tree peony

My kamata nishiki has had six blooms on it this year! Haven't had that many before..

Up close..

Really beautiful plant!

That is stunning!

Fantastic !! I must buy this one too !

What a beautiful color. How old is your tree peony. I planted two if the fall of 2009, but they're only about a foot high and no signs of blooms. The herbaceous one have lots of buds but no open blooms yet.

Cem9165, that peony is ten years old. Be patient - the first couple of years, it didn't bloom. It always blooms early, way before my herbaceous peonies.

Spectacular show! I hope my tree peonies have matured enough to do even half as well as yours! How large are the blooms?

Thanks for the info RrrrrGrrrr, I'm fine with waiting for the blooms, I have lots of herbaceous plants with buds now to keep me happy till then. The 2 tree peonies that I have are Kinkaku and Kokuryu-nishiki. Hopefully we'll continue to get some good rains this year and not have our plants suffer as they have in years past from our drought.

I can always count on rain to destroy the bloom. I've been known to put "hats" on my tree peonies when I know it's going to pour. I have lots of plastic sandwich bags and no shame.

LOL cathy you've gotta do what you've gotta do...too funny. Stuff like what we all do is what separates us from average joe gardeners. My neighbors probably think I am weird because I am out at night with the flashlight looking for activity when everything starts to come up. Neighbor across the street asked if everything was OK LOL.

RrrGrr, I am impressed that you got all four of those blooms to open in sync as you do. Really spectacular sight. I agree with the "patience" part. Tree peonies are notoriously slow both to grow and produce flowers in any kind of volume. Herbaceous ones are much more predictable and once they produce a flower seem to be more linear in how many they produce each coming spring.

mattsmom, all the blooms are 7 inches across.. I have another tree peony called "shima nishiki" that has slightly smaller blooms.. This is a picture of it blooming last year - nice coloration with the red/white striping..

RrrrrGrrrr, what is the violet colored one in the back of this pic? that isn't Kamatanishiki is it?

I guess I wasn't so much looking at the petal configuration as the color. it really is a sort of lavender blue. I do hope that mine matures to that color. it is just beautiful. Thanks

I am new to tree peonies, and hope you don't mind me asking a question on your thread. Is it normal for them to send up leaves from the base?
I have 3 buds on one plant and then the greenery below. Just wondering?
Thanks,
Teresa in KY

Sometimes it is normal depending on the trunk. If the shoots are ciming up from the ground, it is likely the original from the graft, herbaceous. I cannot always tell, If something is grafted and the original plant takes over, that is not good.

cathy is right about the graft point - I had several shoots come up around the base of one of my tree peonies that ended up with blooms of a different color..

The foliage is different. Tree peony leaves are NOT shiny, and they have a silky feel. Herbaceous peony leaves are generally shiny.

I was was worried after reading this. Like, are my tree peonies REALLY the tree or growth from the graft, IF they were grafted. But the leaves are very different from herbaceous; more like intersectionals with a little brownish/green color, not shiny bright green. I have shoots from the bottom also, although the dratted mice chewed them to heck so they may not do anything this year. The shoots, that is. I think the trees will survive as a whole.

It is supposed to get stormy here tonight.. I figure my blooms will be in tatters tomorrow. Here's one last shot I took this morning - if you look at the left side of the bloom you can see some of the "blue" coming out on the shaded part. It is hard to capture on camera.

I have those umbrellas that Cricketts Nursery sells. Pretty spendy but they use them to protect their peonies from sun and rain. They need a little longer poles but work really well. Course I only have about three and only use them on my really special peonies like the trees. It is hard to believe you have that gorgeous flower right now. Heavy sigh. My turn will come, in about three months. Heavier sigh. I would stand outside with an umbrella to protect that beauty. Well, maybe not, only saying....

How about large Ziplock bags over the blooms, someone mentioned doing this on another thread.

I have seen the umbrellas in the Cricket Hill catalog.. I thought about covering the blooms with ziplock bags, but there's so many other things to keep me entertained - dogwoods, azaleas and swelling buds on the rhododendrons. There's even left over hellebore blooms and hostas coming up all over the place.

