Paeonia mascula
Mary Sue Ittner (Thu, 07 Apr 2011 16:15:45 PDT)

I wish I knew why I lost these plants in the ground. I'd much rather
grow them there than in containers. My soil is mostly sandy, low
nutrient, acidic which allows me to grow many California native,
South African, and Australian shrubs as well. There is rarely
standing water from our rainfall except in one spot of my garden and
then is usually soaks in by the next day. But we do get a fair amount
of rainfall, mostly between November and February although this year
we had a lot of rain in March. Being on a ridge we also get more
rainfall than people do a mile away closer to the ocean. It's because
of the rain that we have so many trees. We get a lot more rain than
the Bay Area and probably more total than Seattle.

When we first moved here the 8 year average rainfall was 65 inches
(165.10 centimeters), but we've had some drought years so now it is
down to 50 inches (127cm). In El Nino years we experienced 90 to 100
in. (228.6-254cm). We usually have no rain at all between May or June
and September-October and the months on the edge of the rainy season
are very low rainfall. We do have summer fog and I understand plants
can soak up moisture through their leaves from it. So yes, we get a
lot more rain than British Columbia and the San Francisco Bay area.
The plants I can grow successfully are not the same ones people grow
in southern California.

From discussing climates with Lauw in France I learned that when it
rains there is not the same times it rains here even though he too
has a Mediterranean climate. So what is the speculation, too wet in
winter, too dry in summer, soil problems? I continued to water the
Peonia plants in containers until they started to dry out. Plants in
the ground in my garden are very dry in summer. The plants in
containers were rained on. I moved them to the shade when they went
dormant and the trees probably shelter them a bit from the rain, but
they were still outside.

Mary Sue

Mary Sue Ittner
California's North Coast
Wet mild winters with occasional frost
Dry mild summers