Articles about Peony tree
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Friday, February 1, 2019

2019 Tree Peonies Starting to Peek Out


Unknown White Tree Peony

It's been a month since I first snapped a few photos of my tree peonies in January, 2019 New Year Holds (Peony) Promise! Although it is only February, I can already see some movement in the buds. I'm not sure if it is the temperatures or the length of our days that they are responding to (or maybe a combination of both), but they are definitely starting to grow a bit. Although tree peonies have been slow to start taking hold for me, I am starting to enjoy growing them a bit more. Also you get to watch them come to life long before the herbaceous and intersectional peonies start to wake up. If you don't yet grow any tree peonies, I'd definitely recommend trying one or two. They are certainly entertaining in these long winter months...


Tree Peony 'White Phoenix'


Tree Peony 'Chojuraku'


Tree Peony 'Yao Huang'


Tree Peony "Chinese Pink" Seedling


Tree Peony 'Sahohime'


Monday, January 7, 2019

2019 Planting Chinese Peonies from Ebay


Chinese Tree Peony Order on Ebay

So I ordered these tree peonies on Ebay last August, and I just got around to planting them on the first of the year. I guess you could say I'm thinking these probably won't be correct. There weren't cheap, but they weren't that expensive either. Each of the orders was for 2 roots and it was $22.99 with free shipping. So I ended up with 4 roots altogether, but after opening the box and looking at the roots, I wasn't very motivated to plant them since they didn't really look like tree peonies to me. They looked like herbaceous roots. Also all 4 roots were in the same bag, and none of them were labeled for variety. I figured these were probably too good to be true, but I haven't seen anyone else offering tree peonies like these, and I actually did see the purple tree peony on my trip to China, 2018 Southern Peony Visits Shenzhou Peony Garden 神州牡丹园, (and it was my most favorite peony that I saw on the whole trip).


Chinese Purple Tree Peony

The color of the purple tree peony I photographed is not quite this blue toned (so obviously this photo was altered), but it was a lovely shade of lavender-pink-purple and it has this same "bomb" type peony flower form. So I had to try anyway since I really, really want one of those purple tree peonies. Who knows if I will ever find one, though? The roots however were a solid mass of crown with tons of eyes on them, no woody stems, and very little to no feeder roots. I'm sure they will live, but they will probably take many years to flower, and most likely they will be some type of herbaceous peony. I feel a little disappointed already, but my quest for the purple bomb type tree peony will go on, and I will just add the results of these roots to my 2018 Ebay Peony Seller Reviews, whenever they bloom and show their true colors!


'Qui Ball' Light Pink Tree Peony


Tuesday, January 1, 2019

2019 New Year Holds (Peony) Promise!

Wow! Happy 2019! I can't believe another year is done, and another one has already begun! Although time passes quickly I am always trying to make the most of it. There is always something to tidy up (in the house or garden). Since I've had the trees removed, 2018 More Light for Tree Peonies, Sweet Gum Ball & Poplar Trees Gone!, I've finished up putting out the beautiful bright colored mulch that was left behind, 2018 Mulch for Peonies from Tree Removal, found a bit of time to move a few tree peonies, 2018 Peony Experiments - Move Mislabeled White Tree Peonies, and also tuck a few last minute peony roots into the ground. I hope you've had time to clean up your garden and finish up any last minute gardening tasks you wanted to complete as well. If not, then you've got a whole new year!


Pink Lateral Tree Peony Bud


Yellow Terminal Tree Peony Bud

Now the waiting game has begun. I am so looking forward to seeing how my tree peonies perform this year, now that they have more sun. While I'm waiting I decided to take a few photos of some of the fat tree peony buds in my garden. Yes, it is only January 1st, and some of them are already a bit fat (actually I took these photos on New Year's Eve - December 31st). By the time April rolls around, the will be about to burst. It's so nice to see the different shapes, sheath colors, and bud colors on the tree peonies. Since we don't have any actual peony blooms yet, I thought I'd entertain you with a bit of anticipation and promise for peonies in the new year, not to mention these tree peony buds are a colorful lot too!


Tree Peony Lateral Bud


Tree Peony Lateral Bud

It's also kind of neat to see how different tree peonies have different shapes and colors of buds. The yellow bud it actually from Tree Peony 'Yao's Yellow'. So its buds kind of match its flowers since they are both yellow hued. Most of these tree peony buds pictured here are white flowering tree peonies, having pink buds. The middle tree peony bud photo is of the lavender P. rockii tree peony seedling that I am starting to watch. It's buds appear to be the lightest pink of this lot. The flowers on that tree peony open a lovely shade of lavender pink. I can't wait to see it bloom again! Happy New Year!


