The 2011 Peony Season Commmences

Shockingly, an update to this blog. Spring has been wet, and cold until just recently, but plants are either ahead of normal or somewhat behind: no consistent trend that I can figure out.

Last year I finally planted a Paeonia mairei in a bed, so I now know that it blooms about at the same time as what I had normally considered the first of the peonies. It looks like it suffered a wee whirlwind in its vicinity recently, and one of the flowering stems folded and failed before the bud could open. I didn't take a photo of the one open flower because it is somewhat windblown and ratty, or more precisely I should say shredded by raindrops and well-munched by slugs. A tidy, compact plant. For a good photo of the flower, see entries from previous years.


The normal "first", Paeonia tomentosa or the Woolly Peony. Usually the plants down in the shade beds open a week later than the ones near the house, but this year they are opening simultaneously. No real surprise, it truly has been no brighter in the open than in the woods this year!!!! and this plant species proves it.

Pale yellow with a touch of green.

Things peony-wise will look a bit imbalanced here this year: in order to get decently true seed without off-colour pollution, I will be removing the buds of the red/ magenta/ pink species plants where they overlap with the yellow species. I tried to interest a florist in them, but couldn't; so I will probably end up with floating dozens of them in trays of water in the house (and hopefully not stepping in one during a middle-watch visit to the wc)

The Race for Third

Hard on the heels of P. tomentosa comes P. mascula, the Male Peony. Some years there is no overlap, but this year there is. Which means getting out the paintbrush to pollinate the yellow Woolly one before the bees mess up the genetics. However, down in the shady woodland bed tomentosa rules alone with mascula not even showing colour yet (that is, not yet to the stage of the background bud in this photo). This is a late afternoon photo, with the flower just closing up as clouds move in.

Many others of the round-lobed leaf species are showing colour in their buds and are not too far from bursting forth either.

Variation in the Woolly Peony

A plant of Paeonia tomentosa is showing reddish tinges in foliage and in the petals. The foliage tint was more obvious and very attractive earlier in the spring, but even now is noticeable. The buds showed a bit too, but I was curious to see if that remained once the flowers opened. The second photo shows two plants together, for contrast.

Peony Season Officially Comences here (meanwhile in Edmonton...)

Yesterday afternoon (a gorgeous sunny cycling +23C afternoon!) the buds were still tight and showing no more colour than in the photos of 2 days ago. This morning, P. tomentosa the Woolly Peony was a yellow ball but not yet open, but by mid-afternoon the sun (although cooler than yesterday) had worked its magic and the first flower was open. 10 days ahead of 2006, 21 days ahead of 2007 (that's according to the previous entries in this blog).




In other good news on the tomentosa front, seedlings of this species are up so in a year or two I will once again be selling this species.




Meanwhile, P. mairei also opened after having had nicely coloured buds for several days (20 days ahead of 2007). However, we can see in the photos that these have some frost damage from the last snow day, more from the temperatures than from the snow itself; this probably retarded the opening of the buds by a few days. The frost damage is apparent in asymetrical petal shapes and in the outer rings of dead anthers (more noticable in the semi-open flower). Stigmas are very small too, as can be seen vaguely in comparison with the 2007 photo.










Glaucidium palmatum also opened over the weekend; this is considered by some botanists to be a member of the Peony family, although a different Genus. Horticulturally I find few similarities, but my analysis is only skin deep.

Meanwhile my sister in Edmonton posted photos of yesterday's wet snowfall which looks close to 5" deep... Strangely, if I recall correctly (and there's no guarantee of that!) Edmonton was having about +20C temperatures in sun during the last wintery blast here.

Spring Progresses

Indian Pear, Prunus pennsylvanica, a small native tree which usually paints the roadsides red and white with its' new leafs and flowers for a few weeks starting on the Victoria Day Weekend. But two weeks early this year. Its' flowering also usually marks the beginning of blackfly season, and does so again this year. (But I expect a short and sparse blackfly season again this year.) Can be grown as a shrub; it takes well to pruning (an unintended pun on the Genus...)





