Articles about Peony seedlings
Showing posts with label seedlings. Show all posts

Friday, May 16, 2014

2014 Favorite Peony Seedling - Semi-Double Pink Violet

Oh! I love it! My favorite peony seedling to bloom this year. It is a child of Peony 'Lavender Princess', and it was planted it 2008, and it first bloomed this year. The bloom is 6 inches in size, and the color of its blooms is RHS 75C Pink Violet. I will definitely have to keep watch over this one to see if it has potential. I haven't seen one on the market quite like this, and I love its multitude of lavender petals. We'll see how well it increases and how disease resistant it is. I'm also curious to see if the bloom form changes next year on a more mature plant. This year there are over 35 petals with a very tight center of yellow stamens. If it is fertile and produces seed well, then it may be a good breeding plant as well.

Favorite Peony Seedling Bloom
Pink Violet Semi-Double Peony


2008 Seedling of Peony 'Lavender Princess'


Peony Seedling Bed

Saturday, May 10, 2014

2014 Chinese Tree Peony Seeds from Ebay Sprouted

As I said in my last post about peony seedlings, Peony Seedlings from Cricket Hill - P. Rockii, Ebay seems to be the place to buy peony seeds. This is a photo of the Chinese tree peony seedlings that sprouted from the peony seeds I bought on Ebay in the fall. Here is what they looked like when the Chinese Tree Peony Seeds Started to Sprout in March. So as you can see they have grown quite a bit since then. Also there are several more varieties growing now. In March only two of the varieties had sprouted, the blue (P3) and the green (P4). Now 5 out of the 6 colors have sprouted - black (P2), blue (P3), green (P4), pink (P5), and red (P6). The only seeds that haven't sprouted from this group are the white (P1). Aside from the white seeds which didn't germinate, the germination rates ranged from 10% (2 out of 20) for the red to 40% (8 out of 20) for the blue. The overall germination rate was 20% (24 out of 120). However considering the price I paid for these Chinese Tree Peony Seeds from Ebay ($2.50, shipping included), I think that's an awesome deal for 24 baby tree peonies. :-)

Friday, May 9, 2014

2014 First Unique Herbaceous Peony Seedling Blooms

Peony Seedling of
Peony 'Pink Princess'
Peony Seedling of
Peony 'Lady Alexandra Duff'

Well, my First Peony Seedlings bloomed for the first time this year. How exciting to see unique peony blooms that no one else has seen before. I can't say they are the best blooms I've ever seen, but they definitely are colorful. They are also certainly fun to watch open. The first peony seedling to bloom is a seedling of Peony 'Pink Princess', and the second peony seedling to bloom is a seedling of Peony 'Lady Alexandra Duff'. As you can see there are still lots more buds that have yet to open. So I am still very excited to see all of the new peony faces that have yet to greet me. If nothing else, it makes me want to grow more peonies from seed! Even if the majority of these peonies do not turn out to be registration worthy peonies, at least I will have lots of peonies to share at the fall garden swap, just another way to share my love of peonies. :-)

Peony Seedling Bed Blooms on the First Day


Peony Seedling Bed Blooms on the Second Day

Friday, May 2, 2014

2014 Peony Seedlings from Cricket Hill - P. Rockii

Of all the seeds I've purchased, I have to say that the Tree Peony P. Rockii Seeds on Ebay from Cricket Hill Garden are definitely the most viable. Their germination rate is 17 out of 20, that's 85%! That is a fantastic germination rate, considering the best I usually get from species peony seeds from the APS Seed Sale is 30-40% (and sometimes 0%). That is over twice the germination rate. Perhaps the seeds were fresher since they were sent directly from the grower. I'm very excited to have all of these P. rockii seedlings. Now I'll be able to select the best of the best for my climate, the fastest growing, the most disease resistant, the most floriferous, the best foliage, the best blooms, etc.

P. Rockii Peony Seedlings from Ebay, Cricket Hill Garden

I'm sad to say that the 105 Ali Express Chinese Tree Peony Seeds did not sprout at all. I'm beginning to wonder if the reports of boiled peony seeds from China are true, or perhaps they were just too old to sprout. It is curious since they were all so carefully labeled. Perhaps another year in the ground will soften their casings, and they can sprout a root this fall. We'll see if any of them sprout a leaf next spring... It seems like Ebay is the place to buy tree peony seeds. The Chinese Peony Seeds from Ebay actually did well germinating this spring. One of the colors (P3 Blue) actually had an 8 out of 20 germination rate, which is 40%. It's not the most impressive, but considering none of the 105 Chinese seeds I purchased from Ali Express sprouted, it's pretty good.

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

2014 First Peony Seedlings to Bloom This Spring!

Well, it almost happened last spring. I had my First Peony Seedling with a Developing Bud last spring, and sadly it never matured, First Peony Seedling Develops Immature Bud. However this year, I'm sure I will see some original blooms from my peony seedling bed. There are already 4 different plants with buds on them and the buds are growing larger by the day! Last year the peony plant with a bud on it was a seedling of 'Lady Alexandra Duff'. This year, there are two peony plants from 'Pink Princess' and two peony plants from 'Lady Alexandra Duff' with buds on them. So there are at least 4 plants with buds on them already. Some of the peony seedlings' foliage is still emerging so there may be more buds to come. I am so excited to see my first blooms from peonies I grew from seed from my own garden. I will definitely keep you posted on the progress and will be sure to post photos of the blooms as well!

2008 Peony Seedlings


Peony Seedling Buds

Friday, August 30, 2013

2013 New Fall Growth on Purple English Tree Peony

When watering my garden earlier this week, I noticed some new fall growth on one of the Purple Tree Peony Seedlings From Ebay UK. All of the existing foliage had already died back. This was probably due to the stress of shipment during the summer and the adjustment to a new climate. Anyway it's still alive! That's good news. I just hope these guys come back in the spring! One of them has two new leaves on it, and the other one doesn't have any active growth. Let's hope that one has just gone dormant for the year. It's nice to have something happening in the garden with peonies at this time of year. All the rest of my peonies are pretty inactive since things are winding down for peonies about now. The next thing will be the colorful fall foliage, which I'm looking forward to!

Purple Tree Peony Seedlings from UK


New Growth on Purple Tree Peony Seedling

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

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

Saturday, May 11, 2013

2013 First Peony Seedling Develops Immature Bud

Sorry to say that the First Peony Seedling with Developing Bud grown from seed in my garden has become an immature bud. This also happens sometimes on divisions that don't have quite enough energy saved up in their storage roots to develop a mature bud. This may have been the case for my new seedling as well. As you can see the bud has turned from green to red, and will gradually shrivel and dry up. Developing buds will stay green and slowly increase in size. Sometimes you just have to wait another year to see your peony's beautiful face. However with another year of growth, your peony should hopefully have the chance to develop even stronger roots in order to grow even larger the next year with (hopefully!) a nice blossom. :-)

Peony Seedling with Immature Bud

Saturday, April 20, 2013

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'

Friday, May 25, 2012

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