They're hot, hot, hot!

Coral isn't just one of the hottest shades in the color spectrum. It's also one of the hottest sellers in peonies, both in terms of cut flower sales and the orders of root divisions for home gardens. Coral peonies aren't all that new to the world of horticulture, but up until recent years they were a rare site in flower shops or in garden borders.

Samuel Wissing introduced in 1964 what has become arguably the most popular coral peony—Coral Charm. It was awarded the American Peony Society's Gold Medal in 1986. Like nearly all the corals it's a hybrid—a cross between two or more species of peonies. In this instance it was an officinalis/peregrina cross Otto Froebel with a lactiflora. The result is a semi-double flower with large petals brilliantly colored in shades of coral pink with strong undertones of orange, yellows and reds.The flowers sit atop sturdy 34-inch stems with deep green foliage. It's now a mainstay of the cut flower trade around the world.

Wissing introduced another popular coral a year later: Coral Sunset. This involved a cross of lactiflora Minnie Shaylor again with Otto Froebel. Coral Sunset tends to grow to a bigger plant than Coral Charm. Its blooms tend to have more petals. The color is very similar to Coral Charm's, but petal color fades a little faster with Sunset often giving the flowering plant a multi-toned effect that most people find especially appealing.

Wissing is also credited with Coral Supreme which wasn't introduced until 1981 by Charles Klehm, who registered it that year. Again more fully petaled than Coral Charm, Supreme's shade of coral tends more toward salmon.

All three of these stand up well to weather and for the most part feature just one bud per stem. Their roots are adventitious, meaning that even a piece of root without any apparent eye or bud can produce a new plant.

The other popular corals are Pink Hawaiian Coral and Abalone Pearl. Pink Hawaiian was registered in 1981. It came out of a cross by Roy Klehm of the lactiflora Charlie's White and Otto Froebel. It too has good coral-to-salmon coloring on its triple rows of petals. It's another strong, tall peony that holds up well in the landscape. It's the most pleasantly scented of all the corals, and it claimed the American Peony Society's Gold Medal in 2000.

Abalone Pearl was released by William Kreler in 1978. It's a single flowered peony on a more compact plant than the other corals and blooms very early.

I'm not aware of any fully double peonies with strong coral coloring, but I have to believe breeders are working on it. The coral generally don't have much fertility, but they are in use by breeders whose goal it is to develop a true orange peony.

Trends in fashion and flowers come and go, but the hot coral pink peonies I think are here to stay.

It's THE Bomb

The bomb, flower-form peony Red Charm helped redefine the use of the word "red" in peony cut-flower markets around the world. "Red" had been used to describe any number of dark colored peonies with undertones of ranging from magenta to purple in flower markets where more true red varieties were rare. After the introduction of Red Charm in 1944 by Illinois peony breeder Lyman Glasscock, that began to change.

Red Charm has since become the dominant red cultivar in the peony cut flower industry. Glasscock crossed the officinalis species peony Rubra Plena with an unknown lactiflora cultivar. Rubra Plena had perhaps the best red of cut flowers grown at that time, but the plant bloomed very early and suffered from short, weak stems. The lactifloras, with their longer stem, extended bloom times and wonderful scent had become the cut flower standard. In creating Red Charm, Glasscock gave the world a plant that produced huge, rich-red flowers on very sturdy stems that has proved to be a stunning addition to both gardens and bouquets.

Each flower features a big, round bomb-shaped mound of glossy petals are surrounded by a row of guard petals at its base. With just one bud to each stem, it eliminates the chore of removing side buds to ensure the largest flowers. The 30-36 inch stems are thick and strong, even so some support may be needed to keep some of the flowers off the ground when they are soaked by rains. Unlike some reds, Red Charm performs well even in southern states where the sun quickly fades other reds.

This peony forms unusually large buds, up to 4-inches in diameter, looking like big round lollipop balls on a stick and giving even the unopened blooms have great ornamental value. Our rows of Red Charm draw more oohs and aahs from visitors to our farm than any other peony. It's almost always the first double-flowered variety ready to harvest for our cut flower customers, starting about the same time as Edulis Superba. If supported well enough by rains or waterings, the foliage will look good throughout the summer. Stems take on an attractive red spotted effect as summer progresses.