Flowers of the Cornelian Cherry, Cornus mas. This is the first time I have seen this shrub flower for me, although it is a bit hidden and I somewhat gave up on it years ago so haven't been looking attentively; for a first flowering it has quite a mass (again a naming pun!!) of flowers on it, most of them out of the frame of th camera. Planted in about 1991 or 2, one of the first tissue culture plants I bought through the Rhododendron Society. It's been a bit of a wait.




Red Barrenwort, Epimedium x rubrum, a fine slow-growing groundcover sub-shrub. Most years there is some old foliage which survives to hide the new growth and flowers a bit, but this year for some reason nothing. Maybe eaten by rabbits or something.






Maire's Peony, Paeonia mairei, the earliest to flower for me, but these are still in small pots near the front of a pot farm so maybe they would be later if they were in the ground. Or maybe not. A fairly small plant, but I no longer attribute that to them being in pots, as they are well-rooted through the drainage holes into the soil beneath.






Woolly Peony, Paeonia tomentosa, buds just starting to show some colour. Before P. mairei showed itself a couple of years ago, this was always the first peony to bloom, with no overlapping species. It's one of the lesser-known yellows from the Caucasus.

Second of the year-- Paeonia mascula

First flower on Paeonia mascula, the Male Peony. (due to the geography of the flowerbed I can't get any closer to it, but I will be able to get a closeup of other flowers when they open.)

Woolly Peony, Paeonia tomentosa, is still in bloom both in the display bed (mostly sun) and in the woodland bed so it is overlapping with another species this year, unlike last year.
_____________________

I made a quick visit to the open field where species plants are growing for sale, and found that things are not as far along there as on the home property. This is a first. Worse, some plants have not shown up at all there yet, and many that I had expected would flower this year have no buds. Not sure why... well, that's gardening (and weather effects) for you...

Flower close-up: Woolly Peony

Paeonia tomentosa again. I got the focus pretty good this time, so one can blow up the central tuft, anthers and carpels, to almost full screen (2x) if you are keen on looking into the "private parts" of the flower. Somewhat risque, but the plant doesn't mind.

The anthers (the yellow pollen sacks) sit on the ends of purpley-red filaments (stalks), and the carpels (ovaries) are the fat fuzzy bottle-like shapes in the middle (3 in this flower, but others may have more or less). At the tip of each carpel is the flat, vaguely shovel-blade-like red stigma, which is what the pollen has to stick to in order to commence fertilization. The pollen gets there mainly by insects which visit the anthers, picking up the sticky pollen deliberately or by accident and then brushing some of it off against a stigma when departing the flower; or when entering a flower with pollen from another flower. Bees in particular like rolling around in peony pollen on warm days with the intent of carting off as much pollen as their back legs can carry, to their hive, where the stuff becomes food.

It's Official, Peony Season has started here

The Woolly Peony, Paeonia tomentosa, came into bloom today during a short heat-wave of 29C (but tomorrow is forecast to be a more reasonable 21C). The temperature washed out the colours a bit, sadly. (Also washed out a certain cyclist who went a couple of bridges too far, but who will sleep like a log tonight)

In this their second year of blooming they have retained their postion as leader of the pack (peonies don't always bloom in the same order here, particularily while young).

Flowers are a decent yellow in cooler weather, have a tinge of green and are slightly fragrant.

This species also has the synonym Paeonia wittmaniana subsp. wittmaniana, and is one of the many species peonies from the Caucasus region. Leaves fuzzy on back, but pointy and greener than the "yellow standard", P. mlokosewitschii. More vigorous, and more sun and drought tolerant than mloko too. Flowers open pale yellow and fade to ivory; they last about a week to 10 days. Stigmas and anther filaments are reddish purple. Leaves are large and lush, a good landscape plant. They provide another colourful show in fall when the seedpods ripen and fold open.This species does well in the partial shade of the display beds near the house, and is also good but less vigorous in an open field and in my test bed in the woods. These photos are of a group of 3 plants in the part-shade bed.
__________________________

Nursery note: Bug Report: Blackflies: We got 'em. Lots to go around, although not as numerous as they have been. Hopefully it will be a short season for them like the last few years.

