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Plant Showcase

Peonies An Affair Of The Heart.

Peony
Merriam-Webster’s
Main Entry: pe·o·ny
Pronunciation: 'pE-&-nE
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -nies
Etymology: Middle English piony, from Middle French pioine, from Latin paeonia, from Greek paiOnia, from PaiOn Paeon, physician of the gods
Date: 14th century
: any of a genus (Paeonia of the family Paeoniaceae) of chiefly Eurasian plants with large often double flowers

One of my all time favorite plants in the garden is the peony. En masse they remind me of a special garden of my youth. Precise details escape me, it was so long ago but a great aunt, Tante Agnès, grew them beautifully along with Lunaria ( aka silver dollars). I remember visiting her for tea with small white gloves on my tiny hands and she taking me by that hand to tour her city garden. The peonies took my breath away. Their magnificent pompoms were larger than life and their scent engulfed me as richly as incense at mass. One doesn’t often forget a scent.

In my very first garden I planted some and they never bloomed. I persisted in the next and the next. In this most recent home of ours I have had the most success. I think due to the sun. Here is where I have had the sunniest exposure. Before moving in I designed a few beds and the peony bed took first place on my importance list. She was to be the VIP of the initial plantings.

Herbaceous peonies require at least 6 hours of sun for profuse blooms. Some light shade in very hot weather is preferred in late afternoon. A well-drained soil is a must. Standing water is very harmful to the beautiful peony. Imagine your hands in water all day and all night. Although their beauty becomes totally unfathomable in the rain, it’s their feet they don’t like wet.

After a shower they are quick to regain their royal composure in drier sunnier weather.

Peonies are gourmands of rich fertile soil. They thrive on compost teas and compost itself. I have read that fresh manure is not recommended as it can damage young plants.

In addition, I have learned that depth of planting is very important also. I have had some peonies not bloom at all because I have planted them too deeply. The top eye of the crown should be about 2 inches below ground level only. The warmer the climate the less deep the planting.

You really should not have to fertilize your peonies a lot. In the fall a good top layer of compost will do. One word of advice, it is perfectly fine to cut peony flowers to have them in your home in glorious old-fashioned bouquets.

However, do not cut them all and try and leave most of the foliage until it is spent. I learned the hard way. In 2003 our daughter married in August and we did all the flower arrangements with our florist. We needed more greens and plucked many of the leaves. Not a good idea. The peony needs the leaves to produce its food.

Regarding watering, like roses peonies seem to prefer drip irrigation. It reduces the chances of disease. Many peonies need staking. But many varieties do not anymore.

I would love to add some of those to my beds. The Jardin Botanique de Montréal had many different kinds when I visited the peonies there in the spring of 2003.

Great companion plants to peonies as I discovered at the gardens are irises. They bloom at the same time here and look stunning en masse together. In my own beds. I have paired them with Allium and they look pretty together. Even Henry Hudson, the rose, blooms at the same time. I have added Clematis to try and make her meander along. Jackmanii and The Duchess Of Albany are on an obelisk in the middle of the bed. I add my Brugmansia trees at the back. And Mary Rose Winchester Cathedral and a weak New Dawn help fill in the voids when the peonies fade.

I have Nepeta at the front of the border and Acidenthera planted here and there for fall blooms. It seems to work well. If you are new to Peonies, I suggest you purchase a healthy specimen from a well-known nursery or on-line through a trusted seller. You are most probably going to have a better success rate than say a small-boxed specimen in a bulk store.

Recently I have discovered Tree Peonies and I am in love once again.

You must be patient with these and again try and purchase a mature 3-4 yr plant. Spend the money to get the larger ones. There are reported 350 yr old specimens in China. My childhood friend recently returned from China and told me that the peony tree is the national flower of China. Upon research, I did find many links to this effect.

There is also a Japanese Peony Tree fairy! My Hot Pink almost red one is named Shimadaijin. It is a Japanese tree Peony.

My yellow one, unnamed unfortunately (I am just guessing here perhaps Persephone) is probably at it’s best when in bloom with the alliums I mentioned.

The best time to move or transplant peonies is the fall.

A link to my favorite peony site.

La Pivoinerie D’Aoust
www.paeonia.com

Where I learned the most and where you can also. Almost every answer to each and every one of your peony questions will most probably be answered there.

I have had the pleasure of hearing Lindsay Daoust speak at our garden club and she is as charming and as knowledgeable as can be. She offered each and every one of us who promised to plant and nurture it a small division and I am hoping mine will take.

Other links:
The Canadian peony Society
Heartland Peony Society
American Peony Society
British based peony society

I found this poem on the internet.

Mary Oliver Peonies.
This morning the green fists of the peonies are getting ready
to break my heart
as the sun rises,
as the sun strokes them with his old, buttery fingers

and they open ---
pools of lace,
white and pink ---
and all day the black ants climb over them,

boring their deep and mysterious holes
into the curls,
craving the sweet sap,
taking it away

to their dark, underground cities ---
and all day
under the shifty wind,
as in a dance to the great wedding,

the flowers bend their bright bodies,
and tip their fragrance to the air,
and rise,
their red stems holding

all that dampness and recklessness
gladly and lightly,
and there it is again ---
beauty the brave, the exemplary,

blazing open.
Do you love this world?
Do you cherish your humble and silky life?
Do you adore the green grass, with its terror beneath?

Do you also hurry, half-dressed and barefoot, into the garden,
and softly,
and exclaiming of their dearness,
fill your arms with the white and pink flowers,

with their honeyed heaviness, their lush trembling,
their eagerness
to be wild and perfect for a moment, before they are
nothing, forever?

It really says it all!

Written by Monique 404 Page Not Found