It's easy to grow and propagate.Although the the roots are adventitious, meaning even a piece of root without visible growth buds can develop them after a year or two in the soil.

Fragrance in the blooms can vary from a pleasant light clove scent to no fragrance. Rarely will a Red Charm bloom wilt in a vase, instead a spent flower will begin to drop petals until just a slight vibration will cause an instantaneous drop of those remaining like a shattering of ruby-colored glass.

Red Charm received the American Peony Society's Gold Medal Award in 1956 and has won numerous best of show honors over the years. Flowers with this kind of beauty are often fussy, fickle plants that require lots of work to get the best result, but that not the case with this peony. This, no doubt, is part of the charm of Red Charm.
www.finagardenspeonies.com

A cut above the rest

Duchesse de Nemours may just be the most popular peony ever grown. It’s been in gardens for more than 160 years and has long been a mainstay among commercial cut flower growers. Its soft, white, double blooms go well with the colors in many gardens and vases, and the size of the blooms are not overpowering, as can be the case with some other double peonies. I think it’s pretty safe to say that more brides have walked down the aisle with a bouquet of Duchesse de Nemours in their hands than any other peony.
The medium-sized flowers feature a very lovely glow of canary yellow from near the center of the petals. Deeper into the bloom, at the base of the inner petals, a soft spring green is visible. The overall effect says freshness and purity.
That clean, healthy glow extends to the 36-inch stems and deep green foliage of the plant. This is one of the most absolutely care-free peony grown. The leaves stay fresh looking throughout the growing season before changing to yellow in the fall.
Cut flower producers love it for the tremendous number of stems the plants shoot forth each year and because it opens so dependably after being cut in bud stage. Most double peonies are harvested before they open, but the buds need to reach just the right degree of softness before cutting or they won’t open well. But with Duchesse, if the green covering enclosing the petals begins to split and show even a sliver of white, the flower can be harvested and will open after a few days in a vase of water. The unopened buds can be held out of water and in a cooler for weeks before used in a bouquet, making it ideal for shipping long distances.
Duchesse de Nemours came out of the work of famed 19th Century french breeder Jacques Calot. He had inherited the peony collection of an amateur breeder Comte de Cussy and developed a large number of new cultivars in the mid-to-late 1800s, many of which now have all but disappeared from the garden catalogs. Calot named this peony for a well known woman of her time—Victoria Augusta Antonia de Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, who was better known as the Duchesse de Nemours.
The daughter-in-law of King Louis-Philippe, she and her family was forced to flee into exile to England after the French Revolution of 1848, and she became a favorite of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. She died suddenly in 1857 at the age of 35. After her passing Queen Victoria wrote “so dear, so good, one of those pure, virtuous, unobtrusive characters who make a home peaceful, cheery and happy.”
The same can be said of her namesake peony.
www.finagardenspeonies.com

Nice Gal uncaged

No, this isn't about a good girl gone bad. What we're referring to is a well-mannered garden beauty that needs no staking or cage to keep it looking great and under control. Nice Gal is absolutely among the best landscape peonies offered today. It won't bow to heavy wind and rain as so many other lactiflora peonies do, and yet it has the great presence and charm to be a real garden standout.

Nice Gal attracts attention right from the start of the growing season. As the stems and leaves emerge in the spring they are a deep red-purple in color with only the top side of the leaves showing green. It creates a  gorgeous contrast to the fresh spring green of neighboring plants.This peony just loves to put up lots of stems, many of which are capped by multiple buds. The blooms are rosy-pink, often silver frosted, semi-doubles the sit close to the medium green foliage that cloak the stems right down to the base of the clump. Because the flowers are somewhat flat, rain can drain easily through them.

This peony is fast to a increase in size as you can see from the photo of a 3-year old plant taken last June in one of our house gardens. There were more than 50 blooms on the plant which put on a wonderful display for more than two weeks. On a mature plant the flowers are so numerous they all but hide the foliage. It's interesting to watch the blooms over the season. The oldest flowers soften in color nearly to white, while the buds just opening maintain their bright pink, giving a multi-toned effect to the floral show.