Alright, RffffGrrrr, now your bragging. lol. This is the best I can offer right now.

Oh My - I LOVE cold weather, but that's ridiculous!! Just think how nice it will be in July when we are sweltering down here..

that is very true. I could never take the heat. When it gets 70F I am happy. Much warmer and I have to go indoors. At least, go out of the direct sun. the poor little fellow in the snow hole is my hardy carnation; not sure if the tag shows. A deep red I put in last year next to Lemon Chiffon peony. I will probably have to move it when the peony really gets big. But thought the colors would look nice together.

OMG is that Kamatanishiki BEAUTIFUL !!! absolutely georgeous.Always loved the color amethyst since it is my birthstone.

2 of my new tree peonies from last year are still covered by snow but 4 others will bloom in a few weeks I hope.They did last year.

My tallest tree peony, a white one was broken badly by a guy who build a fence up for me last summer/fall.2 major branches are gone now.It was a basic white peony which I bought in a co-op but it performed beautifully for me.

Eglantyne, how long are your trees covered in snow? I am trying to determine if I really need to cover mine. A man who went through my garden said they would never bloom because they get dessicated through the long winter with sun and wind. So I covered them and they bloomed last year. But 1) I stopped pruning them in the fall, thereby cutting off all the flower buds (I know, stupid), and 2) they were three years in the garden. so maybe they were just ready.

Eglantyne, I would not have wanted to be in that fence guy's shoes.. Tree peonies grow so SLOWLY. I'm sure you felt like strangling him.

A couple of years ago, a contractor working on the house next door to me, cut a huge branch off of one of my favorite white dogwoods.. The tree was beautifully layered and he just ruined the symmetry. He cut it all the way down to the trunk.. He wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed..

I would have sued both of those guys. Except they can't fix what they broke. and I doubt they had any appreciation for what they destroyed that only time can (sort of) fix. the symmetry on the dogwood -- not likely that is fixable. At least not in our lifetime. lol

For the tree peony blooms, I use big plastic bags. For the herbaceous peonies there are far too many, so I cut them and bring them in. We share them with friends.

We can be guaranteed rain when our peonies bloom, almost a rule of nature.

I've had landscapers ruin some of my plants. They don't always recognize our native Connecticut plants (sweet cicely, lady slipper, trillium) with the same affection I do.

do you find that trillium is invasive where you are. I have been hunting around here for some and ended up with foam flowers by mistake.

If you planted the tree peony deep enough branches will come from above the graft emerging from the soil. You need to wait until you see if the emerging stems have the same foliage as the tree peony or not.

If your tree peony has been in the ground for a long time what you are see may be seedlings.

Ok, so I should ck and see if the foliage is different and if so just clip it back to the stem? Or should I let it go and see if blooms the same color? I looks fairly odd now. I do hate cutting it back but if it is better for the plant I will.

mstella,
I was VERY upset because that was my pride and joy.I only saw one branch broken after he put up the fence last year but last months after some of our snow melted I saw 3 more branches.2 Large ones and a small one just laying in the snow.I was sick to my stomach !!!! ..brought them in to save of course it didn't work.
It would have been easier to say something which I didn't because he is an excellant carpenter but also a class mate of my husband.

Bluegrassmom, I doubt that you will get blossoms from a shoot this year. On tree peonies they form on the node. It's going to be interesting to watch.

Mstella, my trillium plants are not invasive. We have 2-3 types: 2 toadshade, one blooms green, the other type maroon. Then there's the plain green leaf with the white flower. They're early bloomers, like the lady slippers, columbine and sweet cicely. Some of them spread more willingly than others. The Jack in the Pulpit is the slowest grower.

I just ordered a Jack in the Pulpit from Heronswood Nursery. Supposed to be one of the hardy ones. I surely hope so. I have a nice spot over by my helleborus and blue poppies that hopefully it will like. I have only seen the white flower trillium. If it spreads like my foam flowers, it is a fast grower. Fortunately the foam flowers seem to spread with runners on the surface and it is easy to control. Has a pretty leaf color, sort of green and purplish.

JIPs are definitely not invasive. Spreads very slowly.