More peonies of course

Paeonia tenuifolia ssp lithophila, a dwarf form of Fern-leaf Peony; today the sun was out so the flowers opened fully.



Same plant but on a cloudy day; this is meant just to give an idea of plant form. Windy and rainy weather a few days ago have twisted the stems a bit, and with the leafs fully out on the overhanging tree branches these are somewhat more shaded than they would like.
Flower of a seedling of tenuifolia proper, seed from a J Halda collection near Vidin, Bulgaria.



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Paeonia mlokosewitschii, the Golden Peony, opened today in the datum beds although it has been open for a few days already in another bed. This is the palest yellow any of my mloko's have shown as, and is growing in the woodland bed.

From the same seed lot and in the datum bed, a couple of apparent hybrids of mloko. The buds were photographed yesterday, and the opening flower this morning.

I wrote "apparent hybrids" because to the best of my knowledge plants from wild-collected seed do not show these shades of colour, but they are not uncommon in plants grown from garden-origin seed, where cross-pollination with other species is possible.

Although unusual (but perhaps not uncommon among mloko hybrids) and interesting the colour is not exactly the cleanest and I was getting myself set to sell this plant off this year. But the fragrance!! oh my, has convinced me to keep it around: a strong scent of allspice and orange. Strange, didn't notice any scent to it last year.
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This just opened, Paeonia officinalis ssp villosa. Apothecarie's Peony. Similar in flower to P mollis, but taller and with different foliage and seed shape and etc.


And here a closeup of the flower of the Caucasus Peony, P. caucasica.




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Final pic today, the carpels of P steveniana just after the rest of the flower parts have been shed. Still an interesting show with the red pistols... Totally hairless, which is where the synonym P wittmaniana forma nudicarpa came from. If I'd been thinking I would have a pic of P. tomentosa's woolly carpels for comparison.

More new openings

Paeonia mollis, a "pseudospecies". It is apparently no longer to be found in the wild, but has perpetuated in gardens, coming true from seed. A smaller plant, only knee-high, with soft-textured attractive leafs. The seeds are noticeably different from all other peony species.





And here the first of my various Paeonia officinalis plants to open, ssp banatica.




And Paeonia triternata with it's lovely 2-tone pink flowers and the excellent undulate blue-green waxy foliage. Neither flower nor foliage are apparently consistently unique across variablity of the species, so apparently the population my seeds were collected from is a more worthwhile form.

A few late noses and shoots, and another first flower

Paeonia humilis, also classified as a dwarf subspecies humilis of the Apothecarie's Peony Paeonia officinalis, is just coming up in the display bed next to the Fern-leaf peony. But it was just transplanted here last fall from the open field, so it may normally be earlier.

And also in the display, a.k.a. datum, beds the Siberian Paeonia obovata is just now starting to shoot. It looks decidedly weird surrounded by 2-ft tall peonies in full leaf and ready to flower! The shoot on the right already has a small flower bud sitting on it.
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Meanwhile beside P. mascula the somewhat similar Paeonia ruprechtiana has opened today.

This species ranges from SE Europe to the Caucasus. My plants are from seed reportedly (3rd hand) wild collected in the SW of the Republic of Georgia (Not Georgia USA, but over in the Caucasus region.) Its' natural environment is woodlands and mountainsides in the subalpine zone and lower. Here it is equally vigorous in part shade as in my woods; I don't have any in the open field.

I'm using the name on the label the seed arrived with. Distinctions between some of these very similar species and subsp are often beyond my ability effectively to apply the botanical descriptions of the books to the actual plant sitting in front of me.

Noses, Shoots, and Deploying Leafs (part 3)

Paeonia mairei in a pot and with a well-formed bud, a total surprise. Somewhat ahead of what it should be coming out of the ground if I had gotten around to planting the thing. At the lower left, the greener mop-head thing is a Paeonia anomala from one of the Josef Halda collections, probably finer-leafed than the anomala's I've grown to date.

Another subspecies of the Apothecarie's Peony, Paeonia officinalis ssp banatica. Rather a twisty top to it, but that's not necessarily a feature of the subspecies.



The next 2 pics are Paeonia kesrouanensis; the first is the same plant shown with a naked crown on 05 April-- I piled a bit of loose dirt on it about mid-April. This plant is in the woodland bed.

Slightly further along, this one is in the "part sun" display bed by the house.




And the noses of the Largeleaf Peony, Paeonia macrophylla.

Noses, Shoots, and Deploying Leafs (part 2)

Paeonia mascula, the Male Peony. These are well-developed already, with fat buds.




Steven's Peony, Paeonia steveniana, also going great guns and with fat buds already formed.



The very interesting Paeonia triternata. Mostly green, blueish tinge, not much red or purple in the leaf even at this early stage. Distinctively furled.


One of the subspecies of the Apothecarie's Peony, Paeonia officinalis ssp villosa just showing its nose.



And the enigmatic Paeonia mollis.

Keeping myself confused- Paeonia officinalis

This one has the common name Apothecarie's Peony due to its use in herbal medicine from ancient times. It is wide-ranging and variable in leaf and flower and probably moved into some of what is now considered its native range with Rome's legions of occupation. It grows in Portugal through to southern France, Switzerland, Hungary and into Romania, an south into the Balkans and Italy.

Being variable, it exists in several subspecies which may or may not be considered separate species by some botanists, either currently or formerly. Paeonia officinalis is quite hardy (USDA zone 3) and is probably the most commonly grown species in North America after the many cultivars of the Chinese Peony, Paeonia lactiflora, which is the common garden peony. I have somewhat neglected P. officinalis in my seed searches and so don't have many reliably-named plants of the various subspecies, and not too many plants of it, period.

The first photo was of a generic P. officinalis; the next 2 are of the subspecies P. officinalis subsp villosa (subject to the vaguaries of seed sources) and the final 4 are of P. officinalis subsp banatica. The leafs of one of them are mottled in paler shades of greyish-green, which I suspect is from some localized soil condition and doubt it will persist beyond this year.

villosa








banatica

First blooms opened on P. officinalis on 29 May here this year. Flower colour is supposed to range into red, although I'm not seeing anything really red on my plants yet. Quiet flowers for the most part, and although I tend to photograph them on first opening, while they are still almost globe-shaped, they do open out fully flat. Seed pods are not as attractive as with the peonies of the Caucasus, but yet still interesting.

This species seems more suited to a sunny location here, but although less vigorous in the woodland bed is still an adequate doer there.