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.
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