The home garden’s first choice should be showy, hardy, need minimum care, and permanent plants. Herbaceous peonies meet all four of these requirements.
From the moment the crimson spears poke through the soil in early spring until the foliage is cut down by frost in late fall.
The peony is lovely; for even when not in bloom, the handsome, rounded foliage mass provides an excellent accent point in bed or border.
The plants serve as specimens or may be combined with annuals, perennials, or summer bulbs, providing quantities of bloom for cutting and garden effect.
Herbaceous Peonies
Peonies seldom require winter protection after the first year or two. They thrive from southern Mississippi well into Canada. An added virtue is their freedom from insects and disease.
Only botrytis blight, which attacks the young stems or turns buds black, is a problem, but it is easily controlled with fermate or other fungicide spray applied in spring as the spears break through the ground.
Herbaceous peonies, as any specialist’s catalog will disclose, come in a glittering array of varieties, including every color of the rainbow but blue.
Five Flower Types
There are five distinct flower types:
Single
Five or more petals are arranged around a center of pollen-bearing stamens and carpels.
Japanese
Five or more petals and abortive stamens, called staminodes, surround the carpels.
Anemones
Five or more petals and a center of stamens transformed into a pompon of petalodes, usually yellow.
Semidouble
Five or more outer petals and a center of broad petals with stamens intermixed.
Double
Stamens, and sometimes carpels, more or less fully transformed into petals, resulting in many-petaled, globe-shaped flowers.
Peony Requirements
In ancient China, regardless of wealth or position, everyone enjoyed peonies, an eloquent example of people’s love for the plant. Its native home, China, Tibet, and Manchuria, indicates its winter hardiness.
Peonies are happy when they are grown alone, but, as already noted, they combine readily with perennials, such as poppies, delphiniums, and lilies.
However, they are heavy feeders, so avoid planting them where they must compete with tree roots for nourishment.
While soil tolerant, they prefer a medium-heavy loam with good drainage. Also, peonies should have sunlight at least half of each day.
In selecting varieties, pay special attention to the height and strength of the stems and the size and color of the flowers. This data is usually given in growers’ catalogs.
The time of bloom is also important. In most northern states, the peak of the peony season is late May and early June; farther south, it is somewhat earlier.
Consider those that bloom ten days to two weeks before the peak as early; those that bloom a week before and a week after the peak as midseason; and those that flower later as late.
Selection Of Varieties
By careful selection of varieties, it is possible to have peonies in flower for almost six weeks.
My favorite varieties are:
- Single Cygnet—large, pure white, early blooming, medium-sized plant
- Anemone-Kinsui—large, salmon pink, gold center, midseason
- Semidouble—Garden Princess, light pink fading to white, midseason
- Japanese—Nippon Splendor, dark red, tall, stiff stems, midseason
- Double-La Lorraine—creamy-white, tall, strong stems, midseason
44659 by Mark M. Taylor