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.