Happy is the gardener who places his plants correctly in the beginning. As a result, his garden grows old along with him—and gracefully.
Each spring and fall, it can be said of both “The best is yet to be.”
Peony: A Plant Of Permanence
To this person, the peony offers everything, for the peony is a plant of permanence. It comes as close to being ideal as any plant you can name.
Once a peony has been set out in a favorable location, its performance will improve with each blooming season, and the flowers will increase in size and perfection.
But peonies are not compatible with the owner, who likes to keep shifting and changing plants. Moreover, when peonies are divided every two or three years, they never get a chance to produce a satisfactory crop of typical blooms.
If you yield to the temptation to move a large established peony clump, it will never be the same again, or the root system will be damaged.
Of course, it can be done if you wish to go to the trouble and expense of taking up an enormous ball of earth, assuming that your soil is cohesive enough and that your equipment and skill are adequate to keep the whole intact.
Such a plant-soil mass would likely weigh 300 pounds or more. When you attempt to move peonies with only a cubic foot or so of soil (as is usually the case), the root tips are severed, and at each of the broken points, a witches broom or circular mass of new roots will develop.
These new roots are soon engaged in a fight for survival, strangling and choking one another off.
Accents In Landscape
Some peonies are especially suited to use as accents in the landscape, either singly or in groups of three or five.
Place these plants where they will remain free from shade domination or the encroaching roots of trees or shrubs.
And, if you can, place the peonies in locations you frequently pass, such as the path to the garage or the entrance to an outdoor living area.
Flamingo
The most handsome peony I know of for such use is FLAMINGO. The name indicates the color of its bewitching semi-double blooms with gold centers.
I am thinking of the plant, though, for accent plants should be beautiful even without flowers.
Flamingo is unique in every way.
It flowers very early, and the leaves have a character of their own. And the plant itself is smaller and more formal than those of other varieties.
You might compare Flamingo to other peonies as you would compare a clipped dwarf yew to the more spreading type. The leaves start at ground level, and the flowers open at one time and are many.
Mary W. Shaylor
MARY W. SHAYLOR is a dwarfed peony with flowers, much like a Flamingo. The kerns are stiff as ramrods, but the plant as a whole, although pretty and with great dark leaves, is not as striking as Flamingo.
John Howard Wigell
Peony JOHN HOWARD WIGELL Costs a little more than the previously mentioned varieties. However, here we have a dwarf plant that produces a great number of pink watermelon blooms with beautiful petal formations.
Mattie Lafuze
One other peony in the “accent” category is MATTIE LAFUZE. A single plant of this variety is a show in itself.
One of our keenest appraisers in the American Peony Society said of it, “It looks like it is going to be the finest thing I ever owned.”
The plant is great, and the leaves are magnificent. The whole specimen is magnificent before, during, and after blooming.
The color and type? It is a fully double flower and plenty big. The color is a subtle blending of soft yet vivid pink.
Blush might explain it better, but surely no Irish Colleen in her healthiest teens ever flashed a complexion quite as fetching as Mattie’s.
If your home has a large window, consider its view when planning the garden outside. For the areas farthest from your view, choose peonies in colors that can be seen at a distance.
Cherry Hill
CHERRY HILL is a peony with this virtue of visibility. You can see it “a mile away,” even though the color is quite dark.
Not at all on the bluish side, nor garish like grandma’s “piney,” it can still draw your attention before any of the others.
Since it is extremely tall, it should always be placed at the very back of your plantings. Be sure to give it plenty of room—15 square feet is not too much—for in time, it will make a tremendous plant.
Rosedale And Rose Marie
Two little red peony scamps are excellent for the forefront of any planting. They are hybrids named ROSEDALE and ROSE MARIE.
Their colors are bright, and at first glance, the flowers may be mistaken for roses. However, whereas Cherry Hill may attain a height of 5′ feet in rich earth, these two plants will stay about 20′ inches.
None of the three plants will cost you more than three dollars, and Cherry Hill sells for about half that amount.
The exact dates at which peonies flower are so unpredictable from year to year that the effect of flower combinations seen in the imagination is scarcely ever realized.
Varieties listed as late bloomers may be among the first to flower some years, and the “early” ones often prove to be slowpokes.
Single Peony Variety
If, like myself, you want your beauty treatments in big doses, plant several peonies of a single variety in each group.
When I plant anything at all now, I try to plant quite a lot of it and in the most favorable media for that particular subject.