Noses, Shoots, and Deploying Leafs (part 1)

The past week or so was cool and miserable; peony development was on hold. Yesterday and today were a sudden burst of summer and things bombed right along in the garden. Mainly for academic interest, I made today a datum day and took pics of most of the peony species in whatever state of development they were averaging (plants in different locations start at different times of course, depending on soil warming rates etc.)

First, Paeonia tomentosa, Woolly Peony. These are moving right along, nice fat buds visible as soon as the leafs start to deploy.



Here, Paeonia tenuifolia ssp lithophila, the smaller form of the Fern-leaf Peony. Buds already formed, cute little clusters of bristles. Yesterday they were just little red blobs a mere cm tall.

Note the lack of red in the barely emerged leafs of this one, Paeonia peregrina; very distinctive. Of 4 plants in close proximity, this is the only one showing yet-- and this one wasn't showing 2 days ago.

Paeonia emodi, the white peony from the Himalayas. I believe there is a single small flower bud forming in the midst of all those leafs (wishful thinking perhaps?) but it is still small and not visible in the photo. Fingers crossed... [and noted the next day, yes there is obviously a flower bud forming. Yay!]

And here Paeonia ruprechtiana; reddish-purple tints, fat buds at the ready.





To be continued...

Peony noses and shoots (1)

With the advent of a few days of warmth and sun things are shooting up all over. Here are a look at some of the early signs of growth in several peony species.


Paeonia tomentosa, more advanced than the last photo. One can see the hairiness from which it gets its name.

Paeonia emodi, a rare beauty from the Himalayans. This is often the first to open its leaves here, which frequently results in frostbite. Maybe it'll flower at last, this year...

Paeonia caucasica, from the Caucasus mountains. Closely related to P. mascula.

Paeonia steveniana, from the Caucasus mountains. Closely related to P. tomentosa.

Signs of Spring, continued

Emerging shoots of Woolly Peony, Paeonia tomentosa -- the purpley spear-tip things to the right of the golf ball. You can also see a few dead stems from last year poking out of the ground; everything else is mulch. This is, just now, the only peony showing here; it's close to the edge of a raised bed and perhaps getting a bit of extra warming from low morning sun.

Another interesting set of Peony seeds

This is Paeonia tomentosa, which was the very earliest to bloom. So far only one set of carpels has opened. This set had three, the lower two opened four days before the upper one, which is just opening in the photo.

What is curious about this one is that fertile seeds are a fleshy semi-opaque purpley red (almost jellybean-ish) when the carpel first opens-- as in the uppermost one-- look closely and you can see that some of the seeds are fully oval and large while others (the aborted ones) are flatter and smaller, as in the lower 2 carpels. After a few days the jellybeans darken to black and take on a harder look. But there are still some segments of red on some of those seeds. This is the first species in which I've seen the fertile seeds change colour so dramatically after the carpels open.

And Yet Again More Peony Seedpods- Carpels

For an introductory discussion of these things, see my weblog entry of July 21. This is the last set until the "fall show".
________________________

Today, peonies of the Caucasus.

Carpels of Paeonia caucasica.






Carpels of Paeonia mlokosewitschii (the Golden Peony).





Carpels of Paeonia tomentosa.






Distinctive carpels of Paeonia steveniana. Much like those of obovata (of 2 days ago) but fatter and green rather than blue-green.




An observation: P steveniana is also called P wittmaniana subsp macrophylla and less commonly P wittmaniana subsp nudicarpa (appropriate to the obviously nude carpels!); and P tomentosa is also called P wittmaniana subsp tomentosa or just P wittmaniana. It's not obvious from the carpels that the two deserve to be part of the same species, but of course there is more to botanical classification than that (please don't ask me what though).

Peony seedpods- carpels

The seedpods of Peonies are called carpels. They are generally large and obvious, and can add some summer interest to the foliage groups of peony clumps. Some become quite outstanding in the fall when the seed ripens and the carpels open. Of course, not all the flowers will develop a seed pod, as there is sometimes a failure to pollinate for reasons of weather etc. And not all flowers of a species will have the same number of carpels, so where you see two they may actually have from 1 to 4 or sometimes 5.

