2020 Intersectional Peony 'Chief Black Hawk' Flower Bud is Really Black!!

Wow! That's all I could really say when I spotted this bud on my Intersectional Peony 'Chief Black Hawk'! The flower petals of this intersectional peony's buds really are black! I have never seen a bud quite like this before. So this was definitely a suprise when I found it. It is quite stunning! Now the wait is on to see it bloom! This will be the first year this peony has bloomed for me. I can't wait to see it in action.


Intersectional Peony 'Chief Black Hawk' Flower Bud
I just planted this Intersectional Peony 'Chief Black Hawk' last fall 2019, and it came from Oregon Perennial. I won it in last year's APS auction. (Oregon Perennial does not sell retail, but they do donate plants to the APS Auction.) If you're looking to purchase one, Brooks Gardens is definitely the place to be. They dropped the price on this plant this year, 2020 Intersectional Peony 'Chief Black Hawk' Price Drops Over 50%, and it looks like they still have some in stock. Now's your chance!

2020 Intersectional Peony 'Joanna Marlene' from garden*breeze on Ebay

Well, after years of patiently waiting, I am happy to report that my Intersectional Peony 'Joanna Marlene' that I purchased from garden*breeze on Ebay, 2015 Intersectional Peony 'Joanna Marlene' on Ebay is authentic. The beauty and uniqueness of this one is unmistakeable and it matches it's original photo perfectly. This intersectional peony bloomed for me this past week. It wasn't the first time it bloomed, as it did bloom last year, 2019 Intersectional Peony 'Joanna Marlene' Update. However I missed the bloom completely and only got photos of the bud and the remnants of the bloom. However this year, I got some photos of this delicate beauty in all her ruffled, pastel two-toned glory, and I am in love! If you don't grow Intersectional Peony 'Joanna Marlene' yet, take a look at the gorgeous photos below to see what you're missing out on!


Intersectional Peony 'Joanna Marlene'

2020 Intersectional Peony Blooms Week 5 Late Mid

This was definitely the week of the Yellow Intersectional Peony! Compared to last week, 2020 Intersectional Peony Blooms Week 4 Mid, there so many more yellow intersectional peonies opening this week in Week 5! If you like yellow peonies, intersectionals are definitely the way to go. Their are so many to choose from, and they each have their own personality. No matter which one you choose, a yellow intersectional will definitely brighten up a sunny spot in your garden! Cheers!!


Intersectional Peony 'Yellow Emperor'

Intersectional Peony 'Luxuriant'

Intersectional Peony 'Canary Brilliants'

Intersectional Peony 'Sonoma Rosy Future'

Intersectional Peony 'Garden Treasure'

Intersectional Peony 'Ballarena de Saval'

Intersectional Peony 'Bartzella'

Intersectional Peony 'Old Rose Dandy'

Intersectional Peony 'Sequestered Sunshine'

Intersectional Peony 'Sugar Plum Fairy'

2020 Intersectional Peony 'All That Jazz' on Ebay

Intersectional Peony 'All That Jazz' on Ebay
Since I wasn't really sure about the 2020 Ordering Peonies on Etsy from ExoticseedsLatvia peony I ordered, I decided to snag one of these Intersectional Peony 'All That Jazz' I saw on Ebay. I was wondering why the shipping was so high on this one, but then I figured maybe it must be a potted plant. Noticing the description also says, "shipped in container", made it seem like this might be a nice large potted plant. A potted plant seemed like it might have a better chance to be the correct/actual variety. So I decided to take a chance on this ITOH PEONY sold by 1critter4u.


Intersectional Peony 'All That Jazz' from 1critter4u on Ebay
Sure enough, when this thing arrived it was in a massive box, probably 4 feet tall. When it got here I was hoping it might be my 2020 Tree Peony 'Imperial Crown' at Song Sparrow, which hasn't arrived yet. However it was the Intersectional Peony 'All That Jazz' that I'd ordered from Ebay. The description of this one sounds interesting:

"Can host up to 50 softly fragrant blooms at a time at maturity."

"With its thrilling colors and impressive performance, 'All That Jazz' Itoh peony is a cross of its kind - a mix of herbaceous and tree peonies which features the best qualities of its parentage. The luxurious blooms are fully double and often reach 6 inches across. Each gently fragrant blossom is a work of art displaying unique patterns of pale apricot splashed with magenta and up to 50 flowers may appear on the plant at once. Along with its elegant looks, this shrub is also quick resilient and boasts impressive winter hardiness and a lengthy bloomtime."


