A Sudden Outburst of Sun-- and Peonies

The cold and grey of most of May was good for one thing: watching the Giro d'Italia (Tour of Italy) bike race on tv. The Spaniard Contador, after whose exploits I've named a peony, was in a fine fettle, lit up the race a few times, and won the thing. Great style to watch on the bike, and explosive uphill. Motivating.

Finally things warmed up here, outside, although remaining cloudy. Then 2 days of sun and it was suddenly almost hard to hear anything except peonies popping.

I had decided to try my darndest to prevent the bees from cross-pollinating the darker-flowered species into the lighter ones. This has meant clipping the buds of many plants while they are well-coloured but not quite open. But what to do with them all? Well, a couple of floating cut-flower projects have evolved. 6 buds of P mascula filled a large glass mixing bowl once all opened, but I'd have needed over a dozen of them. So some clean plastic planting trays sufficed, or will eventually, for the rest, holding about 40 buds each (now working on the third). In addition to mascula, there are a lot of P caucasica and P kesrouanensis, some P ruprechtiana (all 3 of those of the mascula clan and very similar), and a few early P veitchii and P officinalis.













So now the yellows and whites are free to be bee'd without muddying their colours, if not exactly keeping their gene pools clean (I'll do some hand-pollinating with a paintbrush to help that aspect). But wait, I also really need seed of P triternata, so there is the slight chance of some pink after all. Oh well. And then there's the bright red P tenuifolia in bloom in one location: that colour is welcome to mix with the yellows if it wants!

Blogger refuses to insert photos in the order I send them, and moving them around has crashed the blog more than once, so the following are not in my preferred order; but what the heck.

White form of P steveniana, flower and plant. That's about as open as the flowers of this species get.











A very pale form of P mlokosewitschii, which started to open yesterday. There is a subtle blush of pink at the base of the petals. I call this the "Moonlight form". This plant is one year out of the pot, where it had 2 stems last year.

P mlokosewitschii proper, the Golden Peony.

P steveniana proper, a bit paler than mlokosewitschii and a bit darker than P tomentosa (which is done now). And a grouping of 3 plants.

And just to prove that I'm not totally against the "pinks" this year, a nice dark-flowered form of P caucasica.

Aaaghhh! Everything's Opening at Once

Peonies, that is.

With the sudden warmth, the garden has been flooded with the fragrance of the Golden Peony, P mlokosewitschii, (no photo today) which is not as sweet as the later lactifloras, different and distinctive but pleasant. P steveniana might be contributing a bit to the overall ambient fragrance of the yard, but it is mostly mloko. And definitely marvelous! I hadn't noticed mloko's fragrance to be so pervasive before-- used to have to get my nose right into it. Maybe all the fresh air from cycling has sharpened my sense of smell. (Or maybe it just takes 20 years to recover from the miasma of fuel, wet paint and dense cigarette smoke which was the atmosphere of HMC Ships back then (I understand they've done away with the ciggies lately, but maybe not))


Paeonia tenuifolia subsp lithophila, a dwarf form of the Fern Leaf Peony. Single flower, and a group of 4 plants.


















Two flowers this year on the newly-named Paeonia x steveniana cultivar "Contador's Triple Crown". You can read about it at the link below; but it isn't for sale... Due to the sudden heat wave the highlight rose edging of the petals is overly faded, and a better look is at the linked page. http://plants.chebucto.biz/plants/PeonyContadorsTripleCrown.html




A pale-pink flower on mloko-like foliage. This plant grown from seed labelled as "Paeonia mlokosewitschii/ wittmaniana/ caucasica hybrid"







And a white, or at least dead pale, form of P. steveniana.

More New Openings in the Peony Department

Paeonia tenuifolia, the Fernleaf Peony, has opened in full sun. The dwarf subspecies in a bed which is a bit shaded in the mornings is not open yet. There are 2 plants in this photo; on the left, a dark red proper species; on the right, the larger plant is probably a hybrid (it has yet to set seed) and has flowers with a more magenta tint.





