2014 Chinese Tree Peony Seeds Starting to Sprout

At the suggestion of one of my readers, I decided to check my Chinese tree peony seeds to see if they had started sprouting. Sure enough, they had! A couple of them are just starting to push through. So it's definitely a bit early to get a count for the germination rate. I'll have to wait a little longer to see how many actually sprout. The only ones that are starting to sprout so far are the Chinese Peony Seeds from Ebay that I planted on 3/15/2013. There are 6 different colors of the Chinese tree peony seeds that I bought on Ebay, which came labeled as P1-P6, and only 2 of them are sprouting now - P3 Blue & P4 Green. So there are 4 other types/colors of these tree peony seeds that have not yet sprouted. None of the Chinese tree peony seeds I purchased from Ali Express and planted on 4/1/2013 have started to sprout yet. So I will have to check on those Chinese tree peony seeds again later.
Chinese Tree Peony P3 Blue Seeds from Ebay Sprouting


Chinese Tree Peony P4 Green Seeds from Ebay Sprouting

2013 Peony Seed Pods & Peony Seed Collecting

Peony Seed Pod Full of Seeds
It's that time of year! Peony seed collecting time! Peony seeds are so easy to collect since they're so huge! The beautiful seeds pods start to burst open this time of year revealing those large, shiny, black seeds. Not all of my seed pods are mature yet. Some of them are not quite ripe and have not yet opened. Some others failed to be pollinated, and these too have not opened, but are generally smaller. Several of the seeds pods were opened, yet unfertilized and dry. I cut back these unfertilized empty seed pods, along with any blight I noticed near the top of the stem and discarded. For the seeds that were fertilized and ripened, ready to be picked, I collected these yesterday and put them in bags labeled with the plant variety and year. I plan to plant them out today, to hopefully give them a head start. If they are able to send out a root shoot this fall, then I may actually get a leaf next spring! So far this year I have collected seed from these peonies: 'Cream Delight', 'Early White', 'Gilbert Barthelot', 'Honor', 'Okinawa', 'Paula Fay', 'Pink Luau', 'Pink Princess', 'Roy Pehrson's Best Yellow', 'Salmon Dream', and 'White Cap'.

Failed Peony Seed Pod, No Seeds
Not all peonies will set seed. Some hybrids may be so crossed (like 2 species) and mutated (like full doubles), that it is impossible for them to set seed. Some plants set excessive amounts of seed! These plants may be useful for hybridizing, provided their qualities are suitable to your hybridizing goals. Even if you're just a backyard gardener who wants to grow something new, growing a peony from seed can be quite exciting and also an exercise in patience, to see what your baby (peony) will look like! :-)

2013 Questions - Chinese Tree Peony Seeds Sprouting

I received this question from Gayle in zone 5:
"Just wondering if you have had any success germinating your Chinese Peony seed order? I ordered the same packages and just sowed them. I hope to get a few new plants from the order, however, it is not as easy to germinate seeds as they say. Do you have any secrets for a successful germination rate?"

Honestly I am relatively new to planting peony seeds. Although I have been growing seeds I've harvested from my own garden since 2007, I have only started growing purchased seeds in the last 3 years. I am a very laissez faire gardener, and generally prefer to let Mother Nature do her thing. So all of my peony seeds are sowed outdoors in beds of topsoil. I usually do not add any fertilizer to these beds.

Chinese Tree Peony Seeds Sowed in Peony Seedling Test Bed
I have noticed so far that the seeds I have harvested myself do seem to germinate at much higher rates than any that I've purchased. I'm not sure if this is a factor of age of the seeds, handling conditions of the seeds, or suitability to my growing zone. The seeds I've raised, harvested, and planted myself are mostly lactiflora hybrids. The seeds I've purchased are mainly various types of species peony seeds and the above mentioned Chinese tree peony seeds. So their origins are far and wide around the US and the globe, and really there's no way for me to know the length of time since the purchased seeds were harvested. Whereas when planting my own seeds, I generally plant them the same season they are havested. I definitely want to give these Chinese Tree Peony Seeds some more time to sprout since it's only been a few months since they were planted. I am curious to see if and how many of these tree peony seeds sprout this coming spring. I will keep you posted on their progress. As you can see, they are all nicely labeled and waiting to germinate!

