Hello all!
I posted this peony on the ID forum, but no one there was sure, and suggested I post it here, so I subscribed just so I could do that!
I have a cage to hold this lovely up. It's about 2 1/2-3 ft tall (32" to be exact) and the flower heads are about 7" in diameter.
This picture is pretty color-true, it's a purplish red (dark fuschia). Any idea what cultivar I have here?
Wow, that is just gorgeous! Your description is good. I'm looking around, and others, with more experience - and peonis, will be too.
Welcome!
Donna
This message was edited Jun 16, 2010 7:23 AM
I just did a search on Help Me Find Peonies for double peonies, in fushcia, that are 32 inches tall. The color makes it quite different, and so does the height. Ville de Nancy is a possibility, but there are no images! But the hybeizer is one of my favorotes, Jacques Calot, and it's from 1872.
Still looking.
This message was edited May 20, 2010 7:18 AM
Thank you for all your hard work!
I'm having trouble with some of the terminology-- why are some peonies called "tree peonies" if they grow on the ground? I was sort of excluding that from my searches, since mine grows from the ground, but I found a "tree peony" in PF that looks like it's growing from the ground. The color looks quite a bit like mine: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/164440/
However, the ones that I feel most closely resemble my specimen are Chinese Peonies: Shawnee Chief, Felix Supreme, Cherry Bomb, and Kansas all of which are Paeonia lactiflora.
It's so hard to tell the difference, even trying to judge by bloom time (which is often the only difference in many of the look-alikes) because I feel that mine bloomed late, since all my neighbors' peonies bloomed a week or 2 before mine, HOWEVER, mine is crammed between 2 tall shrubs, so I don't feel like it gets the amount of sun it would prefer. Once it bloomed, it's done fine, there are about 7 blooms right now, with more buds waiting, but I don't know, then, if mine should be categorized as blooming "mid spring" (and it just didn't have enough sun) or "late spring" which is when it actually bloomed.
I have 2 other peony plants (all of what I have was planted by the previous owner of my home), and they're in pretty much complete shade, therefore, they haven't had a single bud this year, much less a bloom. :( I need to move them and see what they can do!
Sorry for all the questions, but I'm really trying to figure this thing out!
Oh wow! It might be Kansas! I have Kansas. What do you think?
It's hard to photograph.
Do the leaves help?
I think this might in fact be it.
It's so hard to tell from photographs, and growth pattern for various areas, and even though our states are neighbors, you're considerably farther north than me. Still, our leaves look different and your flowers look more compact and red than mine.
Here's a pic of my leaves. They're all in this 3-leaf pattern and waxy in appearance.
On a side note: Where'd you get that square grate thing? I bought a round thing to hold them up, but I think I need to get a taller one as mine have outgrown it. That grate one would be wonderful to put the buds through before they bloom though!
Here's another flower head of mine for color comparison. I'm not sure Kansas is wrong, I just know yours looks more red than mine in the pictures you posted.
Grr... it's so hard to tell!
would suggest purchasing or asking your library for a copy of Peonies (Firefly Gardener's Guide) by Pamela McGeorge and Russell McGeorge. It is a fine beginners book on peonies. Discribes the differences between peonies and tree peonies.
A note on "Chinese peonies" many of them their parentage is from China area of the world. Lactifloras orginated in Mongolia which is the reason they like full sun. Others how ever originated in other parts of the far East and are lower light peonies. Many that are on the market today are a mixture of many families of peonies. A Harold Bigger from Topeka, Kansas originated many plants including Kansas and Shawnee Chief. They are considered to be hybrids rather than lactiflora's no matter how they are marketed.
Carsten Burkhart's site is great to find out parentage and breeding information of your peonies. http://www.paeo.de/
I'll try to get you a pic of the leaves once our rain stops.
I got mine from 2 places. Earlier I bought them from Ace Hardware, but as they got more rambunctious I ordered them from Lee Valley Garden Tools. I bought the 20 inch grow through rings and the 30 inch legs (which come in sets of three, go figure!)
This what I bought:
http://www.leevalley.com/us/garden/page.aspx?p=10446&cat=2,43319,33282&ap=2
The grigs and rings, as you can see, are sold separately.
Donna
So, your peonies grew through that grid on their own, or did you have to pull some buds through?
Also, you say "as they got more rambunctious"-- did Ace not sell ones tall enough?
I have an Orscheln's near me and I bought my ring there, and it holds the stems together, but it's not tall enough to hold the flower heads up and with all the rain we've had lately, on top of the fact that the flower heads are giant, those things are heavy! They're so beautiful I'd like them to look up and show their face to the world but they just look droopy and sad. :(
Thanks for the ideas and info!
Hi Daisy,
Most of the stems did a great job of growing through on their own, although every couple of days I move a stem that's bumped it's little head into a grid section. And sometimes stems toward the outside of the clump that have a bud that's big enough to fall to the side before reaching the grid are placed inside.
I have 3 that defied Ace and Gardener's Supply grids because they are tall and the flowers are freaking huge - Mrs. FDR (tons of flowers on each stem), Cornelia Shaylor (huge bomb flowers and 36 inches tall) and Ann Cousins (flowers as big as 10 inches across). Not all of your peonies will need super support. I still use my Ace ones for some other mature peonies. Kansas has strong stems and does not require combat boot staking. But neither Ace nor the Gardener's Supply ones I had were tall enough. The 30 inch legs really help when you have 36 inch peonies. So I bought three rings and four sets of legs (to get 12).
