Wednesday, August 21, 2013

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

Monday, August 19, 2013

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

Friday, August 16, 2013

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

Sunday, August 4, 2013

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! :-)

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

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!

Monday, July 29, 2013

2013 Manual of the American Peony Society First Edition


First Edition of the American Peony Society Handbook, 1928

I was lucky enough to find a copy of the first edition of the American Peony Society Manual on Ebay for about $30. Unfortunately, the book binding is not in the best condition. However, the print is still legible, and I have started reading it. It tells how the American Peony Society was originally formed, with their original purpose being to straighten out the rampant problem of mislabeled plants, duplications of names, and trying to determine which peonies should be kept in commerce and which discarded. It also gives a finalized list of these peonies with descriptions once they'd been properly identified, condensed, and approved. The next section is about growing the peony. Interestingly enough this section starts out with personal letters from growers all over the North American continent from Canada to Georgia, with all of the southern gardeners mentioning how they don't understand why northern gardeners always say that peonies don't do well in the south. It seems we southern gardeners are still trying to disprove this enduring myth! :-P

APS Handbook - Color Plate of Peony 'Solange'


APS Handbook - Color Plate of Peony 'Walter Faxon'


APS Handbook - Color Plate of Peony 'Mikado'

Thursday, July 25, 2013

2013 Monrovia Itoh Peony 'Misaka'™ 美 (Beautiful Blossom) & Itoh Peony 'Takara'™ 慈悲 (Treasure)

Today I got an email from one of my favorite local garden centers saying that select annuals and perennials were 50% off. I called them since I was just there on Monday, and the peonies were only 30% off then. They said they would give me 50% off of the peonies even though there weren't yet marked to 50% off. So I went to the nursery right away and picked out another one of the Monrovia Itoh peonies from their Japanese heritage collection. They had two varieties left that I didn't have yet. I'd purchased 2013 Monrovia Itoh Peony 'Keiko'™ (Adored) a little over a month ago, and one other variety was already sold out. The two they had left were Peony 'Misaka'™ (Beautiful Blossom) & Peony 'Takara'™ (Treasure).
'Misaka'™ 美 (Beautiful Blossom)
Itoh Peony
'Takara'™ 慈悲 (Treasure)
Itoh Peony

I first selected the Peony 'Takara'™ since it was the largest plant, the foliage looked the healthiest, and it had a seed pod on it (so I knew it had bloomed this spring). I also wanted a Peony 'Misaka'™, but the only two they had left were in bad shape, and even 50% off didn't seem like enough. So I asked the staff member if it were possible that they might take more than 50% off for one of those two since they looked so bad. One had very sparse foliage with some blight, and the other one had lots of stunted yellow foliage, which looks like it might have been from over fertilization. The staff member didn't think they would take anything more off, but agreed to check with the management to be sure. When he came back, he said they would take more off of the plant, 75% off! I was very happy at the news, and decided to purchase one of each Peony 'Misaka'™ & Peony 'Takara'™ to put in my Japanese garden. I can't wait to see how lovely these three peonies look next spring when they are all in bloom!