2013 Purple Tree Peony Seedlings From Ebay UK

Purple Tree Peony Seedlings for Sale on Ebay
I was lucky enough to happen upon these purple tree peony seedlings for sale on Ebay a few weeks ago. Purple is my favorite color, and I couldn't believe how cheap these peony seedlings were selling for. I don't know if these new plants will be true to seed, but I am definitely interested and excited to see what kind of plant and flower these seedlings will turn out to have. I purchased two of these seedlings on July 14th, and they arrived in the mail yesterday - Royal Mail! :-) These plants are from Blandford, Dorset, United Kingdom. It seems they don't get as cold there in the winter, and they also do not get as hot in the summer. Their temperatures are much more stable than they are here in NC. So I'm curious to see how the plant adjusts to our weather here.

Purple Tree Peony Seedlings from the UK
The plants were definitely stressed from their international voyage, and I'm sure the summer weather here didn't help them much. However they were still a bit moist even though the soil was a bit shaken up. The leaves started to turn brown on the edges, but even if they go dormant now, I think they will still survive. At least I hope they will. That's why I bought two, just in case! I did get a good look at the roots on these since the soil was shaken up quite a bit, and the roots on at least one of them looked really healthy. On one of the plants I noticed the seed was still attached to the peony root where it sprouted, and I have never seen a peony seed this BIG before!!! I put a ruler next to it and another normal sized tree peony seed next to it for reference. The peony seed from this purple tree peony looks a little over 5/8", where the normal peony seed looks a little under 3/8". That's a big difference! Well I guess we'll see what these giant seeded peonies can do!

Purple Tree Peony Seedling	Purple Tree Peony Seed

2013 P. Rockii Peony Seeds from Cricket Hill Garden

Last week I got the Tree Peony P. Rockii Seeds I ordered from Ebay. They apparently came from Cricket Hill Garden. I wasn't sure, but I thought these seeds might come from a private individual. The seeds came with a very nice catalog from Cricket Hill Garden as well. I think they normally charge $2.00 for a copy of their catalog. So I've never gotten a copy since I don't like to pay for catalogs. It looks like Cricket Hill Garden is using Ebay as a creative marketing tool - sell some seeds, send a free catalog. The catalog actually has some interesting information about Japanese and Chinese tree peonies, which is great since I don't know a lot about the differences and history of both of these type of peonies. So I was very happy to receive the catalog with the seeds. The Ebay auction was for "15 Fresh Tree Peony P. Rockii Seeds USA GROWN", and they actually send 20 seeds. So that was nice of them. I will definitely be leaving them positive feedback on Ebay! I can't wait to see how these grow!
P. Rockii Seeds and Catalog from Cricket Hill Gardens

2013 First Peony Seedling with Developing Bud

Well, I am keeping my fingers crossed that I will be in for a treat this peony bloom season. While checking over my original peony seedling test bed, I found a bud on one of the plants! That is just so exciting. This plant came from one of the seeds of the Peony 'Lady Alexandra Duff' that I planted in 2007, the first year that I planted any peony seeds. So it has been 5 years since I planted that seed! Perhaps some of these peony seedlings could have bloomed sooner if I had given them more water or more sun or some fertilizer, perhaps. So these seeds have truly been a product of Mother Nature with very little to no intervention from me. The only thing I did was harvest them, keep track of where they came from, and plant them in the ground! It is not uncommon for very small buds to never develop into blooming size. So I will definitely be watching over this one and maybe giving it a little extra water to try to help increase the odds. If it blooms it will be the first ever peony bloom that I will get to see from any of my peony seed plantings.
Small Bud on Seedling Peony Plant


Seedling of Peony 'Lady Alexandra Duff'

2013 Tree Peony P. Rockii Seeds on Ebay

I've been wanting a P. rockii tree peony for quite some time, but I have yet to acquire one. So I decided to buy some of the P. rockii tree peony seeds that I found for sale on Ebay. They were kind of expensive ($7.50), but not as expensive as the plant itself (which is usually $50+). So I decided to give them a try. Plus the $7.50 price did include the shipping. So I guess it's not too bad. I've purchased some P. rockii and P. rockii hybrid seeds from the APS Peony Seed Sale before, but they have yet to germinate. I'm hoping these will do something since they're advertised as USA grown and fresh. We shall see...

