baby’s-breath, lily-of-the-valley, and mertensia. These plants have made their growth for the season and have matured. They can be moved without interfering either with their growth or their flowering.

August also is the time to plant or transplant yearling biennials such as hollyhocks, sweet rocket, foxglove and canterbury bells. These have made their growth for this year; they will flower next year.

Potted annuals, perennials, and shrubs can still be successfully transplanted, but with the approach of hot and frequently drier weather, the season for bare root transplanting is about over. Some shrubs, especially spireas, which have compact fibrous root systems, can still be transplanted if they are dug with balls of earth, moved quickly and kept thoroughly watered until well established. Select a cloudy, cool day for the job. If the planting to be done is extensive, wait until fall. Container grown shrubs, trees and evergreens has made it practical to extend the planting season well beyond the former deadline. If you have some vacant places in your shrubbery plantings, check with your nurseryman for suitable container grown plants which may be planted now to fill in the open spaces.

It is not too late to select and plant potted roses. Try some of the new patents while they are in bloom at your local nursery or garden center.

Evergreens are growing rapidly and should not be moved now unless the planting is absolutely necessary. If you have to move them now, handle them quickly with good sized root balls. Removing some of the new growth will help balance up for loss of roots. A shade of burlap will cut down the trees evaporation and help it become adjusted to the new setting. Keep the transplants well watered and mulched.

Praising Irises

The finest display of irises ordinarily occurs in May but it is not too late to praise this lovely perennial. The bearded iris probably ranks first as the garden flower most universally planted. Since 1929, the iris has been the official flower of Kansas City, Missouri. It assumes an important role in park plantings, in large and small gardens, city dooryards, and even on the White House grounds in Washington. In fact, the iris is so common that some gardeners do not grow it just for that reason. If you should judge the beauty of the iris alone by the old, small flowering sorts, you could not care much for the iris. However, if you will take a little time to visit the wonderful displays of the beautiful new large flowering types, you may soon join the ranks of those who give irises a prominent place in the garden.

For continued success with irises, the plants should be divided and reset about every three years. Do this work as soon as the plants have finished blooming. Dig up the entire clump, and shake off the soil, being careful not to break the small young leaves. Using a sharp knife, separate the clump into several divisions, each with one or two rhizomes complete with its own roots and leaves.

Cut leaves back to about six inches and remove dead or diseased portions of the rhizomes. Spread out the roots and plant in a shallow hole in a fertile well-drained soil, preferably in full sun. Some bone meal may be mixed with the soil before planting. Plant the divisions just deep enough so that the tops of the rhizomes will be barely covered with soil. Water the plants, fill in and level the surface of the soil.

The early flowering miniature irises bloom in April and May. These would be the best times for you to create your trellis floral creations with the addition of irises. They are charming in groups in the flower border or rock garden and garden trellis especially when mixed with green trellis flowers.

Watch for black aphids on new growth of chrysanthemums. Hit them with Malathion, or pyrethrum. When mixing spray material, learn to estimate the correct amount needed to do the particular job. Surplus left after the job is done is wasted, since it should not be held over for future use.