2013 Sharing Peony Roots at the Fall Plant Swap

I went to the fall Carolina Plant Swap this weekend. I brought 3 peony divisions with me this year to trade. These were nice, large divisions of a medium pink colored herbaceous peony with nice foliage. Hopefully they will each produce flowers next year in their new homes! I made these divisions from an herbaceous peony that was previously growing in my peony moon garden (which I recently cleared out to make room for my New Tree Peony Moon Garden). Since I love peonies so much, I can't help but want to try to encourage all gardeners to grow peonies. Once they find out how nice they are (and easy to grow), I'm sure they'll be hooked too! Let's hope I can donate even more to next year's plant swap! :-)

2013 Ali Express Chinese Tree Peonies $5.52 for 3!

Is it too good to be true? The Chinese text says, 3 stems shipping included, 5 years old big young trees at a special price, on sale, crazy deal! Three 5 year old tree peony plants for $5.52, shipping included? For $16.56, I'm in for three sets of 3. It does sound too good to be true, but I decided to try it anyway. If I'm out $16, okay, then at least I've investigated it for the rest of you. Also when ordering with Ali Express, the money is not released to the seller until you've confirmed receipt of the item. So I'm sure to get something. We'll just have to see what the condition of goods will be when they arrive. I've ordered Ali Express Chinese Tree Peony Seeds before, and they all came nicely packed and labeled. However I've never seen peony plants offered on Ali Express before. So now I am excited about the prospect of growing several different varieties of tree peonies. I'm also skeptical whether they'll be labeled correctly, but for $1.84 each who can complain? Even if the survival rate is only 20%, maybe I'll at least get two nice ones for less than $20. I'll keep you posted on how this pans out... :)
Ali Express Chinese Tree Peonies, 3 for $5.52

2013 American Peony Society Fall Auction

Well, the 2013 American Peony Society Fall Auction is almost upon us. I am personally donating 2 peonies to the auction, Peony 'Coral Charm', and Peony 'Scarlet O'Hara', both of which grow very well here in this southern climate. The APS Fall Auction is only open to American Peony Society members. So if you're not yet a member, now might be the time to join the APS! The American Peony Society has two auctions per year, the spring auction at the APS convention and the fall online auction. So if you're a member, but don't have the opportunity to join the APS at the annual convention, you can still participate in one of their auctions via the fall online auction. The official preview starts September 30th, but most of the auction plants are already up now. So check out the 2013 American Peony Society Fall Auction early for a sneak preview!
2013 American Peony Society Fall Auction

2013 American Peony Society Bulletin Article - Longwood, Winterthur, and The Convention

As promised here is the article I wrote for the September 2013 issue of the American Peony Society bulletin...

"The 2013 American Peony Society Convention was in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania this year with the convention, competition, and auction being held at Longwood Gardens. Longwood Gardens was a magnificent place in size and grandeur with plenty of color in various garden rooms, rolling landscapes, fountains, and unending glass conservatories. An entire weekend would not be enough time to explore all they had to offer, had that much time been available to me. Although I visited for the weekend, the American Peony Society convention kept us all quite busy.

American Peony Society Welcome Bouquet
Displayed at Longwood Gardens Entrance
The peonies this year were quite a contrast to the peonies at last year’s convention. They were actually in bloom! There were several trial beds at Longwood Gardens that had been planted the previous fall containing Award of Landscape Merit peony plants that were donated by the APS. Amazingly many of those first year divisions were blooming, with sometimes more than one bloom per plant. It seemed like the trials were going quite well! Longwood Gardens also has several named varieties of herbaceous peonies planted interspersed within their perennial borders, and these mature peony plantings really stood out!