This is one of the most prized lessons nature has taught me in a half-century of gardening.
Mixed Peonies
The same principle generally applies to mixing peonies with other border perennials. I have seen, though, one combination of real beauty. I refer to peonies and a wide selection of bearded iris.
Once in a great while, they will bloom at the same time. The fact of their being so utterly opposite in leaf style and flower only enhances the effect, the splashy peonies being offset by the colored iris candles, lighted and swinging upon their graceful candelabra.
Moon Of Nippon
An extra reward of this perennial combination is the opportunity, once in a great while, to combine in large low bowl blooms of MOON OF NIPPON or ISANI-GIDUI (two superlative white Japanese peonies) with porcelain blue iris. If you have never seen this combination, there is a thrill in store for you.
Peony Arrangement
The remark is frequently made, “Peonies are too big for effective use in arrangements, and they don’t last.” This is not true, but I can readily see why many people think so.
If you grow and regularly disbud the wide varieties, you will likely get exhibition blooms but not arrangement material.
Such flowers will indeed be difficult to handle, and if not thoroughly chilled, they will not last long after cutting.
Plant Semi Doubles
Do this instead, and you will be more than delighted. Plant a bed of glorious semi-doubles which are more modest in flower size. There is no more decorative peony than the semi-double type.
Let the list just a few of the many available to you:
- MINNIE SHAYLOR, blush to white with a brilliant boss of new gold
- LADY ALEXANDRA DUFF, larger and with more blush and the center a cluster of peek-a-boo stamens among the smaller curling inner petals
- AVE MARIA and MISS AMERICA are tops, both white or near white
- MILDIO MAY flowers are milk-while, small, and in clusters
- LA ROSIERE is a very similar hut with some blush
- RED GODDESS is a deep dull crimson, again with the golden heart
Yes, and I must boast once more of the rare charms of my special pet, GAY PARFE. This one is a vivacious and impudent pink classed as a fancy Japanese.
It is far fancier than that! I consider it, with Mildred May, the most decorative of all peonies.
Simple Handling Of Arrangements
Now that your bed of arrangement beauties is ready to work for you, they will require special but simple handling to produce blooms of arrangement size.
About the first of May, remove the terminal bud of each peony stalk. I also like to remove some of the others, leaving, let us say, three to five buds.
In the case of Lady Duff, I would leave at least five buds, or the flowers will be too large. When the color begins to show strongly, cut individual buds for low arrangements and the entire stalks for larger designs.
Wrap them loosely in wax paper, foil, or even newspapers, and place them in the lower part of your refrigerator.
The buds must be kept dry. When you remove them, they will be a pitiful mess, maybe as many as ten days later.
But—they will bounce right back into good condition when you place them in water. So never use water with chlorine in it.
The recuperative powers of the peony are positively amazing to the uninitiated.
Box Of Twelve Peony Blooms
A box of twelve blooms from Indiana was delivered to us in New York by mail. Unfortunately, they were dry and wilted.
The labels indicated that they were, or at least had been, buds of that great show variety, DOROTHY J.
I am sure the lady for whom they were named would have been thoroughly ashamed of them. So, naturally, the first impulse was to throw them out, but instead, we gave them a good drink of water and a few puffs of cool, conditioned air.
The next morning, they were in fine condition, and one became the show’s grand champion against the sharp competition. If well chilled, peonies will satisfy anyone as to their lasting qualities, and they don’t mind the heat.
I have seen Isani Gidui stand up stiff and proud for ten days. How many will other June flowers do that?
You just never get over the wonder of watching peony blooms revive after correct refrigeration. With a little experience, you can have them “in the pink” at a certain hour or day through temperature control and timing.
Japanese Tree Peonies
If you would like to have peonies in flower for 60 days, start the blooming season with a Japanese tree peony. I use Japanese as a qualifying word because to my mind, the European varieties are inferior.
In early May, a good Japanese variety will give you a few lordly blooms. A lutea hybrid will follow soon after a few flowers, extremely long-lasting and of a yellow or chartreuse shade (excellent corsage material).
Then come the herbaceous hybrids in late May and all colors except blue and yellow. Then, last, there is the long parade of albiflora varieties which lasts nearly a month.
Save a few bundles of the latest peony buds in your refrigerator, as I suggested before, or, better yet, place them in containers of water in a commercial cooler held at 35° Fahrenheit. You can have peony flowers in your home on July 15 or later. This should satisfy anybody.
44659 by Neal R. Van Loon