Tree Peony Terminal Bud


Monday, December 31, 2018

2018 Peony Experiments - Move Mislabeled White Tree Peonies


Replanted White Tree Peony

I just had to sneak in one more project before the end of the year. This spring I tagged 4 of my tree peonies that are all white singles. Three of these were mislabeled tree peonies I bought on Ebay that I recorded in my 2018 Ebay Peony Seller Reviews. The last one was one of the tree peonies I got from Ali Express - very inexpensively, 2014 Chinese Tree Peonies from Ali Express. I couldn't just let these perfectly good tree peonies go to waste (just because they weren't the color I ordered), so I decided to reuse them as a border around the back edge of my woods behind my tree peony garden and along my garden path that leads to my outdoor covered swing. Some of these seem like P. ostii and there may be a P. rockii or two mixed in there as well.


White Tree Peony Being Replanted

Supposedly tree peonies resent being moved. So I guess you could say this might be an experiments of sorts. Since there of 4 of them, I might have a lot of built up resentment come spring, but I hope not. I'm hoping since I just removed 2 very large tulip poplars that were directly shading them, they will forgive me quickly and the additional sunshine will make up for any potentially severed roots. I tried not to sever too many roots, but a few of them did get - let's just say - "separated". I think most of them were intact. :-) I am anticipating that some of these may even bloom again this spring. I will let you know how they fare and whether I get any blooms out of them come spring.


White Tree Peony Roots

Tuesday, December 11, 2018

2018 Planting Tree Peony Seeds from Luoyang China


Peony Seeds from Luoyang China with Garden Stakes

It took me a lot longer to figure out how to label these 2018 Tree Peony Seeds from Luoyang, China than it did to actually plant them. I did get them planted last week though, before our big snow, 2018 7 Inches of Snow on Southern Peony Gardens! (just in time, I guess!) I don't know what if anything they will do, but we shall see in the spring, if not spring 2019, then spring 2020, I suppose. I ended up laminating the photos of the seeds and attaching those to some copper garden stakes I had on hand. Since they didn't have an English name printed on them, I couldn't easily print a Brother label for them. Just in case they don't do much, I didn't want to have my husband go to the trouble of trying to figure out the translation for each of them.


Chinese Tree Peony Photo Garden Stakes

So what I did to create these garden stakes was first write a number on every paper and every plastic bag (1-20) so I could keep straight which picture went with which bag of seeds. Then I scanned in all of these tree peony photos in case I need to reference them later. Then I laminated each photo with some UV resistant laminating material. Then I used gorilla tape to affix each laminated photo to the copper garden stake. I'm kind of curious to see how these hold up. Even if these peony seeds don't do much, it will be an interesting experiment to see if the photos fade or not, whether the gorilla tape withstands the elements well, and how these "photo" garden stakes hold up outside.


Copper Tree Peony Garden Stakes


Saturday, November 24, 2018

2018 Tree Peony Seeds from Luoyang, China


Tree Peony Seeds fron Luoyang, China

So there's one thing I didn't mention much about my trip to China this year, the peony seeds I purchased! I got a few here and a few there. Most of the seeds I purchased were just outside the garden gates during my 2018 Southern Peony Visits Luoyang National Peony Garden 洛阳国家牡丹园 (North). The seeds in the tiny plastic zip bags are the ones that came from the Luoyang National Peony Garden. You can see the table they had set up to sell the seeds below. I felt a bit skeptical as to whether these tree peony seeds actually came from the varieties pictured in the packets, but for 1 yuan (17 cents) for 10 packets, how can you go wrong? So I bought two different sets of them. My guess is they may be all the same variety, maybe even herbaceous or p. ostii. Who knows? I must say I am very curious, though to find out. Of course, it will probably take me five years or more to see any blooms from these.


