Paeonies

Not familiar with that species.  Our peony are only about 2-3" tall at this stage....June-July is our peony time.

I'm not familiar with P. mairei either... not sure how large the genus is but it seems there are many more species that I know about, I'm a newbie when it comes to Paeonia and I only have a few types.

Two Paeonia species opened recently, adter two days of warm sunny weather (82-86 F, or 28-30 C), P. japonica, and P. wittmanniana.  The general appearance of the flowers is similar, but P. japonica is a smallish delicate plant with white flowers, growing in an open shady location, and P. wittmanniana is an imposing tall brute with cream flowers, which is growing in full sun.

Hoy wrote:

At last! Here are the flower of P. mairei! Some weeks later than last years.

Trond, now that the buds on P. mairei have finally opened, they are indeed beautiful.  A number of folks on SRGC Forum showed blooms of this species weeks ago, but you are obviously in a late-spring area... looks like they were certainly worth the wait.

I have that peony too Lori...grown from seed.  Took 4 years to reach blooming size.  5 buds this year but not as far advanced as yours...my leaves are still quite purple...probably from the cold!

I have two other species grown from seed, but the tags blew away.  One will bloom this year for the first time, the other still has no bud after 6 years!

Over the past few weeks I've had most of my peonies open. First came P. mascula, the blooms of which were truly  ephemeral. The buds opened, the winds came, then the rain, then the petals became history. 1 beautiful day. Following that was the bloom of P. veitchii, which I have had for 13 years and which is almost 4 feet in diameter. The blooms have been opening for almost 4 weeks, and today the final few are done. I got 1 bloom from my P. suffruticosa rockii, which is 4 years old. This was the first bloom, but it was beautiful! And now I've got two P. lactifolias in bloom, which I purchased from Harvey Wrightman 2 years ago, which he grew from Halda seed. This had been a particularly good year for my peonies, and it portends well for the next few years as they grow and mature.

Your Paeonia anomala, Lori, looks very much like what I saw last June in Kazakhstan, although the form in the Altai is usually a bright magenta. My form is also a softer pink: it has a huge range and I suspect varies quite a bit over that range.

Your mlokosewitchii looks even brighter yellow than mine. I blogged recently about our peonies (at the Gardens and my house):

http://www.botanicgardensblog.com/2010/05/29/let-us-now-praise-peonies/

Trond, all those paeonies are beautiful, but the unnamed Chinese one really captures my attention.  Did you grow it from seed?  What's the source?  Have you tried keying to the Flora of China, if you believe it to be a wild plant and not a cultivated hybrid?

Hoy wrote:

If I remember right (I have told you before, Mark, that I am not good in keeping records of my plants!) I bought the plants as small roots from a Chinese nursery (Chen Yi, you probably have heard of it) some years ago.

Well then, buying from Chen Yi says something and rules out certain possibilities... your Paeony is almost certainly of wild origin (all her stuff is wild collected >:() thus your Paeony being a nursery hybrid or cultivar can be ruled out, and nearly 100% of stuff she sends out is misidentified... the only thing to count on is... it is indeed a "species from China", and as such, one needs to go through the keys and check the identification regardless of what name it was sent under.  Or, just enjoy it as Paeonia sp. China.

Peonies have lovely flowers but I wish they would last longer...such large plants for so little bloom time makes them unsuitable in my small garden. However, I have grown some from seed at work.  Paeonia mlokosewitschii does well (I also have seed but too few for the seedex's) and P. mollis bloomed for the first time this year.  I have yet to see blooms on P. veitchii.

Todd wrote:

Peonies have lovely flowers but I wish they would last longer...such large plants for so little bloom time makes them unsuitable in my small garden. However, I have grown some from seed at work.  Paeonia mlokosewitschii does well (I also have seed but too few for the seedex's) and P. mollis bloomed for the first time this year.  I have yet to see blooms on P. veitchii.

Todd, I see your point, particularly with species such as P. japonica that have flowers that last only a day or two.

In addition to flowers, many species have fanciful seed pods, opening late in the season to reveal showy clusters of fleshy seed, bright red infertile ones and plumped up blackish fertile ones. I was touring a garden recently, and the "fruits" on several paonies stopped visitors dead in their tracks.  Some paonies do indeed look quite ordinary in foliage, others are gorgeous in foliage.  And lastly, some have attractive fall foliar color.  I have a couple common P. lactiflora hybrids that turn a warm orange color in late summer, lasting for a couple months in this stage.

Fall color for a couple months!? 
If that happened here, I would think there was something wrong with the plant... 

RickR wrote:

Fall color for a couple months!? 
If that happened here, I would think there was something wrong with the plant... 

Yup, with this particular variety, named 'Koningin Wilhelmina', the foliage turns light orange in the summer, especially when it is hot and dry... it has looked this way since mid summer.  Just ran out to check my label, I planted this in 2004, and this one always colors up this way.

Here are the pseudo-seeds on Paeonia mlokosewitschii..the real seeds blew off during the hurricane.

Peony season is in full swing here in the Southern hemisphere.
The first is one we've grown (in Australia) as Paeonia mascula ssp russii but there is a suggestion that it's actually P. kesrouanensis. Not looking the best this year, but that rose may have to go!

The next is Paeonia cambessedesii which I grew from seed.
cheers
fermi

The weather here has been atrocious, more like the Falklands than Massachusetts, and my first peony to open, P. mascula, lost it's flowers to the rain before I had a chance to get a decent picture. My P. veitchii, which I've had for 14 years, is in full bloom and because it's flowers are nodding, it has survived the rain well, and is looking absolutely superb. Over the next few days, assuming we'll actually get some sun, most of my other species peonies will be opening, and I'll post some photos as they do.

Skulski wrote:

Finally... an unknown from the front yard:

Good foliage, Lori.... and the flower seems promising too.

Doesn't look quite right to me, but when it flowers, we should know better.  Here's a shot of my P. japonica from 2010.

Lovely Paeonies everyone, I should grow more of these as I'm a big fan.  One that just finished up is 'Buckeye Belle', a shocking deep red one.  This year the plant is smaller than last year, and with fewer blooms, I believe showing the effect of last summer's draught on a number of plants that seemed weakened this spring.

My hybrid Peonies are just beginning to bloom, but all the species except one have gone by. The one that IS blooming, P. lactifolia, is spectacular, and I think it's the best one I have. I have two plants, each 4 years old, and the one in the slightly raised western portion of my rock garden has been blooming for 4 days. The flowers are so bright that I've had difficulty photographing them and given my utterly primitive level of skill, I'm not sure I'll be able to take any decent photos, so these will have to do. The first is from yesterday, and the second photograph is the 2nd plant blooming last year, because it's still waiting to show its stuff this year.

That's a beauty Peter! Need to wear sunglasses looking at that day-glo pink. 8)

One that bloomed a couple weeks ago is Paeonia wittmanniana.  The flowers are nice but not that showy; the foliage is bold and heavy-textured, I like it better for the foliage than the the flowers that only last 2 days.  Here again, fewer flowers this year, no doubt set back from last year's summer drought.