The main show of Garden Peonies

A week and a bit ago the Paeonia lactifloras (the Chinese Peony, or what I call the Garden Peony) started popping into bloom in all their variety of forms and every shade of colour from white to red. How many shades of pink are there anyways?!! Here some views of the groups of potted lactifloras (and some hybrids mainly involving lactiflora parentage) which I've been growing from seed, for sale. Most are blooming this year for the first time, and I have so far photographed and labelled (with a personal number) just over 100 of them, with perhaps 15 or 20 with buds yet to open.

Of course, this being a main peak of the peony season we have been found by heavy rains. First the mini-deluge out of nothing yesterday evening, and today with an extended rainfall of varying weight but large accumulation. So these photos of yesterday's fine upstanding plants have would today feature bedraggled or mushed flowers with some recumbent stems (some of the plants have double or semi-double flower forms, which are notorious for lax stems)

Paeonia lactiflora

The grand precursor of the garden peony is still growing in the wilds of Mongolia and Northern China, and their seeds are collected by a few dedicated botanists from time to time. I obtained about 10 seedlings from collections made by J Halda in the Altai mountains; these 2 are the first to bloom this year. They're in a sunnier bed than the datum display bed. I'm not sure why hybridizers insist on trying to improve on nature... Nice strong stems, heady fragrance, clean simple lines-- a fine way to start the end of peony season, these are my last species to flower.

Noses, Shoots, and Deploying Leafs (part 5)

This is the last part of this series of pics from 8 May. Whew.

Fern-leaf Peony, Paeonia tenuifolia, at home in a grass swarm. Not planned; the grass came later (as it is tending to do in all my beds. Why oh why do we insist/persist in using creeping grasses in lawns?! (why do we have lawns at all?)

And here, probably a hybrid of tenuifolia, or maybe just a variation on the species. Whichever, it's also enjoying the grass. And while writing that, it has just occured to me that the grass may help to moderate soil moisture in winter here and thus break the plants out of their habit of decline after wet mild winters. Hmmm, time will tell.

Pre-2000 we used to have cold winters with dry snow; back then Paeonia anomala or the Anomalous Peony used to be way ahead of the garden peonies and the other species I was growing back then (which were only a few, and none of the very early ones). These days it choses to sleep in and in fact is not showing yet in most locations around the property. Note the sections of crown and roots sitting proud of the soil. Several plants of this species have adopted the bareback approach to life almost since they were first planted about 12 years ago. I don't bother covering them up.

And finally showing up today, the noses of the traditional Chinese Peony, Paeonia lactiflora, forebear of most of the garden peonies. More slender than any (?) others, and redder. At last something familiar-looking to many! This plant is grown from seed collected in the wilds of Mongolia or northern China (again, the intrepid Halda).

Missing in action (well, inaction really!) is Veitch's Peony Paeonia veitchii, and several tree peony species. They're just not starting yet.

A brief note to those who check this site daily, I have made 3 postings on the evening of 10 May, all dated 8 May: parts 3-5 of this theme. (the reason for messing with the dates is because of the date of the photos)

More Peony Seedpods- Carpels

For an introductory discussion of these things, see my weblog entry of July 21.
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Today's photos are of the Asian species I have.

Carpels of Paeonia anomala subsp intermedia

Carpels of Paeonia veitchii.






Carpels of Paeonia obovata. Very distinctive.





Carpels of Paeonia lactiflora (plants from wild-collected seed) These are smaller because they are less weeks from flowering.

Last Peony of the Year

At last today a bud has opened on my shyest seedling. Not quite fully open yet but enough to see that it is a white double.

There are some additional buds yet to open on several other plants, but essentially the Peony season is over here -- until the seed pods start opening. 14 May to 11 July plus a few days: a nice long peony season.

This weblog will continue to meander along for the rest of the summer but with a lesser update frequency than during the height of the peony season. But discerning readers will already have figured that out over the last few days!

Temperature affecting colour

The first photo is of a flower of Paeonia lactiflora which opened on a hot sunny day (well, we did have 4 sunny days in June!!). Second photo is a second flower of the same plant, but one which opened on a cooler cloudy day. (It's more pink, in case your monitor colour is off.)

For those wondering which cultivar this is, it's name is PSMT0629. That is, it is one of my unregistered seedlings. I think I'll keep it.

Some Random Tame Peonies- Paeonia lactiflora or hybrids thereof

In no particular order, here are a few of the seedlings of Paeonia lactiflora (some may be hybrids) which flowered for me for the first time this year. Seeds were from a broad spectrum of seed parents, bee-pollinated (back in the days before the honey-bee hive got killed by a bad winter). Most have self-supporting stems but a few, especially the large doubles, are weak-stemmed and are better with staking (easier to miss with the lawnmower, at least). Most are sweetly fragrant and most have sidebuds which extend the duration of the bloom period.

Wild Origins of the Garden Peony- Paeonia lactiflora

The plant which most gardeners know as the Peony has been in cultivation for millenia, initially in ancient China and from there moving into the west. While in cultivation the usual practice of selective breeding has resulted in the selection of forms and colours which are less usual in the original wild populations or even mutations which would be unlikely to reproduce or survive in the wild. More recently, the thrust of breeders has been towards hybrids, often between Paeonia lactiflora and another species but also between two non-lactiflora species or between hybrids.

Despite the popularity of the bred forms, it has more recently become possible once again to grow P lactiflora from seeds collected in the wilds of Mongolia and Northern China. The two flowers posted today are of two different seed collections from the wild by the Czech botanist Josef Halda, and which I bought as very juvenile seedlings from another nursery. The interpretation I make from Halda's seedlists, that various separate wild populations have fairly stable and consistent flower colour. I will know more in a year or two as the rest of my wild lactiflora seedlings come to bloom (I have 3 from each of 4 collection sites)

Paeonia hybrid "Pink Hawaiian Coral"

This plant is a hybrid between Paeonia peregrina and P. lactiflora. Strong stems, great colour (fading to ivory), and some fragrance.


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The absence of posts during the past few days is my fault this time; with a couple of decent sunny days it was difficult to balance some outdoor work, cycling, watching the World Cup football on tv against getting at the blog... expect more gaps this week, but after Friday the football schedule thins out a bit and I think I can get back to normal (whatever "normal" is around here!)