Lunch was served in the Longwood Gardens Founders Room. It was a beautiful dining room with an entire wall of windows offering a nice view of the greenery outside. The weather was warm, so lunch was a welcome respite from the heat of the day. The chilled water with citrus slices was my favorite way to cool down while waiting in line for lunch and chatting with and getting to know a fellow APS member from China. The food was outstanding. Everything was so fresh, and there was plenty to choose from – gourmet sandwiches, garden salad, pasta salad, and a selection of fresh sliced fruit, with cookies and brownies for dessert.

I attended the board meeting after lunch and took the remaining part of the afternoon to explore the gardens. Longwood Gardens’ official peony garden was a bit of a disappointment, containing only tree peonies, most of which had already finished blooming, and lots of irises – almost more irises than peonies! However after speaking with a member of the Longwood Gardens staff, I did find out they planned to renovate it in the future. In the evening after exploring the gardens there was a “Taste of Philly” picnic with Philly cheesesteak sandwiches and chips for dinner and snack cakes and Hershey (PA) chocolates for dessert.

American Peony Society Members Ready for the Flower Show
Saturday was a busy day with everyone bustling to get their peonies entered into the show and competition. Peony stems were sorted and clipped, entry tags were filled out, and vases were filled with water and flowers. Lots of peony growers were represented and volunteers from all over helped with running flower entries from the prep area in the kitchen and patio area out back to the exhibition tables and judging area inside the Longwood Gardens atrium. Finally it was time, and Dana Tretheway called for final entries. I participated as a judge for the first time this year, and it was quite exciting as well as a great learning experience.

American Peony Society Flower Show Judging
Eventually all of the ribbons had been placed, and all of the blue ribbon winners were collected for another round of judging. The most experienced judges were set to decide the best in show for several different categories, and then selected from these category winners, the APS Best in Show flower. Tree Peony ‘Boreas’ was awarded this top honor for 2013. After the judging was complete, the exhibition floor was opened to the public for viewing the vast number and variety of peony blossoms from all over the country.

American Peony Society Flower Show Competition Entry
Division 4, 401, Commercial Exhibit, Collection, 25-50 Cultivars
There were several seminars in the afternoon, and the banquet was held directly after in the stately Longwood Gardens ballroom. The ballroom was truly a sight to behold. Its grandeur matched only by the palatial fountains outside the atrium steps and the castlelike exterior of the conservatory itself. The room contained a large organ installed by Pierre du Pont, walls of pink satin and dark earthy wood paneling, and huge yet delicate crystal chandeliers that dimly lit the room for dining. Dana Tretheway held the APS general meeting, during which a new peony was dedicated to W.E.B. Du Bois, and the Bertrand H. Farr lifetime achievement award was bestowed upon Don Hollingsworth. Dinner was fit for royalty. There were beef medallions that melted in your mouth atop polenta with fresh seasonal veggies. There were three miniature strawberry desserts that all were unique and delectable in their own right.

Carol Adelman Presents the APS Bertrand H. Farr
Lifetime Achievement Award to Don Hollingsworth
After dinner the annual APS auction was held. This year Jim and Lore Sampson double teamed the auctioneer role, and did a great job! The auction list was very long, but everything was sold, with all proceeds benefiting the American Peony Society. There were several new and exclusive peony varieties that were bought for less than their retail value. So there were lots of deals to be had at this year’s auction.

The last day of the convention was spent at Winterthur. Although the house was not as grand as I’d expected, I was left wondering since we were only able to tour a portion of it. Apparently they rotate which sections and floors are open for touring to let sections of the collection ‘rest’. So the house was probably much larger than the impression I was left with after the tour. The Winterthur gardens were a marked contrast to those of Longwood. They were much more natural, laid back, and in some instances almost overgrown. It was as if many of the gardens remained just as they’d been left by their last owner, the landscape almost frozen and nature allowed to somewhat take back the formal areas. The did however have a much more mature plantings of tree and herbaceous peonies, which were nearing the end of the bloom season. The tree peonies were planted in a garden mostly shaded by tall trees, which could be viewed from a nearby peaceful, white, wooden gazebo. The herbaceous peony garden was slightly more formal laid out within and around a rounded stone pathway with a small garden bench along the edge to rest in.