2013 Soaking Peony Seeds

I knew these little bowls would come in handy when I bought them at Ross a while ago. I haven't used them until now, but I think I've found a pretty good use for them. Now I wish I had bought more! I have 15 different varieties of Chinese Tree Peony Seeds that I need to soak, and I want to keep them separate while I'm soaking the seeds so that I can keep track of the peony variety. These mini bowls are the perfect size, and the colors are so bright, they just cheer me up. (Which is good since with the cold late winter / early spring we've been having, none of my peonies have bloomed yet!) I usually soak my peony seeds overnight to let them soften up a little and absorb some of the water. I ordered 100 of these Chinese tree peony seeds, about 7 of each of the 15 different varieties. They ended up sending me about 8 seeds of each of the varieties. That was nice of them to send a few extra seeds. Hopefully that will increase the chance of getting some of the seeds to successfully germinate! After these peony seeds soak for a day, then I will plant them out into my seedling test bed and let Mother Nature take over!
Soaking Peony Seeds

2013 Ali Express Chinese Tree Peony Seeds

I got the Tree Peony Seeds from China a couple weeks ago that I ordered from Ali Express, but I finally got them all translated and labels made for them today. It certainly helps to have a Chinese husband who can read the characters and translate them for me, since they didn't come with any English names. I ended up getting 7 seeds of each of 15 different varieties. Here are the names in English of the Chinese tree peonies that I received: Black Bouquet, Black Sea Scattered Gold, Blue Field Jade, Champion Dark Jade, Colorful Bell, Dark Black Purple, Entangled Golden Jade, Green Fragrant Ball, Fledgling, Golden Attic, Red Clouds in Hundred Garden, Red Guardian, Smoky Dragon's Purple Jewelry Plate, Splendid Dark Gold, and Wei Purple. Now I just need to soak them and get them planted! I'm guessing that most of these will not germinate this year since it is already spring here now. So I guess I'll be waiting until next spring to see if any of them sprout. My husband said that Wei Purple is supposed to be named for a famous family in China, and he said he couldn't wait to see what that one looked like. I can't wait either since purple is my favorite color! :)

Chinese Tree Peony Seeds from Ali Express

2013 Peony Experiments - Peony Seeds in Bags

After ordering some Peony Seeds from Hirt's Gardens, I decided to grow the seeds in plastic bags based on some interesting instructions the seeds came with. I've never grown any peony seeds in bags before. So I decided to give it a try to see what would happen, whether they would sprout, and what the germination rates would be following this method. It has been three weeks now, and as you can see, there are no peony seeds sprouting in any of my plastic bags. In fact the only thing sprouting in my plastic bags is mold. As you can see in the second picture below, the two P. ludlowii seeds are both covered in mold. The rest of the bags appear to be mold free, but they are also root free as well. I am still going to plant these seeds in the ground, and hopefully some of them will still sprout anyway. For me this method did not work. I'd be curious to know if anyone else has been successful with this method, and if they have any tips. Sometime I think keeping things simple is the best way, let Mother Nature work her magic...
Peony Seeds in Bags with Moist Vermiculite


Mold Growing on Peony Seeds in Bag

2013 Chinese Peony Seeds from Ebay

Well it wasn't 3 days, but they did come pretty fast, considering they came all the way from China. The Suffruticosa Tree Peony Seeds from China I ordered from Ebay came yesterday. I also ordered a pack of pink tree peony seeds from Ebay for 99 cents (shipping included!) the day after I ordered the first set of Ebay peony seeds, and those came today. So they both arrived in 8 days! Not bad for coming from halfway across the world. I also noticed that the seeds packets came from different address in the same city (Huaian Jiangsu). That's interesting. :) Even the $2.50 seeds from Ebay came packaged as 6 separate varieties. The Ebay auction listing also tells me what color seed is inside of each of the six packages. I figured for that low of a price, all of the seeds would just be mixed together in one package. So that's nice that the different colors of seeds are separated. I can't wait until they grow and bloom. I'm so curious to see what will turn up! I'm sure the picture from the Ebay auction has been "enhanced". I've never seen a peony that blue. I'm sure it must be some shade of purple, which would be perfectly fine with me, since purple is my favorite color. :)

	P1 white P2 black P3 blue P4 green P5 pink P6 red
Tree Peony Seeds from China

99 Cent Pink Peony Seeds from China

2013 Suffruticosa Tree Peony Seeds from China

On a reader's recommendation (Steve), I ordered some peony seeds from Ali Express. I wanted a nice mixture, and one of the sellers, Linlang Department Store, offered seeds from 15 named tree peony varieties (Chinese names, of course) of all different colors. So I decided to order from them. They weren't 4 cents a seed, but I'm hoping for some nice seedlings. They ended up being 12 cents a seed for 100 seeds, so $12. I also ordered a pack of mixed color seeds, no named varieties, off of Ebay for $2.50 for 120 seeds. That's about 2 cents a seed. Who knows what I would do with all of those plants if they actually came up? Tree peonies aren't even my favorite anyway, but for more than 200 p. suffruticosa seeds for less than the price of one herbaceous peony root, I figured I'd give them a try. I'm sure not all of the peony seeds will come up anyway, but this gives me a nice chance of actually getting some plants and the opportunity to see how these Chinese tree peonies will adapt to and grow in my southern climate.
Chinese Tree Peony Seeds