Isn't it funny that so many people have the same problem but the solution isn't commonly known? Everyone else in my community who grows peonies just allows them to flop in the mud - seems a shame.
Let me see if I can get that pic. But whatever you have is lovely.
Donna
If you are just starting your peony collection you might look at the Hollingsworth Peony site. They have listed what they call "Landscape Worthy" peonies. What this means is that the peony typically won't flop after a rain like most of the older peonies do. http://www.hollingsworthpeonies.com/
Usually the only ones I really have problems with flopping are the huge old doubles, but since I love them, I stake them and wouldn't part with them for nothing. :)
Regarding the peony you originally asked about. What about Felix Supreme?
http://www.peonies.org/cgi-bin/datasheet.cgi
Just a wild guess. But remember, when someone describes something as ruby red that can mean a lot of different things to different people. Rubies can range from pink to dark red. :) LOL
Ticker, the more I look at suggestions, Felix Supreme is really seeming like the closest one, and for several reasons it's the one I keep coming back to. I did have trouble with the term "ruby red" but would see that term right next to a picture that was exactly the same color as mine! Judging by color, height, and color, texture, size and shape of the foliage, I'm really leaning toward that as my solution.
Donna, thank you so much for the suggestions about support. Mine definitely do need support, since before I put the ring around them they were flopping in the mud, and I agree, it's a dern shame. All I had heard was that you should get something to support them, but I didn't know what anything like that would look like, so I went to the Orscheln's and found those rings. I could swear I bought the 3 ft. one, but if mine are 32" and I pushed the legs down into the dirt a little to make them stable, and my peonies are still flopping over, I think it was more likely a 2 ft. I'll have to go back and see if they have a taller one. That's what I planned to do until I saw your grid type. I know this won't work for mine this year, since they're already bloomed out, but I definitely plan to buy some before next spring.
Your variant peonies sound positively deee-licious! 10 inches?! Goodness! That must be a real stunner!
For this year, you could just weave a grid of twine through your peonie bush and tie it to to your peony ring.
Ooooh, that's genius! Thank you so much! Don't know why my engineer husband hadn't thought of that yet! Maybe his usefulness is wearing out and it's time to get an upgrade! hehe :)
Daisy dear,
Ticker (Diann) is right about it not being Kansas. I just took a peek and Kansas has a distinct reddish cast to it leaves.
And DUH - weaving a ring as Tick described will do the trick! She's a true expert, and our go to gal.
Hey Diann, just signed up for the American Peony Society Conference. Just realized that Janesville is only 76 miles from me.
daisylover check out this thread for a discussion on supports.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/957352/
carolvan
Ah, it's Carol!
You best be letting Mags know you're going. :) I can't go to except maybe one day of it. I am the only person holding down the fort at work that week and so... I'm thinking hard about Saturday.. We'll see..
Oh, Baby, we have been corresponding the last few days. She can't go Thursday, so she will be there the 4th and 5th (Friday and Saturday) so I will too, to make sure we could connect and hang out. She's such a delight, and once I realized how near Janesville was the combined wish to see her and tour Klehms was irresistable! I've never been to a peony conference. Can't wait.
DO think hard about Saturday. It would be a hoot!
Alana will be there too, so, be sure to find her and you three can take Klehms by storm!! :) LOL
Superbo!
You all are cracking me up on with this convo on this post. :) It's like I'm holding a conference for you, teehee.
Enjoy the Peony Conference-- sounds fun! Take some great pictures!
Oh, Donna-- those pictures of your garden from the support forum fancy linked me to above make me DROOOL! I'm green with envy! Good job, girl!
And Fancy (or, Carol, I presume?), thank you for linking me to that forum-- it was mucho, mucho helpful!
Melissa
Thank you Melissa. It's sweet of you to tell me.
Donna
You're welcome Melissa!
It seems people ask about supports several times a year- I think I might ask if the admin can make that a sticky - it gets further and further back.
What do you all think?
carolvan
It's a good idea, Carol! I think I would've been attracted by that when I came to the peony forum the first time.
Whatever her name is, she's a real beauty! Is that the only peony you have? I'm looking for a nice pink one.
Daisy, you asked for conference pics. I have posted them elsewhere, but thought I'd put some here.
It was pretty amazing.
So many drifts of color.
They were in row after row.
And we were allowed to just go up to them and snap away!
How's this for a change of color?
It was a great experience. Thank you for bearing with us as we blabbed about it.
Donna
Wow!
I am looking forward to 2011 as the Canadian Peony Society is meeting here!
Carol, I know you'll love it. The Adelmans sat at our banquet table (with me and Tracey/Magnolialover and Diann/Ticker) and asked if they could please join us. WOW! Their peonies, they insisted because of the soil, were the most intensely colored and the largest. Their Ann Cousins was literally the size of a dinner plate! Many of the pictures I posted of their peonies. Klehm brought a ton of people, and we toured his home and greenhouses. He was so gracious.
So, I hope that I have in a little way repaid for our conference babbling.
Donna