Paeonia steveniana, Steven's Peony if one must put a common name to it, as open as it will get. A cloudy day today, so the colour is intensified; it is never that intense of a yellow here.








And here it is behind a crowd of Paeonia mascula and some Paeonia caucasica (a subsp of mascula and pretty much identical to my eye.








A few more buds of steveniana, behind a few plants of another mascula close relative, Paeonia kesrouanensis. (More information about this plant, or any other, by looking up earlier posts in the index.)







And unexpectedly, a plant of the Golden Peony, Paeonia mlokosewitschii, a couple of days earlier than expected. And filling the yard with it's fragrance at an intensity I've never noticed before.

Good news for customers, there are about 15 potted plants from seed of this species in bud (will probably open sometime in the next week)-- not all will be yellow-flowered which is why I have to see the flowers before I can sell the plants- at least one looks like it will be magenta (mascula cross), and some may be apricot or very pale yellow, almost white. Can;t wait to see it (but have to!!)

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 from the wittmaniana group

Today saw the first flower of the year on Paeonia macrophylla, the Largeleaf Peony. Classified by some botanists as Paeonia wittmanniana var macrophylla, it is similar to P steveniana (which some classify as Paeonia wittmanniana var nudicarpa). My plants have similar but paler flowers and distinctly larger leafs with a more substantial texture to them.

For a comparison, here is a pic of the leaf of my Paeonia steveniana:

Expectations unmet

The plant of Paeonia steveniana which last year bore a flower with a fine red line around the rim, has now opened. Whether due to the move or the new location or just the maturing of the plant, the red rim is disappointingly missing this year, although there is a bit of reddish veining to the petals which gives the flower a bit of a tawny tinge. Maybe next year, once it is re-established...





And here, a group of 4 steveniana in the display bed.




Also on the theme of unmet expectations (aka don't count your peony buds until they open), the single bud of Paeonia emodi has aborted and will not open this year.

A busy day in the sun by the peonies

A sCycling Scaturday for me, riding into the Annapolis Valley (but avoiding the Apple Blossom Festival events) where it was strangely cooler than at home due to a northish breeze off the Bay of Fundy. Took a few pics of the morning beauties before I left, and found a whole palate-able tribe of colour on return.

First a few closeups of Paeonia mascula, the Male Peony, in a few colour variants. Of note, not much bee activity and so the older flowers (not photographed) have a heavy sprinkling of pollen on their lower petals-- usually the bees cart this stuff off to their hives. The first mascula is typical of the average of my plants. Second is the pale variant whose bud was shown yesterday; a superbly interesting centre, with the yellow anthers forming a nearly perfect sphere. The third is a slightly darker colour than the first.





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Yesterday a bud of Paeonia steveniana, Stevens' Peony, sneaked into the frame of a photo. By this morning the bud had swelled significantly, so I took a photo of it, expecting it to probably be in flower by the time I got back. As you can see, it was (a bit of a green tint to the thumbnail, as can be seen on the golfball, but the full-size image is pretty close to correct). More to follow soon, but this is the forerunner. Lots of insect activity inside there! Also in the evening, took a pic of an interesting variant of steveniana which popped up in my seed lot, having a red rim on the petals (or at least it did last year in the field. It is now in one of the home beds where I can keep an eye on it and appreciate it properly!)


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Closely related to mascula but from a different region, Paeonia kesrouanensis opened a few buds while I was away.



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And in a surprise move, one plant of Paeonia mlokosewitschii, the Golden Peony, burst into bloom today (every bud but one!); again a green tinge to the thumbnail but not to the full-size image. This is in a different bed from the main display group (datum group); the datum plants of this species are not yet in bloom. This plant is also one with green foliage instead of the blue-green with purple stems that my other mature plant has.

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Finally, a (probable hybrid of) Fern-leaf Peony, Paeonia tenuifolia, opened today as well. This too is in a non-datum bed. (The thing about non-datum beds is that it is hard to relate the relative sequence of blooming when sun exposure and soil compostion are different between plants of different species. Probably only of concern to pedantic folks like me...)

Whew!!

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.