When it comes to flamboyant flowers, few plants can beat the hardy, deciduous peony – the giant blooms can often be the size of dinner plates.
01.08.2023 - 14:44 / gardenerstips.co.uk / hortoris
However you spell Peony you will still be captivated by this family of Northern Hemisphere perennials. Lush flowers and foliage are a major attraction but there is also the opportunity to study and become involved in more detail with a concise family of interesting and often endangered species.
Peony Society is the place to start an academic study of the subject but getting your hands in the soil with a couple of good plants is even better.
Aims of the Peony Society
1. To promote peonies as garden flowers. 2. To publish a quarterly newsletter and annual journal. 3. To stimulate scientific research on peonies. 4. To encourage the conservation of wild peonies and old cultivars. 5. To organise visits to gardens and to see wild peonies in their natural habitat.
There is a german data base of Paeonia, the only genus in the flowering plant family Paeoniaceae with a vast number of hybrids and photographs.
Peonies and special fertilizer from Thompson & Morgan Clair Austin supplies Peonies and has some good tips on Tree Peonies which are my current favourite plant.
Here is a list of some Tree Peony varieties they have available.
Floral Rivalry’ (‘Hana Kisoi’) Gorgeous scented, deeply cupped flowers of light cherry pink. Each petal is darker at the base and curls around a centre of loose stamens. ‘Host of the Cherry Blossom’ (Yae zakura) Attractive double to semi-double soft pink flowers. The petal edges pale with time. ‘King of White Lion’ (‘Hakuojisi’) Magnificent semi-double pure white flowers of great size that are produced with great freedom. The base of each petal is smeared with purple. An easy variety to grow. ‘Shimi cho jamata’ (Long Life) A very beautiful variety with satiny lavender semi-double flowers.
When it comes to flamboyant flowers, few plants can beat the hardy, deciduous peony – the giant blooms can often be the size of dinner plates.
Many gardeners consider peonies to be a classic addition to the home landscape. Long-lived, these stunning plants are sure to impress visitors with their immense bloom and stunning color. Despite flowering only once per season, peony flowers are treasured among ornamental growers and flower farmers alike.
The ancient Chinese have cultivated Tree Peonies for over 1500 years. Prized specimens are and were grown for medicinal purposes as they contain glucocides and alkolides. The imperial palace gardens had many specimens that became quite valuable.
Traditional peonies are not really suitable for growing in pots and containers.
PEONIES—the big, traditional herbaceous ones, above—are in their peak moment. I grow them in an out-of-the-way spot for cutting only, not in the garden, as I have mentioned before. Have any that didn’t bloom so well? Some tricks of getting a peony’s full cooperation.KOUSA DOGWOODS are having a really good year in my garden, with a proliferation of bloom, above, that I hope will be followed by good fruit set. Last year, the various Cornus kousa didn’t put on such a big show, and then you may also recall the near-disaster I had with my unusual weeping one. Glad I didn’t cut it down.DAME’S ROCKET, or Hesperis matronalis, is to some a wildflower and to others a w
Are your peonies getting enough sun, or has a nearby tree or shrub grown and reduced the amount over the years (hence a recent decline in bloom, perhaps)? Nearby trees can pose another challenge: When peonies try to compete with extensive root systems of large woody plants, they can lose…meaning reduced bloom. Peonies ideally want a minimum of six hours of full sun a day (you may be able to skimp a little in the more southern part of their hardiness range, Zone 8).nutrientsOverfeeding peonies, which can even happen inadvertently if they are planted beside a lawn that’s being fertilized heavily, can result in bountiful foliage and no blooms. Best to feed them compost or a balanced, all-natural organic fertilizer (never one high in Nitrogen), or some experts like bone meal. If your soil is good, just a sidedressing each year with compost will do
This compact peony is sited in my garden beneath an old magnolia, with various woodlanders, and seems fairly happy, producing multiple blooms per stem over a couple of weeks. But this is hardly the equivalent of the steppes or an alpine meadow I’m offering. Read: In more sun it would be more prolific. The flowers, perhaps 2 to 3 inches across, are nodding, and though mine are magenta, the species ranges from that to paler pinks and even white.Now that I have read up on it and its origins in an old e-newsletter from the Canadian peony specialists LaPivoinerie D’Aoust, I think I am moving my plant this fall, to a slightly sunnier spot, to get more of the good stuff. Seneca Hills sells plan
ICONFESS THAT YESTERDAY, AS JACK AND I pressed our noses against the window at first light, I asked him, “I think we lost our garden, Jack–is it ever coming back?” Life on the tundra grows wearying, but as promised, I’m passing the rest of this vengeful winter in a dream state: dreaming of brighter days and plants ahead. Like species peonies: Molly the Witch (Paeonia mlokosewitschii, above) and her cousins, for instance.
Just to be clear: I love herbaceous peonies, or P. lactiflora, the blowsy, fragrant lovelies of most late-spring gardens. But I don’t grow them in my mixed borders; I relegate them to a cutting area, where I have enough for many, many vases-full (but not even one-twentieth of the number Martha has!). I might have 25 plants, all of them from our old friends the Klehms in Illinois, and they’ll bloom in another couple of weeks. But what I am loving at the moment in the garden (not the vase) are peonies the way nature made them.Paeonia mlokosewitschii, more easily referred to as Molly the Witch, is a beautiful pale yellow, and enjoys a spot in a shady, woodland garden. My very big, old plant of nearly a decade ago, purchased at an auction at a bot
T HERE IS SO MUCH GOING ON it’s hard to know where to focus the eye, or the camera. And then I remembered: mid-May is when the indescribably beautiful, subtle “other” peonies bloom: the species peonies, real spring shade-garden treasures. So up the hill I went, up into one of the shrub borders above the house, to say hello to Molly the Witch,Paeonia mlokosewitschii.
The song goes on to describe one animal after another:The monkeys stand for honesty, Giraffes are insincere… Here’s it’s more like this (do forgive the lack of meter and rhyme):Peonies are everyone’s darling, except when they refuse to bloom. Kousa dogwoods like to grandstand, and not just in the spring. Allium moly’s a prolific charmer—perhaps too prolific for some zoos. Dame’s rocket is likewise controversial: alien invader, or biennial border beauty? Honeysuckles attra
THE ALLIUMS WERE OFF THIS YEAR HERE (too wet last summer and fall when many summer-dormant kinds want to be dry), but I’m having a good peony crop in 2012.