The next few postings will show photos of carpels of most of my species. I've separated them by the general characteristics of the plants. Some of them are very similar, some are quite distinctive. Photos were all taken on the same day.
______________________________

Today's photos are of the Mascula-type grouping.

Carpels of Paeonia mascula.






Carpels of Paeonia tomentosa.






Carpels of Paeonia ruprechtiana.

A giant "Globeflower" - Paeonia steveniana

The British botanist from whom I bought my seeds of Paeonia steveniana had written in his seed list to the effect that gardeners who were impressed with the Golden Peony P. mlokosewitchii needed to see steveniana. I have to admit that I wasn't impressed with it when it first flowered last year, but the plants have matured leaps and bounds since then, in all ways larger and more impressive and I am now a convert to appreciation of the magnificence of this species.

The flowers open a soft yellow (well within the range of yellow of the better-known yellow, mlokosewitschii) and will fade to ivory by the time the petals drop; you can see a bit of the fading of the same flower, between the first two photos. The centre is exquisite with dark red filaments and stigmas, is mildly fragrant, and doesn't open much further than in the second and third photos, remaining globular in shape. There are also white-flowered plants which are also great, and one of my seedlings has a fine red edging to the petals, probably the influence of inadvertent hybridizing. (due to a camera malfunction I don't have a photo of these variants). First bloom here this year was on 27 May.

The third photo is of a plant of the "high altitude form", but I don't see any difference from the rest of mine. I include it because the raindrops appeal to my artistic side.

P steveniana is one of a few synonyms for a plant which some botanists classify as Paeonia wittmaniana subsp macrophylla. The foliage is lush, soft-textured and a bit droopy in an attractive way; the leafs are pointed and quite large with clearly visible vein patterning.

It is native to the region of the Caucasus and nearby, growing in forests and amongst shrubs. They are large plants, up to a metre tall, but like all species peonies are strong-stemmed and do not need support. Mine have flowered a year younger in the open field, but are less vigorous there and in the woodland bed. The photos were all taken at the part-shade bed near the house, where the plants are at their most magnificent.

Seed of my plants was collected from the wild in the southeast of the Republic of Georgia.

Compared to P tomentosa which we saw earlier, this has larger leafs, flowers later (no overlap here), and has the distinctive globular shape to the flower. Yep, a person would really have to have both in their garden!

________________
ignore this bit... I'm trying to figure something out here

The Kick-off - Paeonia tomentosa

Once upon a time my website had a "Pic of the Day" page, which I discontinued this year. It had the disadvantages of crowding the available webspace and of zero archives. Then my e-pal Denis, in Australia, another peony enthusiast, introduced me to a the weblog concept. I never really clutched into it until suddenly the peony season was upon me, and so here we go...

Today's post should actually have appeared a week ago but I hadn't made the mental leap yet at that point. So:

15 May 2006: Paeonia tomentosa (synonym Paeonia wittmaniana subsp. wittmaniana), one of the many species peonies from the Caucasus region, showed me its bloom today for the first time. A surprise decent yellow (I hadn't been reading the books lately): so yellow that when I saw it in the field a couple of days ago (different plant!, same seed batch) I mistook the flower for a mlokosewitschii (more on that one in a week or few). Leaves fuzzy on back, but pointy and greener than mloko. More vigorous, and more sun and drought tolerant than mloko.

Flowers open pale yellow and fade to ivory; they last about a week to 10 days. Stigmas and anther filaments are reddish purple. Leaves are large and lush, a good landscape plant. I expect another colourful show in fall when the seedpods ripen and fold open.

This species does well in the partial shade of the display beds near the house, and is also good but less vigorous in an open field and in my test bed in the woods. Flowering was first in the field, 2 days later in the display bed, and 4 days after that in the woods. This photo is of a group of 3 plants in the part-shade bed. Plants in the background are other species of peony which will flower later.