A passion for Peonies

I have a baker's dozen of Peonies in my garden; one is a tree Peony (P. suffruticosa), a few are traditional herbaceous garden Peonies (P. lactiflora) and the rest are species Peonies, including a couple of clumps grown from seedlings discovered near the mother plants. As gorgeous as the flowers are, Peonies are one plant that I find fascinating at every stage, including its first appearance in spring.

This is P. obvata var. alba emerging.

A clump of her seedlings growing into a nice plant. 

I usually leave Peony stems over the winter so I can easily find these early risers. This is P. Japonica on March 10th.

P. japonica on April 17, fully budded and leafed out but not quite ready to bloom 

P. mairei on March 10. 

P. mairei is just waiting for the cold weather to end to bloom. 

P. 'Burnished Bronze' absolutely glows at this season. 

My newest Peony, planted last autumn, is 'Golden Angel' whose stems clearly emerge red/gold unlike any of my other Peonies. The leaves have yellow tones, complementing the yellow flowers. 

P. 'Nosegay' is another early bloomer; a cross between P. mlokosewitschi and P. tennufolia. 

Another seedling; most likely P. japonica.

P. vetchii and P. mlokosewitschii are barely visible while P. ludlowii has not made an appearance at all. P. ludlowii has never bloomed for me, but its foliage makes a  tropical statement so I don't mind the lack of flowers. 

Comments

[Kris P]

What a wealth of peonies you have, Linda! As I'm sure I've said before, I suffer from extreme peony envy. My Itoh peony once again shows no sign of any intent to bloom (not unexpected but nonetheless lamented) and my Majorcan peony produced just a single bloom, now long gone. The latter does have seed pods, though, so perhaps I will try to propagate it. Who knows, maybe I can get 3 Majorcan peonies that offer me one bloom each every year...

[Lisa at Greenbow]

Peonies popping up in the garden is exciting. They have such strong foliage and stems. It will be exciting to see them all in bloom. My peonies all have at least one bud on them this year. That is good for here. These are the peonies that I rescued from a field right across the street from where I live. They have now put a concrete drive right over the ones I left behind. Wish I had taken more.

[Barbara H.]

You are truly rich in peonies! Lucky Linda...

[Loree / danger garden]

Emerging peonies are so cool. The foliage on that last one is fabulous! I inherited a standard pink herbaceous peony. It's pretty much been shaded out as the garden has grown, I might get a single bloom these days, but the foliage is wonderful! Last year I was the recipient of an Itoh peony 'Misaka' from Monrovia, the buds are swelling and going to burst open at any time...I can't wait!