We like the plant even after the flowers have past. The foliage and plant form remain fresh looking throughout the summer. Nice gal is a prolific seed producer and we leave the star-shaped seed pod clumps on the plant right through fall as another point of interest to go with the  autumn coloring of its leaves then.

Nice Gal isn't a new peony. Bill Krekler first registered his creation in 1965. And since then Nice Gal pollen has been used in creating a few other new varieties. We don't think it has gotten the attention it deserves from other peony nurseries and garden centers, but it is becoming more popular as people see it in their neighbors gardens.

Nice guys, or in this case, Nice Gals, shouldn't finish last.

Truly a treasure

  
Garden Treasure is an aptly named peony. Its bright yellow blooms are the result of a quest to bring some of the color shades found in tree peonies to the more common herbaceous peony. Renowned breeder and peony grower Don Hollingsworth took pollen from the Lutea tree peony hybrid Alice Harding and applied it to the stamens of an unknown lactiflora peony he had collected from an old farmstead and named Carr East #2. On his second attempt, the cross resulted in just eight viable seeds—one of which ultimately grew to be Garden Treasure.

It bloomed first in 1973, but it would be another 11 years before Hollingsworth was ready to register this intersectional hybrid under its eventual name.

Garden Treasure features semi-double blooms with wonderful lemon-yellow petals that are stained red at their base. Each 6-7-inch bloom is comprised of 20-50 petals. Adding to the beauty of each flower are the prominent light green carpels surrounded by a ring of yellow stamens nearly devoid of pollen. In a wonderful symmetry, these lovely yellow flowers cary with them the scent of sweet lemons.

The plant forms a uniform mound of about two feet in height that will widen out to four or five feet as the clump matures. Stems are clad in dark green, semi-glossy leaves that more resemble the leaves of a tree peony. Most stems carry two to three buds that open sequentially to prolong the season of bloom over a two-three week period. In keeping with its herbaceous heritage, the stems die back to the ground each winter and emerge each spring from eyes formed in the previous summer.

Garden Treasure is among the most reliable and vigorous growing of the intersectional varieties, often blooming in its first year. Forty to fifty blooms are not uncommon for a mature plant. After flowering the plant provides interesting foliage through the remainder of the growing year. It is not necessary to divide a Garden Treasure. It will grow happily for decades with little care. But, because it is such a strong grower, gardeners wishing to propagate more of these plants, it's best that the roots be divided in the third to fifth year. Like most intersectionals, Garden Treasure will develop eyes or buds for next year's growth both below and just above ground. When planting divisions, growers can take advantage of these above-ground buds by planting the divisions deeper than regular herbaceous peonies.

This peony is best displayed in the garden when its planted on a mound to show off the blooms at the ends of its arching stems. I love floating a bloom in a bowl of water on my desk, where I can appreciate its beauty and fragrance throughout the day.

Garden Treasure continues to be one of the most sought after peonies, bringing $250 per division not that many years ago.  Over the years, its blooms have often made it to the Court of Honor at peony shows. Its been awarded Grand Champion multiple times at the American Peony Society's annual exhibitions. In 1986 it was granted the APS Award of Landscape Merit, and in 1996 tit won the APS Gold Medal.

More about Garden Treasure at www.finagardenspeonies.com

Last year was an amazing year for peonies here in Northwest Wisconsin, ample rains the previous year and a gentle, cool spring set the stage for a unparalleled bloom season. The photo above, featuring a grandson among some Paul Wild peony plants, was taken last summer here at Fina Gardens. We shipped tens of thousands of peony cut flowers to wholesale distributors across the nation.

The weather remained favorable with timely rains through the growing season, which meant that by fall we had many exceptional root divisions to send out to our gardeners. We were especially thrilled by the number of repeat customer orders we filled right up until November.

We also took advantage of the good fall weather to expand both our cut flower plantings and the number and varieties for our root division customers.

I’m excited about our plans to use this blog in 2012 take a more in depth at featured varieties each week. It should give gardeners some more complete information to use in selecting just the right peonies for their garden.

The reviews will include information from a variety of research material, as well as my own first-hand observations from growing each variety. We’ll be starting off with a review of one of the best intersectional peonies grown today—Garden Treasure.