2013 Peony Seeds From Hirt's Gardens

Talk about instant gratification - I ordered these seeds on Sunday, and they arrived in my mailbox on Wednesday! I must say I am impressed with Hirt's Gardens and the seeds I ordered from them on Ebay. All of the seeds were the correct number as promised except for P. banatica, which had one extra seed in it. This is what I received: P. ludlowii (2 seeds), P. mascula (5 seeds), P. officinalis banatica (5 seeds), P. tenuifolia (5 seeds), and P. wittmanniana (5 seeds). The peony seeds came with some interesting instructions. "PLACE SEED IN MOIST VERMICULITE IN PLASTIC BAG. PLACE IN WARM AREA OF THE HOUSE OUT OF THE SUN. WHEN THE ROOTS APPEAR, MOVE TO REFRIGERATOR FOR 10-12 WEEKS. TRANSPLANT WHEN SHOOT ARISE." I must admit I've never gone to that much trouble to germinate any seeds before. The most effort I've put forth is starting my vegetable seeds indoors for my vegetable garden, but no refrigeration was required. I might actually follow these instructions out of curiosity just to see what happens. I'll let you know how they do...

Peony Seeds from Hirt's Gardens

2013 Planting APS Peony Seed Packets

Well I finally got my seeds planted yesterday from the 2012 APS Seed Sale. I know it is really late, but the ground never really freezes here anyway. So the soil is still very workable. Anyway I got all 5 varieties planted - P. ostii (10 seeds), P. rockii (5 seeds), P. rockii & P. suffruticosa mixture (5 seeds), P. suffruticosa - purple (4 seeds), and P. veitchii - pink, single (11 seeds). I soaked them overnight to try to help them germinate. I kept them in separate containers so I could keep track of the varieties. Then I planted them with peony variety name labels in my new seedling test bed, which has really nice soil. So if they will grow anywhere, that would be the place. I'll record their germination rates in the spring. Also after reading my previous post about purchasing the seeds at the 2012 APS Convention Peony Seed Sale, I realized there was one more variety, P. suffruticosa 'Kamada Nishiki' - lavender pink (5 seeds). I just found the packet of peony seeds hidden on my desk. So I'll soak those tonight and plant them tomorrow.
Soaking APS Peony Seeds

2013 Questions - Where to Buy Peony Seeds

I received this question from Courtney in Zone 7:
"My father is interested in purchasing some peony seeds. He has always been into flowers and gardening and its evident by his yard. His favorite are peonies and he has just become interested in trying to grow them from seeds. I found your site online today after he requested that I try to find some catalogues or places where he could buy seeds. I’m not sure if you sell them or could help me in finding a place that sells them. I would appreciate your advice!"

The places that come to my mind for buying peony seeds are either on Ebay or the APS Seed Distribution Program. Doing a quick search on Ebay, there are lots of peony seeds you can buy from China. Also there are some peony seeds offered from Hirt's Gardens (based out of Ohio) on Ebay. Thanks to your inquiry, I decided to purchase a few of these seeds myself.

Peony Seeds for Sale on Ebay

You may want to check out my previous posts on the 2010 APS Peony Seed Program and 2012 APS Convention Peony Seed Sale . Also you DO need to be an APS member to participate in the APS Seed Distribution Program. The costs of the APS seeds are typically very affordable (usually $2-$3 per pack + shipping). If your father is not already a member of the American Peony Society, an APS Membership would make a great gift! I do not sell any peony seeds myself, and although I cannot personally vouch for the outcomes from any of the seeds you might buy, the costs of your endeavor should be low and the rewards great, provided you have the time. Peony seeds typically take 3-5+ years to develop into a flowering plant. I'd love to see any pictures from the fruits of your labors. Good luck! :-)

2012 APS Convention Peony Seed Sale

From the moment I got to the American Peony Society convention this year, I was looking for the seeds from the APS Peony Seed Sale. Finally on Saturday afternoon, Scott Parker, the administrator of the APS Seed Distribution Program, set up the hundreds of seed packets right outside the door to "heaven". (I'd heard one of the APS flower show attendees exclaim earlier in the day, "It smells like heaven in here!", and indeed it did.) There weren't quite as many Paeonia species seeds available this year as there were 2 years ago, but there were loads of hybrid peony seeds available.