All in all the 2013 American Peony Society Convention was a great success, and I look forward to the next one!"

2013 Chinese Tree Peony 'Xiang Yu' ('Fragrant Jade')

Chinese Tree Peony 'Xiang Yu' ('Fragrant Jade') on Ebay
Well I got my first green and growing Chinese tree peony variety this week, and yes, I bought it on Ebay. I know, I know. Ebay is not necessarily the best source for peonies. However I do consider it to be a step above Gilbert H. Wild, who sends lots of mislabled plants, and several steps above Dutch Bulbs or Spring Hill Nursery, which import dry stick like material they call tree peonies. Also to that end, tree peonies are quite expensive elsewhere, and to quote a seller of US grown tree peonies on Ebay,"shipping only for a dry stick from China is $29, and the chance of survival for those plants was 20% in my hand". I was even reading last night in my copy of the First Edition of the Manual of the American Peony Society, that in the 1800s the Chinese tree peony sellers would often cut the roots of the tree peonies or scald the seeds they sold to prevent them from growing. I wonder if that was to increase their future business or, as the author of the APS Manual article surmised, to keep their best varieties to themselves. Let's hope things have changed since the 1800s and sellers don't do that nowadays. I guess I'll find out in the spring when I check to see if any of my Suffruticosa Tree Peony Seeds from China sprout!

Peony 'Xiang Yu' ('Fragrant Jade') in Shipping Bag	Peony 'Xiang Yu' ('Fragrant Jade') Unwrapped

Anyway I got this tree peony from an Ebay seller in New York, that grafts and grows tree peonies himself, and the plant looks very nice for the price. It looks nice even for a much higher sum. I've even paid more for one of those dry stick-like tree peonies from a generic garden catalog only to have it die shortly thereafter. This one looks very sturdy and has lots of nice roots on it. The seller said it should bloom this coming spring or the next. I'm hoping for the one coming up!
Peony 'Xiang Yu' ('Fragrant Jade') Stem Root Junction


Peony 'Xiang Yu' ('Fragrant Jade') in Planting Hole
As you can see I planted this tree peony several inches below the soil. I actually planted it at least an inch deeper than the original grower had it planted (which you can see by the moisture mark on the plant's stems). This is to encourage the tree peony to continue to develop roots of its own (which would sprout off of the portion of the tree peony stem that is underground). So the more of the stem that is underground, the more surface area capable of developing roots. I also watered this one before I mulched it. I usually mulch it before I water, but since I was putting so much water on it (hoping to keep it moist), I wanted to make sure the water didn't run out of the planting hole. If you'd like more tips on planting tree peonies, check out this guide on How to Plant a Tree Peony.
Peony 'Xiang Yu' ('Fragrant Jade') Planted


Peony 'Xiang Yu' ('Fragrant Jade') Watered


Peony 'Xiang Yu' ('Fragrant Jade') Mulched

2013 New Tree Peony Moon Garden

I finally got all of the New Dirt for Tree Peony Garden raked out. Now I've also added a good layer of pulverized dolomitic limestone on top. This will help reduce the soil Ph in this garden since I've seen moss try to grow in this area. So now as the tree peonies come in for planting, I'll cultivate the soil, mix in the limestone and a handful of organic fertilizer, and make a nice planting hole for each tree peony. I got the first one planted on Wednesday. It is Chinese Tree Peony 'Xiang Yu' ('Fragrant Jade'), which is supposed to a vigorous growing, white double flowered tree peony from China. I am excited to see whether any of the tree peonies that are to be planted will bloom next or take some time to settle in and establish themselves before sending out a blossom.
New Dirt for New Tree Peony Garden