Intersectional Peony 'All That Jazz'
This Intersectional Peony 'All That Jazz' is a Don R. Smith hybrid. See my interview with Don here, 2016 Peony Hybridizer Interview - Don R. Smith (This peony was also the month of September in the calendar I received recently, 2020 Intersectional Peony Calendar). I'm hoping this is the correct peony variety. As you can see this intersectional peony came fully grown with 8 stems on it, and it does actually have intersectional peony folaige. There do not appear to be any buds on it. Hopefully I can get it planted quickly so that it may establish itself, get happy, and develop a bud or two for next year!! :-)


Intersectional Peony 'All That Jazz' Stems

2020 Intersectional Peony Blooms Week 4 Mid

I just love, love, love my intersectional peonies. I couldn't help but share all of these gorgeous photos with you. Week 4 has been a busy week in the peony garden, especially for the intersectionals. There are so many different colored beautiful blooms in the garden, it seems like a veritable rainbow!!! If you haven't yet gotten into intersectional peonies, I would highly encourage you to give them a try so you can have a rainbow of color in your garden too! :-) 🌈


Intersectional Peony 'Sonoma Apricot'

Intersectional Peony 'Hillary'

Intersectional Peony 'White Emperor'

Intersectional Peony 'Lafayette Escadrille'

Intersectional Peony 'Smith Family Yellow'

Intersectional Peony 'Unique'

Intersectional Peony 'Lunar Glow'

Intersectional Peony 'Little Darlin''

Intersectional Peony 'Singing in the Rain'

2020 Peony Experiments - Intersectional Peony 'Keiko' Blooms on Old Overwintered Woody Stems

Intersectional Peony 'Keiko' 愛幕 (Adored) - 'Pink Double Dandy'
Blooms on Overwintered Stems - 3/14
I know I posted one article on this topic back in 2011 Peony Experiments - Intersectional Blooms, and I thought this year would be a good year for an update. Nowadays I regularly leave the woody stems on my intersectional peonies through the winter, especially if they have big fat buds on them. Some stems will survive the winter and some won't. In my opinion if there's any chance the stem might bloom the next year, it is worth it to leave the stems in place over the winter. This Intersectional Peony 'Keiko' 愛幕 (Adored) aka 'Pink Double Dandy' had a couple of tall woody stems that were growing last month from the tips. So I decided to follow their growth to show the actual blooms on those woody stems.


Intersectional Peony 'Keiko' 愛幕 (Adored) - 'Pink Double Dandy'
Blooms on Overwintered Stems - 3/14
As you can see both of these growth terminals at the tops of these woody stems were both productive, producing large, fat buds and then beautiful pink blooms. Not only did each of them produce bright pink blooms, but one of the stems produced 3 blooms on one stem! So if there's any doubt in your mind that leaving stems on intersectional peonies over winter might be a worthwhile endeavor (especially in Southern climates), there you have it! It is no surprise to me, as I have seen this happen so many times over the years. I am also not surprised that Intersectional Peony 'Keiko' 愛幕 (Adored) is capable of such a feat, as it is a Southern Peony Best Performer, 2015 Peony 'Keiko' (Adored) Best Performer - Week 4.


Intersectional Peony 'Keiko' 愛幕 (Adored) - 'Pink Double Dandy'
Blooms on Overwintered Stems - 3/26

Intersectional Peony 'Keiko' 愛幕 (Adored) - 'Pink Double Dandy'
Blooms on Overwintered Stems - 3/27

Intersectional Peony 'Keiko' 愛幕 (Adored) - 'Pink Double Dandy'
Blooms on Overwintered Stems - 3/27

Intersectional Peony 'Keiko' 愛幕 (Adored) - 'Pink Double Dandy'
Blooms on Overwintered Stems - 4/3

Intersectional Peony 'Keiko' 愛幕 (Adored) - 'Pink Double Dandy'
Blooms on Overwintered Stems - 4/3

Intersectional Peony 'Keiko' 愛幕 (Adored) - 'Pink Double Dandy'
Blooms on Overwintered Stems - 4/3

Intersectional Peony 'Keiko' 愛幕 (Adored) - 'Pink Double Dandy'
Blooms on Overwintered Stems - 4/8

Intersectional Peony 'Keiko' 愛幕 (Adored) - 'Pink Double Dandy'
Blooms on Overwintered Stems - 4/8

Intersectional Peony 'Keiko' 愛幕 (Adored) - 'Pink Double Dandy'
Blooms on Overwintered Stems - 4/8

Intersectional Peony 'Keiko' 愛幕 (Adored) - 'Pink Double Dandy'
Blooms on Overwintered Stems - 4/8

Intersectional Peony 'Keiko' 愛幕 (Adored) - 'Pink Double Dandy'
Blooms on Overwintered Stems - 4/8

Intersectional Peony 'Keiko' 愛幕 (Adored) - 'Pink Double Dandy'
Blooms on Overwintered Stems - 4/8

Intersectional Peony 'Keiko' 愛幕 (Adored) - 'Pink Double Dandy'
Blooms on Overwintered Stems - 4/10

2020 Intersectional Peony 'Strawberry Crème Brûlée' Red Spring Foliage

Intersectional Peony 'Strawberry Crème Brûlée'
Red Spring Foliage
I was enamored to see this gorgeous red spring foliage on my Intersectional Peony 'Strawberry Crème Brûlée' this year. Even though the plant is not large enough to entertain me with its blooms, it is definitely entertaining me with the foliage! I remember seeing a difference between the foliage of this one and the other small potted intersectional peonies I purchased at the same time when 2019 Spring Hill Nursery Peony Order Arrives. Having such unique foliage seems promising for this peony to be true to name. I can't wait to see what these 'Strawberry Crème Brûlée' blooms look like when this intersectional peony does grow large enough to flower! :-)


