Peonies

Beautiful varieties for home and garden

Jane Eastoe, Georgianna Lane

• Publisher: Pavilion
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781911216902
• eBook ISBN: 9781911624264
• Topic: Ciencias biológicas
• Subtopic: Horticultura

This is first follow-up to the Garden Writer's Guild Award-nominated Vintage Roses. This new title in Pavilion's series of stylish floral gardening guides celebrates the beauty and versatility of the peony flower.

Peonies have always been a favourite with gardeners and cut-flower fans alike, but in 2016 their popularity went beyond bridal bouquets as the blooms took over social media – their gramming power was so huge this year that by May, Elle UK had already crowned the flowers as 'The New Avocado'.

First outlining the history of the peony, Peonies is then split into chapters Pure, Dramatic, Romantic and Fragrant, and

ROMANTIC

Peonies are inherently romantic, and this may well be the reason why they are now one of the most popular flowers for spring weddings. Not only do they symbolize romance, a happy marriage and good fortune, their very form brings out the romantic in all of us. Their beauty has been venerated for millennia; they have inspired myriad artists and textile designers and have enticed gardeners to dedicate long years to their hybridization in an effort to produce the perfect peony bloom. Heart-wrenchingly lovely, fragrant, voluptuous and frothy with petals, they are available in the sweetest range of colours from soft pinks, apricot, cream and all shades of white to deep, dark reds and a palette of yellows that graduates from lemon sherbet to soft, buttery tones.

Sarah Bernhardt

So soft, pretty, romantic and feminine are the flowers of Sarah Bernhardt it is perhaps not surprising that New Covent Garden, the UK’s largest flower market, ranks it as the best-selling peony for spring weddings. Budding with the colour palette of a raspberry ripple ice cream, it opens into a romantic, frothy, rose-pink petticoat of a bloom and is blessed with a sweet perfume. The colour of each petal is more intense at the base, though the flower fades to white as it ages. At the heart of the bloom, which can reach a whopping diameter of 20cm (8in), is a circlet of yellow stamens. Sarah Bernhardt’s one downfall is its weak stems, which struggle to support its mighty blooms, but this slight disadvantage is offset by it being one of the last peonies to flower in most years, extending the peony season in the garden.

Introduced by the great French breeder Victor Lemoine in 1906, this grand old lady remains one of the most commercial varieties of peony. It is sold in garden centres across the world and is extensively cultivated as a cut flower; the blooms are reputed to last for two weeks. Sarah Bernhardt was given the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit in 1993. It was named in tribute to the great French actress Sarah Bernhardt (1844–1923), who was herself awarded a Légion d’Honneur, the highest French order of merit, in the same year this peony was introduced.

Type Bomb

Flowering Early summer to midsummer

Aspect Full sun or partial shade

Soil Fertile and humus-rich

Average height 1m (3ft 3in)

Average spread 90cm (3ft)

Foliage Dark green

Support Benefits from staking

As a cut flower A popular flower for cutting

Similar varieties Reine Hortense, Albert Crousse

Buckeye Belle

Budding burgundy, this peony uncurls its dark, glossy petals to form a beautiful bowl shape. It fades to a deep red as it ages, revealing at its heart sulphur-yellow anthers carried on fine red filaments, all interspersed with blood-red petaloids. To add a further dash of colour, the creamy carpels are tipped with raspberry-pink stigmas.

Buckeye Belle was introduced in 1956 by Walter Mains (1880–1965), from Belle Center, Logan County, Ohio. Mains worked as a mailman, teacher and railroader, and grew peonies in his spare time, introducing three varieties. This one took the American Peony Society Award of Landscape Merit in 2009.

Type Semi-double

Flowering Late spring

Aspect Full sun or partial shade

Soil Fertile and humus-rich

Average height 90cm (3ft)

Average spread 90cm (3ft)

Foliage Bright green

Support Strong stems, no staking required

As a cut flower Makes a strong statement

Similar varieties Blaze, Illini Warrior

Canary Brilliants

This stupendous Itoh peony puts on quite a show, for Canary Brilliants has no loyalty to one particular colour and subtly shifts in hue as it ages. As the buff bud opens it uncurls huge tissue-paper petals, pleated and folded like origami, in a deep cream with a pale rose-pink heart before turning from apricot to buttery yellow. It then gradually rearranges itself into a open-cupped bloom which can reach 10cm (4in) in diameter, finally revealing its colourful heart – the petals are fla...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Contents
• Introduction
• The History of the Peony
• Pure
• Dramatic
• Romantic
• Fragrant
• Growing and Care
• Glossary
• Index
• Peony Directory
• Acknowledgements
• copyright