APS Peony Seed Sale

I managed to snag 6 packs of seeds, with 4 of them being tree peonies and 2 herbaceous species peonies. I don't really grow many tree peonies currently, since with the few tree peonies I have tried (P. delavayi, P. lutea, and P. 'High Noon') only one of them is still alive (P. delavayi). Perhaps with these new tree peony seeds I will hopefully get one or two that will thrive in my climate and under my harsh gardening regime. ;) The tree peony seeds I purchased are P. rockii from Cricket Hill Gardens, P. rockii and P. suffruticosa Mixture, P. 'Kamada Nishiki' (suffruticosa group), and a generic pack of tree peony purple flower. The herbaceous peony seeds I purchased are P. Ostii and P. Veitchii (pink single), neither of which came up for me the last time I tried them. So maybe this time I'll have better luck with those too. Better luck this time might = more water. :) If you want to get your own peony seeds for growing in your home garden in hopes that one day you may get something worth registering, you can join the APS and contact the APS Seed Distribution Program Administrator, Scott Parker. (It's one of the benefits of APS Membership.) :)

2012 Paeonia Species Peony Seedlings

So I got 9 kinds of peony seeds from the 2010 American Peony Society Convention. I planted them in 2010, but I waited until this year to make sure that there weren't any stragglers. Four of the nine species actually germinated. I'm wondering if the germination rates were affected by the freshness of the seeds. Seeds sown here in my zone 7 growing climate will generally germinate the next spring. I've heard several times that sometimes peony seeds won't send up leaves until the 2nd year, but I've not found that to be true here. They usually sprout the first spring or not at all. Of course I usually let Mother Nature do the sprouting for me. I'm not much of a babier when it comes to plants, so they are most often left to take care of themselves. The 3 species that actually germinated here in 2011 were: Paeonia mascula, Paeonia mlokosewitschii, Paeonia peregrine, and Paeonia tenuifolia. Paeonia tenuifolia did not come back this year for 2012, but the other three did. I'm hoping to get some more seeds from the 2012 APS convention at the end of this month to try again. Hopefully I'll get some other species peony to grow here!!!

Paeonia mascula


Paeonia mlokosewitschii


Paeonia peregrine

2011 Peony Propagation

I went to the Carolina spring plant swap this weekend. I got lots of nice plants, but there was only 1 peony there. I guess it inspired me to get some peonies together for the next plant swap. If we want to spread the joy of peonies, it is the responsibility of us peony lovers to share what we have with others. In past years I have brought peony roots to the fall swap. Next time I will be sharing peony plants. Here are a few of the seedlings I potted up yesterday so that I can bring them to the next plant swap. So if you love peonies share them! Give a seedling to a neighbor or a piece of your root to your friend or family member! Help us grow the love of peonies!

2010 APS Peony Seed Planting

I actually got all of my seeds planted that I purchased at the American Peony Society Convention this June. Usually the seeds I plant are from peony cultivars. I don't usually buy seeds, but this year I purchased several varieties of species peony seeds. I made plant labels for each seed type. I decided to plant them in a grid instead of rows, which is how I usually plant my seeds. I ordered them alphabetically in the grid in case the plant label is lost (hopefully not). These are the varieties that I planted: P. brownii, P. caucasica, P. mascula, P. mlokosewitschii, P. ostii, P. peregrine, P. rockii, P. tenuifolia, and P. veitchii. I don't currently have any of these except P. tenuifolia, which hasn't bloomed for me yet. So I am curious to see how these different species peonies will grow here in my southern climate.

2010 APS Peony Seed Program

I was excited to get some seed from the APS Peony Seed Distribution Program this year. Since I've been a member for a few years now, this program has been available to me in the past, but I've never taken advantage of it. Somehow it was a bit more enticing to be able to select the seeds in person instead of ordering them through the mail. I got 9 packets of seeds, 8 of those packets were species peonies. The species seeds were $2.50 per pack and the cultivar seeds were $3.00 per pack. So I spent $23.00 in seeds. Not too bad. The seeds that I got were: P. brownii, P. caucasica, P. mascula, P. mlokosewitschii, P. ostii, P. peregrine, P. rockii, P. tenuifolia, P. veitchii. I am really excited to see how well these grow for me.