2013 Fall Peony Planting Season

It's that time of year!!! The fall peony planting season has come! I got my first shipment of fall peonies today. It was from Hollingsworth Peony Nursery. It seems like it came about a month earlier than any of the other orders I've ever placed with them. I ordered a Peony 'Lafayette Escadrille' and a Peony 'Pehrson's Violet Frisbee' from them. I have been wanting 'Pehrson's Violet Frisbee' since 2007. That was the last time I remember Hollingsworth offering it, but it was sold out by the time I tried to order it. So when I saw them offering it again this year, I quickly ordered it. I have been wanting 'Lafayette Escadrille', an intersectional peony, since last year when I ordered it from Song Sparrow, but then I got a notice that they couldn't ship it since it was sold out. That was kind of disappointing, especially since Song Sparrow had offered it for $8.00 less than Hollingsworth did this year.

Fall Peony Planting Season!
When I received the box today, I opened it and let the roots soak for a hour or so while I dug the planting holes and mixed in some lime and organic fertilizer. Then I planted them as soon as I'd finished digging the holes and mixing in the additions. I'll be curious to see if either one of them sends up a bloom for me next spring or waits a couple of years to settle in. If you haven't gotten your 2013 peony orders in this year, there's still a little time. Soon you'll have to wait until 2014 to place an order. So get your 2013 peony order in while you still can!

2013 New Dirt for Tree Peony Garden

Another pile! Today I got a new pile of dirt delivered for my future tree peony garden. I don't really grow any tree peonies right now. I've planted a few seeds. I've ordered a couple of seedlings and divisions this year. Now I want to create a nice home for them and perhaps a few nice named varieties of tree peonies. I am converting my old peony moon garden, which used to hold several varieties of coral peonies, but I've since moved those to my New Coral Peony Sun Garden since this garden is a bit too shady for them. So I figured it might be a nice home for some tree peonies which supposedly like at least a bit of shade anyway. I did finish getting the soil raked out today. So now the bed is ready for some tree peonies to move in. I still have to move a couple more herbaceous peonies out of this garden, but other than that it's ready to go!
New Dirt for Tree Peony Garden

2013 Free Tree Trimmings for Peony Mulch

I am so excited! I'm excited by this giant pile of organic matter! I got a load of tree trimmings dumped in my back yard to use as mulch today, for FREE! I love free. Some of this mulch is headed for my peony beds and most likely some of this mulch will end up on the tree peony garden I'm planning in place of my old peony moon garden. That's the garden I've been moving peonies out of to create my New Coral Peony Sun Garden. If you could use a lot of mulch on lots of planting beds, taking a truckload off the hands of your local tree trimming company is a great way to do it. You help them dump one of their loads of mulched trimmings, and you get a load of fresh mulch at no charge. If you've never heard of this before, just call up one of your local tree service companies and ask them. Most of the time they'll be willing to deliver a truckload of mulch right to your door at no charge to you. Mulch is great for peonies here in our southern climate. The mulch helps prevent weeds and retain moisture - both of which will help keep your peonies happy! :-)

Tree Trimmings for Peony Mulch

2013 American Peony Society Gold Medal & ALM Photos

Yay! It's finally done! Yesterday I just completed a project I've been working on for a couple months now to get all of the American Peony Society award winning peony photos on their web site. If you've ever wondered if you had the correct APS Gold Medal award winning peony, or maybe you were just wondering what all of the award winning peonies looked like (so you could pick out your next acquisition!), then we finally have them all up in one place for your perusal! We are still missing 4 photos of Gold Medal peonies, but I hope to have those up later this year. We also have all of the APS Award of Landscape Merit (ALM) award winning peony photos on the web site now as well. The ALM peonies are specifically selected to perform well not only as a beautiful flower, but also as a landscape plant. These varieties have been evaluated based on garden performance and have been selected and awarded in more modern times (since 2009). Now you know! So go on over and check them out...! :-)

