Paeonia 2019

[Leena]

Ebbie, how lovely P.cambessedsii. I think that is one of the peonies which I can't grow here.

Gail, thank you.

[ArnoldT]

Paeonia tenuifolia ssp. lithophila.

[Gail]

Very vivid red Arnold!
Flowering here P. tenuifolia 'Rosea' from Will McLewin

[ArnoldT]

Gail:

Thanks, it seems colors are always more vivid in less than bright sunshine.

[ArnoldT]

Paeonia emodi

[Gerdk]

It's Paeonia time

1. Paeonia rockii
2. P. lutea var. ludlowii
3. Paeonia officinalis ex Monte LBaldo

Gerd

[Steve Garvie]

Paeonia mascula var russoi Reverchonii


Paeonia rockii


Paeonia mlokosewitschii


Paeonia cambessedesii


Paeonia cambessedesii -a Dwarf form.


Paeonia caucasica

[Hans J]

Hello Steve ,

you show us a lot of really nice peonies

But sorry to say your P.russoi v.reverchonii is not a correct named plant - this plant should have glabrous carpells
( please look in "A study of the genus Paeonia " from F.C.Stern -page 65 )
So far I can see are the carpells of your plant hairy
There is written under Description :
"Differs from P.russoi by its glabrous carpels ,and leaflets tomentose on the lower surface"

Hans

[Gabriela]

Lovely peonies flowers!

So do I, though I don't have itoh peonies (except one), but also P.lactifloras show a wide range of colours in their shoots. Some are almost yellow and and some very dark. I have P.lactiflora 'Tie Gan Zi', which is not very vigorous and has not very special flowers (no side buds, and many times flowers look a little messy), but it has the darkest spring foliage which stays dark until almost flowering, so it deserves a place just for the foliage.

So do I Leena - the foliage in most cases is simply wonderful and helps enjoying the young plants until they start flowering (when grown from seeds).
I bought a first itoh last year, waiting to see how it will perform.

[Steve Garvie]

Hello Hans,

Many thanks for your comments.
I bought this plant about 4 years ago from Aberconwy Nursery. They are very reliable with their plant naming. Here is the label it came with:


Unfortunately I do not have a copy of Stern’s book whilst my total knowledge of Paeonia species could easily be transcribed onto the back of a postage stamp .....with room to spare.

I would be grateful for your help in naming this plant as it is dwarf, very attractive in flower and worthy of being properly named. Below I have included some additional images including a lower leaf  which is divided into three groups of three leaflets, an image of the tomentose undersurface of the leaf, a close up image of the flower which shows the hairy carpels and an image showing the hairy carpels as they develop into seed pods. So this plant has a tomentose under leaf but does not have glabrous carpels.

[Hans J]

Hello Steve ,

I believe that more or less no nursery has a really true P.russoi v.reverchoni ...they are extrem rare in cultivation
Funny to see your label from this Aberconwy Nursery .....so far I remember I had before many years contact to Mrs. Coller .
Maybe she was sure that these plants are P.russoi v. reverchonii ...

I have to confess that I'm a little crazy for peonies ...I have travel all over in Europe to see those plants in the wild
So I was also 2 times on Corsica to search for it ...and I have found such a population with such naked fruits ( sorry but this was in the time before digital cameras ) ...
For me looks your plant like a typical P.russoi - I found it on several places on Corsica
I have see this peonies also on Sicily ,Sardinia ,Zakinthos ,Kephallonia - for me are they not so close related with P.mascula ...but more with P.cambessedesii

I have just looked in my garden - my plant of P.russoi from Corsica ( grown from seeds ) has no hairs on the backsite ...
But I remember me well it was always confusing to observe Paeonia population ...some had hairs ...some others not .
Just for fun I have looked on my P.russoi from Sardinia ( now named as Paeonia morisii ) this plant has hairs on backside

Peonies are really difficult ...and without a location from where they came is it nearly impossibly to say what is it .
Another point is that they hybridize very easy with other related species ....and  produce true seeds is a hard work ( you have to pollinate by hand and after pollination you have to protect to avoid other pollinators )

For this reason have also Botanical Gardens often wrong named plants or hybrids ...so the best way is to look in the habitats ...but this is often not easy - you must be on the right time + right place ...Peonies grows mostly not near the roads  ...luckily !!!

I hope this helps a bit

Hans

[David Nicholson]

I bought this plant as a small seedling labelled as Paonia anomala from Slack Top nursery around 2006. In the years it has grown and flowered I have posted it here regularly and no-one has ever been sure if it is P. anomala or P. veitchii although the majority seem to have plumped for veitchii hence my current label. So, here it is again with a new set of pictures in the hope that someone may be able to say what it is for certain and cure this anomaly! I don't think (but I might be wrong) that Gail has had a go and there may be other 'new bloods'.

[ashley]

Have you tried this David? (downloadable pdf)

Your foliage looks very like what I have as anomala from seed wild-collected in/near Irkutsk.

[David Nicholson]

Ashley very kindly provided a link in his post to a paper by Hong and Pan entitled 'A Taxonomic Revision of the Paeonia anomala Complex (Paeoniaeae) I am very much a non-Scientist and find every such Paper very hard to follow. But I wonder if the original question I asked is perhaps answered by the extract below?

""..........Paeonia anomala subsp. veitchii usually possesses 2 to 4 blooming flowers in addition to up to 2 underdeveloped flower buds. Very rarely only the terminal flower blooms in addition to up to 3 flower buds. Paeonia anomala subsp. anomala possesses only a single terminal blooming flower, without or infrequently with 1 to 3 underdeveloped flower buds........""

Or have I made yet another mistake?

[ashley]

David, I sent you a PM.