Table of Tree Peony Seeds for Sale


Woman Selling Tree Peony Seeds

The photo above it the woman who sold me the seeds. She told my husband (in Chinese) that she and her husband have their own peony farm. I have no idea if it is true, but it sounds neat. They were also selling several varieties of potted tree (and herbaceous) peonies in full bloom as well. I wish I could have purchased a few of those tree peonies to bring back home! They also showed us how to sprout the tree peony seeds. They just used a plastic water bottle with and inch or inch and a half of water in it. I'm not sure if they put the seeds in the fridge to get them to sprout their roots first or just sprouted both the roots and the leaves in the bottle. That was certainly wild. I wish I could have found out more about how they did it. Maybe I will try a few of my seeds that way just to see what happens. I usually don't have much luck sprouting seeds that aren't in the dirt. I guess I just haven't tried or practiced it enough. I usually end up with mold of some sort.


Peony Seeds Sprouting in Water Bottle


Chinese Tree Peony Seeds

Here are a few more close up photos of the seeds I purchased (front and back of the packaging). You can click any of these photos to see a larger version. I don't know what any of them say. I guess I need to enlist my husband to help me translate them. I just can't decide if it is worth the time and effort to do so. The last time I had him take the time to meticulously translate each and every variety (and make a separate label for each), 2013 Ali Express Chinese Tree Peony Seeds, none of them sprouted!!! (I've placed more than one order for Chinese tree peony seeds in the past, and the other one from Ebay did sprout, 2013 Chinese Peony Seeds from Ebay , 2014 Chinese Tree Peony Seeds Starting to Sprout.) So who knows what these tree peony seeds will do, if they even sprout (I hope so!), or what color they will be, but I am definitely interested to find out!


Chinese Tree Peony Seeds


Chinese Tree Peony Seeds


Saturday, November 17, 2018

2018 Transplanting My First Tree Peony


P. Rockii Lavender Tree Peony Bud

It was past time to move the first tree peony that I'd like to watch. That peony, a very vigorous pink-lavender P. Rockii peony is featured as the first peony in my recent 2018 Southern Peony Seedlings article. I've never moved a tree peony before, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I've always heard that tree peonies don't like to be moved. However I'm hoping this one won't be hurt since it is still a young plant and not fully established in its original location. I was a bit surprised to see that this tree peony still had some green leaves, as almost all of my other tree peonies have already died back. The first thing I did before I tried to dig it was create a planting hole for it. I also added a bit of EcoScraps fertilizer in the hole. I never fertilized the P. rockii tree peony seeds when I planted them. So I'm curious to see what this peony can do with some extra food and more sun. I decided to plant it in a nice, sunny spot right next to my bird feeder.


P. Rockii Lavender Tree Peony Tagged for Watching


P. Rockii Lavender Tree Peony Leaves


P. Rockii Lavender Tree Peony Planting Hole

I tried to be very careful when digging it out, especially since it was very crowded (and I mean very) in original location. I put the original seeds in my peony seedling bed about 2-3 inches apart when I originally planted them. (I know, I know - that is too close, but I wasn't even sure if they would sprout or not since I'd previously not had much luck growing tree peonies from seed.) It's a wonder these tree peonies are able to grow at all, much less bloom with that much competition. However this particularly vigorous seedling was the tallest of all its siblings, and it had pretty much figured out how to beat the system. It had sent out a very long lateral root that was actually taller than the plant itself. The root was growing past all of the other sibling tree peonies out of the peony seedling bed. I tried to get all of it out, but it looks like I still lost a bit of the root at the tip.


Digging P. Rockii Lavender Tree Peony


P. Rockii Lavender Tree Peony Roots


P. Rockii Lavender Tree Peony Root Length


P. Rockii Lavender Tree Peony Stem Height

The root actually ended up being even longer than the tree peony was tall. The root (what I got of it) was 30" long! So that means it would have been even longer if I hadn't snapped the end off. The tallest stem was 28.5" tall. I'm curious to see how tall this tree peony grows with time. Since the hole I dug for the root was not 3 feet wide (or larger), I decided to dig a trench for the long lateral root next to my planting hole. Maybe that's not the best solution, but that's what I decided to do. I don't really have the time or energy to dig a hole that big anyway! I am really, really excited to see what this tree peony can do next year. I also planted a newly purchased tree peony 'Leda' that I just decided to purchase this fall from Song Sparrow near it. It won the APS Gold Medal in 2014, but I never bought it until now. I am curious to see how these two tree peonies compare as they grow...