The American Peony Society Web Site

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

2013 Crispy Coral Sun Peony Garden

Deja vu! I feel like I've seen this before. All of my transplanted coral peonies in my New Coral Peony Sun Garden are now crispy. Only 1 of the 6 plants I transplanted had already gone dormant. Now the rest of them (the other 5) are brown too. I hope they've just gone dormant for the year. Coral peonies usually go dormant a bit earlier than the other peony colors. It is almost time for coral peonies to go dormant here anyway. So hopefully these will be okay. I'll keep watering them and hope for the best. Last year I transplanted some existing and newly planted intersectional peonies. Despite the Intersectional Peony Garden Dead Foliage, all of the existing intersectional peonies survived just fine even though they had turned crispy and brown as well. However only 2 of the 4 newly planted intersectional Peonies on Ebay actually came back this year. At first I thought only 1 of them was alive, but another one of them came up about a month later. That's a lesson for buying cheap intersectional peonies on Ebay. They may or may not survive. I hope these coral peonies will survive. All of these transplanted coral peonies are existing peonies - none of them are newly planted this year or last. So hopefully they will all make it. I will give you a report in the spring! :-)
Crispy Coral Peony Sun Garden

2013 New Coral Peony Sun Garden

I've been growing most of my coral peonies in my peony moon garden (a half-moon shaped bed near the edge of my woods). At first they were doing well here, but it seems like they are now either starting to decline or not increasing. So I decided to move them to another more sunny location, and give them a bed all their own. It's almost fall here. The weather seems like it has started to cool down. Don't get me wrong, it's still quite hot, but we've come off of our highs a bit. So it's beginning to be the perfect season for moving peonies. My plan is to move all of the herbaceous peonies out of my moon shaped peony garden near the edge of the woods and replace them with tree peonies. I don't have many tree peonies right now. So I'm planning on acquiring some (hopefully) this fall.
Existing Peony Moon Garden
So the first step, moving the herbaceous peonies out of this location has begun. Hopefully these coral peonies will be much happier in their new sunnier location with less root competition. I moved Coral 'n' Gold, Coral Charm, Coral Magic, Coral Supreme, Pink Hawaiian Coral, and Salmon Surprise. If there's one thing I've learned about herbaceous hybrid and lactiflora peonies over the years is they need sun! So if you've got a peony in a spot that is too near a tree, you should definitely move it to a separate, sunnier location. It will definitely be much happier with the additional sun and less competition for moisture and nutrients!
New Coral Peony Sun Garden

2013 Southern Peony Logo & Photos

Some work I've been doing for the American Peony Society has inspired me to spruce up my own web site a bit. Not only does Southern Peony have a spiffy new logo, but we also have new larger pictures with a Southern Peony watermark. With the additional security of a watermark, I'm able to bring bigger and more useful photos to you! You can check out the new, larger, watermarked photos on our Photos page. In case you haven't noticed, we update the photo on the Southern Peony main page every month with a new photo. These photos go into the Southern Peony photo archive on our Photos page to help you identify peonies, peruse the pictures to see what's available, and maybe plan your future peony purchases!!! ;-)
Southern Peony Logo


Southern Peony Photos

2013 Southern Peony Inventory

There hasn't been too much going on in the garden this summer. I have cut back a few instances of blight or dieback that I've noticed on some peony stems, but other than that, it has been a pretty good summer for peonies. We've had quite a bit of rain this year, so there have been very few instances of thirsty, droopy peony foliage. With such little stress and lots of opportunity for growth, I'm looking forward to seeing the growth in size of all the peonies next year. I've also been working quite a bit on some not-in-the-garden peony projects this summer. I recently updated my Inventory page to include hybridizer information about each variety. The new data contains the hybridizer and the year the peony variety was registered with the American Peony Society. I've also been working on a few projects for the American Peony Society itself, including another bulletin article for their September issue (look for a reprint soon), official APS peony photos, and a project to donate peonies to a local arboretum for public education and enjoyment - more details to come about all of these projects very soon!

Southern Peony Inventory

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!