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.