P. Rockii Lavender Tree Peony in Its New Home


Transplanted P. Rockii Lavender Tree Peony


Tuesday, April 24, 2018

2018 Tree Peony 'Angel Emily' Best Performer - Week 3

I do not cease to be amazed by this tree peony. I used to not really like tree peonies all that much, but I have to credit this one with changing my mind. Tree Peony 'Angel Emily' is a dream plant. It has wonderful vigor, increasing in size and blooms every year. Its bloom buds withstand our late freezes, and the color of the flower just blows your mind. This tree peony was hybridized by Bill Seidl and registered jointly by Bill and Nate Bremer in 2013. I missed being able to purchase it in 2013, but by 2014, I was ready to hunt it down. The pictures of this full grown plant on Solaris Farms' web site called to me! The semi-double flowers are a beautiful shade of lavender with just a hint of pink. The petals are large and ruffled, the center of which emanates a dark purple flare. If you missed your chance to purchase this one again this year (it is already sold out for 2018), make sure to put it on your 2019 peony purchase list!
Tree Peony 'Angel Emily'
Southern Peony Best Performer

Tree Peony 'Angel Emily'
Southern Peony Best Performer

Tree Peony 'Angel Emily'
Southern Peony Best Performer

Saturday, April 21, 2018

2018 Tree Peony Companions Azaleas

Tree Peony 'Angel Emily' with White Azalea

If you don't grow azaleas, you are definitely missing out. Azaleas are easy to grow bushes that don't require any extra care. They grow well in zones 5-8. So they have a pretty wide growing range. They are loaded with blooms in early spring, and with so many colors to choose from, you are sure to find one that fits in your garden. There's white, pink, coral, red, lavender, yellow, and all colors in between! They typically like to be grown in half shade/half sun. If you plant them in too much shade, they won't bloom well (just like tree peonies). So a little more sun is better.

Tree Peony 'Angel Emily' with White Azalea

They also bloom around the same time as tree peonies, thus making the perfect brilliant backdrop for your favorite tree peonies. Pictured here is a common white azalea (purchased quite inexpensively as a very small bush many years ago) with Tree Peony 'Angel Emily'. I just love the gorgeous lavender pink blooms of Tree Peony 'Angel Emily', which contrast well with the bright white blooms of the large azalea. If you don't yet grow azaleas, now's your chance to plant a very low maintenance shrub that grows larger and blooms abundantly (without any help from me) every year!
Tree Peony 'Angel Emily' with White Azalea


Friday, April 20, 2018

2018 Amazing Color Changing Tree Peony 'Taiyo' 太陽 (The Sun)


Color Changing Tree Peony 'Taiyo' 太陽 (The Sun)

When I first saw this bud show some color, I thought for sure that I'd gotten the wrong peony. However I think I actually have the correct one. Tree Peony 'Taiyo' 太陽 (The Sun) is supposed to be a red peony. The bud first came out with light pink petals. Even as the flower began to open they were still pretty pink. However the petals actually became darker and darker as the bloom fully opened. I've seen lots of peonies open and lose their color, but this is the first time I've ever seen a peony get darker and more colorful as it ages - definitely new and different (and a bit exciting!) for me. Take a look at the transformation of this tree peony bloom from pink to red below!

Tree Peony 'Taiyo' 太陽 (The Sun) Bud


Tree Peony 'Taiyo' 太陽 (The Sun) Bud Opening


Tree Peony 'Taiyo' 太陽 (The Sun) Bloom Opening


Tree Peony 'Taiyo' 太陽 (The Sun) Bloom

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

2018 Tree Peony 'White Phoenix' Best Performer - Week 2

Of all the tree peonies I've tried to grow, this one is definitely the easiest to grow. It doesn't mind our heat. The bush gets larger every year - no shrinkage. And the blooms become more and more plentiful as well. It is a great start to the peony season, with plenty of brilliant white blossoms decorating a nice bush. Tree Peony 'White Phoenix' 鳳丹白(Feng Dan Bai) is a Chinese cultivar of p. ostii. If you don't grow any tree peonies, and are looking for a good one to start with, this one is it. It is relatively inexpensive (compared to most other tree peonies),is widely grown (so it should be easy to find), and really takes care of itself (requiring very little intervention). Also if you do already grow tree peonies, this one would be an easy going variety to add to your collection. It really is a great tree peony for all peony lovers.

Tree Peony 'White Phoenix' 鳳丹白(Feng Dan Bai)
Southern Peony Best Performer


Tree Peony 'White Phoenix' 鳳丹白(Feng Dan Bai)
Southern Peony Best Performer