Intersectional Peony 'Strawberry Crème Brûlée' Sign

2020 Intersectional Peony Blooms Week 3 Early Mid

It's interesting to me that the first intersectionals to bloom are not yellow. Especially since the yellow intersectionals were the first ones invented (in Japan by a man named Itoh of course). I guess the yellow parent must be later blooming than these other colorful intersectional parents. The intersectional peony bloom season started off this year with Intersectional Peony 'Sonoma Amethyst', 2020 First Intersectional Peony Bloom of the Season, Intersectional Peony 'Sonoma Amethyst', followed a couple days later by Intersectional Peony 'Watermelon Wine' & Intersectional Peony 'First Arrival'.


Intersectional Peony 'Sonoma Amethyst'

Intersectional Peony 'Watermelon Wine'

Intersectional Peony 'First Arrival'

2020 Potted Up Intersectional Peony Roots for Fall Planting

Potted Up Intersectional Peony Roots for Fall Planting
Well, since my last Intersectional Peony 'Callie's Memory' died of root rot, I decided that I would pot up the recent peony roots I've purchased, 2020 Intersectional Peony 'Callie's Memory' from Hirt's Gardens on Ebay, 2020 Ordering Peonies on Etsy from ExoticseedsLatvia. I plan to plant these intersectional peony roots out in the fall. I'm hoping that will give me some time to fix the soil where the old Intersectional Peony 'Callie's Memory' was planted and give these peonies a chance at surviving (and hopefully thriving) during their first Southern summer!


Potted Up Intersectional Peony Roots for Fall Planting
I'd already had these peony roots soaking for a day or two to try to regain any lost moisture during shipment. So I found some pots that were laying around to pot them up in. The two roots from Etsy/ExoticseedsLatvia were larger than the root from Ebay/Hirt's Gardens. So I put the Etsy/ExoticseedsLatvia root in the two larger purple pots, and I put the smaller Ebay/Hirt's Gardens root in the smaller 3.5" pot. It looks like that one came out of the same size pot any way since its roots were a little bent/square. It should be able to survive another couple seasons there.


Potted Up Intersectional Peony Roots for Fall Planting
I mixed some bagged top soil with the peat that came with these roots to create the soil for the pots. I also made sure to put some pot saucer trays underneath each of them to make sure they don't get too dry. I usually water things with rain from my rain barrel, which I keep mosquito dunks in. So the water from those rain barrels will keep the mosquitos from multiplying in the trays. So these should be good to go until fall! :-)


Potted Up Intersectional Peony Roots for Fall Planting

2020 Intersectional Peony 'Callie's Memory' Dies of Root Rot?

Intersectional Peony 'Callie's Memory'
Most of you probably know that 2020 Intersectional Peony 'Callie's Memory' Dies!!. You probably also know that I've ordered a replacement as well, 2020 Intersectional Peony 'Callie's Memory' from Hirt's Gardens on Ebay. So the next thing to do was to dig up the dead one to see what happened to it. As you can see there wasn't much left of the peony when I dug it out of the ground this week. It was actually quite disappointing. Judging by the barely attached limp shell of a root, it seems this peony suffered from some kind of root rot.


Intersectional Peony 'Callie's Memory' Before Digging
I know that I've had peonies to rot over the winter that are brand new roots and never get established, but this is the first time I've had an established 6 year old peony plant die from root rot. We did have record-breaking rainfall in 2018. So I'm not sure if that could have caused it, being 2 years ago, but maybe it could have started then and finished it off now? Who knows...


Digging Up Intersectional Peony 'Callie's Memory'
As you can see I started digging far away from the plant, but finding nothing, had to go to the center. I couldn't find much anything of substance or weight to dig. There was really nothing left but a few chunks of the crown, with not much root to speak of at all. Really the above ground stems left from previous years attached by a small bit of crown was really all that was left. I was kind of hoping to find a bit more. I took the three chunks I could find and washed them off on a some cement with the garden hose. Whatever it was that go it, got it good.


Intersectional Peony 'Callie's Memory' Crown Chunks
This makes me think about sanitation a bit more for sure. I wonder if it could have been caused by conditions and or fungal infection from the original grower. I don't currently soak any of my peony roots in a bleach solution, but this makes me wonder if I should. I also wonder if it could be something in the native soil that just multiplied with our extensive rain in 2018. Regardless there's most likely something in the soil now. So I think my next project for that area will be solarization to help sanitize the area just in case. I actually did my first solarization project to create this intersectional peony bed originally back in 2012 Intersectional Peony Bed Preparation, and I was happy with the results. Now it's time for a refresh!


Intersectional Peony 'Callie's Memory' What's Left