Paeonia 2015

[ArnoldT]

Paeonia emodi
Paeonia tenuifolia

[Irm]

Paeonia cambessedessi 

[Leena]

Very nice peonies,
Irm, does P.cambessedessi have as big flowers as it seems in the picture?

[Irm]

Yes, little plant, big flower 

[Maggi Young]

We had very warm days so the tree peonys are almost over. P. suffructicosa 'Shimane chojuraku' is suffering from strong winds. It has become so top heavy that I will have to cut it down a bit...

Message received from Derek Halford in New Zealand :

   " On looking at your ( sic)  recent paeonia thread there was a photo of what was labelled Shimane Choyjuraku which had a large number of flowers showing.I grow the paeony in New Zealand and I find the number of flowers to be unusual for a plant that is renown as a shy flowerer, looking at the photo I would think that the plant is a cultivar of the rockii species and a very good one at that. When the original plants were sent overseas a lot of labels were lost off plants or were misinterprited from the original label hence the misnamed varieties.
   
  We suffer from the same problem in N.Z. but with the help of the latest books from both Japan and China we are able to sort out some of the labelling successfully."

[Irm]

In flower today in my Berlin garden: Paeonia obovata

[Irm]

three tree paeonies

dark P. 'rockii'
P. 'Rocks GB'
P. 'Suminoichi'

[Leena]

Yes, little plant, big flower 

Thanks Irm. I wonder if it is too tender to grow here..
Do you have P.mairei? That is probably the earliest peony to flower here (though mine are too young to flower yet), P.obovata and many others are already in bud and I think after one week or little more I will see the first peony flowers here.

Tree peony flowers are great, but I have given up on them (though I have one P.rockii which may be a plant to grow here, it has one flower one after this very mild winter)

[johnw]

Tree peony flowers are great, but I have given up on them (though I have one P.rockii which may be a plant to grow here, it has one flower one after this very mild winter)

Leena  - Then you should try P. suffruticosa v. spontanea.  Our seed came from Stefan Mattson in Enkoping, Sweden.  It has sturdy stems and doesn't flop and ewas said to grow to circa 2.5m in Enkoping where Stefan used it extendisvely in the park system.  True seed will throw white, pink and pale lavenders.

There was mention of this peony in The Plantsman awhile back and believe it was a heritage plant in Finland and northern Norway.

john

[Irm]

Do you have P.mairei? That is probably the earliest peony to flower here (though mine are too young to flower yet), P.obovata and many others are already in bud and I think after one week or little more I will see the first peony flowers here.

Yes, I have a P. mairei, grown from seed (my sister is good in growing plants from seed  ). P. mairei was in flower two weeks ago, after some frosty nights.

[Leena]

Leena  - Then you should try P. suffruticosa v. spontanea.  Our seed came from Stefan Mattson in Enkoping, Sweden.  It has sturdy stems and doesn't flop and ewas said to grow to circa 2.5m in Enkoping where Stefan used it extendisvely in the park system.  True seed will throw white, pink and pale lavenders.
There was mention of this peony in The Plantsman awhile back and believe it was a heritage plant in Finland and northern Norway.

No, not from Finland. There are no heritage tree peonies here, I know only a few plants (mainly P.rockii, and a handful of other tree peonies) grown successfully in the south and west coast in Finland in sheltered gardens, and even they need many times protection for the winter (not to say I know every peony grower in Finland, but I know many of them  .
Enköping is more southern zone than even the best places in Finland. In Stockholm, Sweden, the climate is milder than in any place in Finland.

Herbaceous peonies and Itoh peonies are much better here. That said, I do have one P.rockii grown from seeds bought from Göteborg Botanical Garden, and that plant is going to flower for the first time this year, after a very mild winter this year. I also have P.ostii which always starts from the ground every spring but still manages to give some flowers (not anything spectacular), and couple of P.rockii seedlings. The micro climate in my garden is not very good, and many times  in the winter it is colder here than other places near, but herbaceous plants don't mind it.

[Leena]

Yes, I have a P. mairei, grown from seed (my sister is good in growing plants from seed  ). P. mairei was in flower two weeks ago, after some frosty nights.

Irm, thanks. It is good to know how P.cambessedessi flowers in relation to other species.
My P.mairei doesn't flower yet this year, but hopefully next year.

[johnw]

Leena - I must have confused it with the article on P. officianlis 'Nordic Paradox' in tyhat issue, Norway not Finland.  I would try to find that artiocle on P. spontanea as it came from Gansu to Moscow to Scandinavia, where is the question.  Surely it would be worth a try. How cold do you get, like Mustilla Arboretum?

john

[Leena]

Leena - I must have confused it with the article on P. officianlis 'Nordic Paradox' in tyhat issue, Norway not Finland.  I would try to find that artiocle on P. spontanea as it came from Gansu to Moscow to Scandinavia, where is the question.  Surely it would be worth a try. How cold do you get, like Mustilla Arboretum?

Actually in Mustila Arboretum it gets even colder than where I live, but they get also more snow than here, so you may be right that it would be worth to try.  I'm getting another tree peony next week in a plant swap, P.linjanshanii, it is a year old seedling and let's see how it will do here.

Yes, P.officinalis 'Nordic Paradox', "Midsummer peony", is a herigate peony here, found in old places, and now for a few years it has been also available commercially (for a high price). Like other P.officinalis, it produces buds from even the slightest piece of root, so even if you dig it up and there is any bit of root left back in the ground, however small, it comes up after couple of years. That must be one reason for it's survival even in abandoned gardens.

[Leena]

Here is the link to RHS article about Midsummer peony
https://www.rhs.org.uk/about-the-rhs/publications/magazines/the-plantsman/2013-issues/march/the-midsummer-peony