Paeonia 2013

[Matt]

Thank you all for the nice comments...by the way...dad is also very proud! I am now looking forward to seeing images of your plants!

Yes - I have the climate on my side...this makes growing southern species much easier for me and the fact that I can grow them outside in the garden also helps a lot. Peonies don't to well "under glass" or in a pot.

However - for the same climatic reasons - I can not grow any species of the anomala/obovata complex...it is too hot and dry in summer.

Thomas - in my experience with difficoult species like P. clusii - the secret is to start with small seedlings (max 3 years old) or with small divisions with young roots. Big plants/divisions are not very reactive and don't establish well (and they are also very expensive!). Even better it is to start with seeds that I now put directly in to the soil in a nursery bed - outside in the garden - rather than in a pot. In this way I avoid the traumatic "pot to soil" transplant. The rest is really a matter of patience and observation.

Hendrik - GREAT NEWS!!!! P. parnassica is somehow similar to P. arietina - P. officinalis - P. peregrina and P. tenuifolia as all those species are able to "rebuild" buds from roots that have lost the main crown. Good luck with the new plants!

M.

[Leena]

P.clusii looks wonderful. 
I have admired the color of P.parnassica for a long time, but thought that it may be too tender to grow successfully here (not that I have found it's seeds anywhere), P.obovata and such grow well in my garden.
My peonies are only coming up now, it will still be a month before the first ones flower (and many are still too young to flower).
This is white P.mollis which I got last autumn. Even the shoot looks pale compared to ordinary P.mollis which has red new shoots. I don't know the taxonomy of P.mollis, but it is different from other forms of P.officinalis which I have, and the red/pink one sets seeds each year and the seedlings come true. This white flowering form appeared in my friends garden, and she doesn't have any other peonies flowering at the same time, so it is a mystery what it is, but it's leaves and flowers are like P.mollis, only white.

[Irm]

Paeonia ostii & dad :-)

oh wow  the ostii  !!
my little ostii shows two buds this year, but I am afraid I am to old for a picture like this with your dad and the ostii 

[Gail]

The Peony Group of the Hardy Plant Society met at Spetchley Park near Worcester for our AGM/garden visit today. In a normal year there would be a wealth of peony species flowers to admire at this time but as it is such a late season we could only admire foliage/buds. However if you are in the area within the next few weeks it would be well worth a trip as they have a huge collection of peonies.

Even without the peony flowers it was a fascinating garden, crammed with interesting plants including lots of narcissus cultivars old and new - many of which came from the garden of Ellen Willmott.

[Gail]

My first peony this year is P. mairei but P. mascula is not far behind and should be open tomorrow.
P. tenuifolia 'Rosea' is looking promising with several flower buds but is lovely even in leaf...

[ArnoldT]

Flower closing at end of day.

Paeonia tenuifolia ssp. lithophila

[Leena]

It's so nice to see peony flowers when my own are still small. 
P.mairei is something I had wanted for some time, and now I have four one year old seedlings and one which germinated this spring, which seem to do well. These seeds came from Gothenburg Botanical garden and the first ones are supposed to be lighter pink and the other one darker pink, so it will be interesting to see what color flowers they will have in a few years.

What peony is 'Jenny'? P.officinalis?

[Gail]

What peony is 'Jenny'?

'Jenny' came from 'The Plantsmen' nursery of Eric Smith and Jim Archibald. In the Spring 2010 newsletter of the HPS Peony Group Judy Templar reported that she asked Jim about it and he thought that it had been raised from seed sent to them by Vera Frazer Mackie who gardened beside Belfast Lough in Northern Ireland. He thought the seed was labelled as from a wittmanniana hybrid but that Jenny looked more as if it had some influence of P. obovata or even P. cambessedesii.

[Janis Ruksans]

I saw this Paeonia in a couple of gardens near Gothenburg when I was on the AGS trip last year.  They were calling it Paeonia iranica.  Is this the one you are growing, Janis?

I only now checked Paeonia entry and as looking on "new" - first opened this discussion.
Yes, this yellow paeonia named "P. iranica" in Gothenburg is the same. There are two nice paeonias growing wild in Iran in not very long distance - the white one is tall (medium) growing in half-shaded position. I'm not Paeonia specialist, so I leave identification to others. I have several seedlings of it, but they still didn't bloom with me.
The yellow one is very different from P. lagodechianus. It is dwarf (lagodechianus - tall), growing in full sun on open slopes between rocks (lagodechianus - openings in forest). I completely can't agree with last Paeonia monograph (Kew) not accepting this one as species. I haven't monograph of Hong De-Yuan in my possesion at present, so can't tell with which it is associated, but then Picea and Pinus both are same as both have needle like leaves...
Attached pictures made in Iran during WHIR trip.
Still some more differences - seedlings of P. iranica and P. mlokosewitschii are very different by leaf colour, too.

[ArnoldT]

Here's a daytime shot. Note the different foliage on tow plants.

[ArnoldT]

Day time flower

Paeonia tenuifolia ssp. lithofolia

[David Nicholson]

Nice to see some Paeony flowers, mine will be a couple of weeks or so yet.

[Leena]

Thank you Gail.

Very interesting  peonies from Iran.

[Matt]

Picea and Pinus both are same as both have needle like leaves...

LOL exactly Janis...and they look even more the same if you only see them on an herbarium specimen!

M.

[Matt]

'Jenny' came from 'The Plantsmen' nursery of Eric Smith and Jim Archibald. In the Spring 2010 newsletter of the HPS Peony Group Judy Templar reported that she asked Jim about it and he thought that it had been raised from seed sent to them by Vera Frazer Mackie who gardened beside Belfast Lough in Northern Ireland. He thought the seed was labelled as from a wittmanniana hybrid but that Jenny looked more as if it had some influence of P. obovata or even P. cambessedesii.

I agree with you...Jenny seems to me more obovata than wittmanniana...but it does OK with me - where pure obovata struggles even in shade.

I am not really into hybrids (esp. the big & bold ones) but I have to admit that Jenny has a particular charm...the same simple elegance of most Saunders and Auten herbaceous hybrids...and it seems relatively easy to grow.

M.