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!)

An interesting hybrid of Paeonia mlokosewitschii

Sometimes an accidental (i.e. bee-crossed) hybrid can be interesting although not necessarily spectacular. Paeonia mlokosewitschii is a species which hybridizes readily -- and rather obviously when the flower isn't yellow.

This particular plant (bloom started on 31 May) starts rather drab but becomes quite lovely after a few days. I call it "Summit Ugly Duckling" (per Hans Christian Anderson's tale about the ostracized "duckling" which matured into a swan, to the envy of the rest of the ducks. (Summit is my nursery identifier)). Usually it lasts more than 4 days but the continuous wet and a heavy rain turned the petals to mush by day 5 this year.

Oh, by the way, it's a little bit fragrant.

I used to think this was an early species- Paeonia veitchii

First, sorry for the gap. The weblog server was down when I attempted to post during the past 2 days. But, one can expect the odd gap in the weeks to come as I try to fit in a bit of work between watching World Cup Football on tv... Of course, if it continues to rain here as much as it has the past 10 days I should have lots of indoor time to spend on the computer.
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This was one of the first species of peony that I came to grow, from seed obtained through the seed exchange of the Devonian Botanical Garden near Edmonton Alberta. In my early ignorance of all the rest of the species, I used to think it was one of the earliest of peonies to bloom. Now of course we all know better, after writing and reading at this weblog.

Although I've been growing it for over a decade it is only recently that I started to see variations in flower colour, in plants grown from seed collected off my plants and in seed obtained from elsewhere.

Common name: Veitch's Peony. Paeonia veitchii has been an easy and low maintenance plant for me, responding well to neglect. Sturdy stems produce an almost dome-shaped bush form by the age of 6 or so; height: 2-3 ft.

All the species we've looked at up to now have only one flower per mature stem. Veitchii however has side-buds, some of which do not mature but usually each stem will put out 3 to 5 flowers. This means a longer bloom period, 2 to 3 weeks as opposed to about 1 week for the earlier species.

It's native to NW China (in the provinces of Gansu, Sichuan and Shensi), where it grows in subalpine meadows and scrub, and to mountain grasslands. In my gardens it is quite adaptable, growing decently in all my bed sites, although flowering less in the woodland bed and remaining shorter more compact in the open field than it is in partial shade.

Some plants have foliage with an interesting etched-like appearance to the veining, while that of others appears smooth. The foliage maintains a great appearance right up to the first frost with no ornamentally interesting colour-change.

The deep red flower here is from seed obtained from a seed exchange as the "late-flowering form" of P veitchii; no mention of any departure from the usual pink flowers. Well, it chooses to flower at the same time as all my other veitchii's (starting 31 May this year) but has this intensely deep red bud that any rose would be proud to have, and flowers that age to crimson. An exciting variant!



These last two photos are of a probable hybrid grown from seed from a seed exchange. The foliage is incredibly finely-cut, almost as fine as tenuifolia. The flower is a very good red with a slight bluish tinge.

The Golden Peony-- Paeonia mlokosewitschii

Unargueably the best yellow of the Herbaceous peony species (that is, the ones that die back to the ground each year, as opposed to the Tree peonies) Paeonia mlokosewitschii is another of the beauties from the Caucasus region. As always, the shade of colour is variable from paler to darker, and I've assembled a comparative shot with petals of 3 of my plants, including the darkest and lightest, although it doesn't really get the true colours. The first 2 flower photos are the yellowest that I have; my bike approves of their shade. First bloom here 29 May this year.

This is a rarity in the Peony genus in having only one name!! and the only synonym is a variation in the spelling.

Mloko's native environment is on sunny slopes in hardwood forests. It seems also to have a penchant for moisture and unless irrigated is likely to have problems with dry climates. Plants in my gardens are best in about 3 to 4 hours of mid-day sun and shaded by trees for the rest of the day. They do almost as well with a bit less sun, and are adequate in the woodland bed, where even a single flower illuminates an area. They are desperately slow-growing in the unirrigated open field, taking at least 2 years longer from seed to flower than in the other locations.

The foliage is more purple than red when emerging and, depending on the plant keeps some degree of purple tinge in the leafs into the flowering period as well as purple stems long into summer. Leaves on some plants change colour throughout the season, and may have quite a bluish tinge. Seed pods and seeds add great colour in late summer, as with all the Caucasus species.

This species has the interesting property of accepting pollen from a lot of other species, and it hybridizes readily. This means that plants grown from seed collected in gardens is liable to result in plants with non-yellow flowers, and if you are dead set on a yellow flower you need to ensure that any plant you buy has flowered true; inexpensive young seedlings may not be a good buy. Nonetheless there are some very attractive plants resulting as can be seen from these last 2 photos.