species peonies 2015

My species peonies are already getting started.
I've been waiting patiently for Cem to start the 2015 Peony thread.
But my species peonies are already chomping at the bit.

Here is 'molly the witch', otherwise known as paeonia mlokosewitschii.
Very early clear yellow blooms in light shade.

I have grown paeonia japonica for years, one of my favorite blooms with delicate pure white blooms.
I have a new p. japonica which has vibrant purple markings inside - really striking.
I haven't seen this purple flare on my other japonicums. I think it looks fabulous!

I have several other species peonies with fat buds - flowers soon...
I love spring!

Soooo beautiful. Inspired by you, I have now put in several singles. They have a delicate beauty. This is becoming my favorite time of year. Things I installed in my new soil are popping up - mertensia, polygonatum, and with the disturbance of the soil, species geraniums.

I have been waiting for Cem too, but don't hold back!

Alas, I'm about to hang up my trowel!
Since I didn't witness the crime, I'm not sure who's to blame,
but I always suspect our plentiful deer - I'm not really sure.
#1 is the same plant I posted 2d ago - notably missing all it's blooms.
#2-4 are the remnants of the flowers - the petals neatly removed.
Deer have never bothered my peonies, so I'm surprised.
Also the removal of just the petals, leaving the rest of the flower structure puzzles me.
My deer have never been so neat. But I don't know what else could have caused it.
The leaves and other branches show no indication of munching.
And the nearby Molly the Witch and several other peonies weren't bothered in the least.
I'm both aggravated and mystified. Has anyone else had this happen?
A small solace is my paeonia obovata which is blooming nearby.

Do you have a dog, wee? Mine is under suspicion because I have had healthy species peonies even starting to bloom and then no more. Course I love my dog, but I have caught him with an echi in his mouth so I have stopped trying to grow edible flowers in HIS yard. i don't know for sure if anything eats the species peonies but it just seems plausible to me I also think the groundhogs aren't very shy about grazing.

I've got lots of groundhogs, but no dogs... I'm quite perplexed about it.
Seems less likely to be due to deer the more I think about it.

Here is p. rockii, again looking pretty studly. Unfortunately, big rain caused significant flower droop shortly after this picture... Ah well....

I totally love that rockii, Wee. I'm going to start mine again somewhere else since it gets stomped on.

Speaking of stomped on...

I have five peonies on my parkway. They are all fine, but not because of one young male postal carrier, a substitute, who likes to park next to my parkway (which has five peonies, five roses, four grasses and some perennials and bulbs. He gets out of his truck on the right hand side. I asked him twice, very nicely, not to cut through my plants - I was particularly concerned that he would step on my peonies. I asked other people to let him know. There is a sidewalk nearby - he's just lazy (and probably stupid).

Well, yesterday I saw him do it again. So I went on the post office web site and found that this is actually something you can complain about. They are not supposed to walk on your grass. So I did. Hey, don't mess with me. I'll nuke your invasives with roundup, I'll have your trees pruned, and I'll reach over the property line to zap stuff heading toward my property like ditch lilies. A neighbor with whom I share parkway space has allowed her violets to enter my parkway space. And she must have 100 dandelions. I have none, because I use my dandelion digger. I have a chemical for violets that I use sparingly. Time to pull it out.

LOL. You go gettum Donna. I would be tempted to get a beebee gun and pot at that mail carrier but would probably get me in trouble. Works well on moose also.

No beebee required. I got a message from the post office that, given he was walking through plants, he has been instructed not to cross my parkway. And when I saw him a couple days after that, he was parked across the street.

Does it really work on moose?

LOL!

Sure does. They jump and run. Only stings them but that is the point. Would use a larger rifle but it is out of season and against the law in town.

My Paeonia lutea is blooming, sure brightens up the dry shade under a cedar!

WeeRobin, where do you get your species from?

Wow, that lutea has such deep color! Is it really that deep a yellow?
O46, I spend my leisure time all winter perusing all sorts of on-line catalogs, so I presume I've gotten them from lots of sources. When I get home from work, I'll look thru a pile of plant orders to see if I can find a couple references for you.

Yes it is really quite bright, like a daffodil. You see it from a long way. Might be too "in your face" and brassy for many locations.

Thanks. I appreciate it. I volunteer at a botanical garden and they have a huge peony collection but not many species. I would like to buy some for them to add to the collection.

P. Delavayi Lutea. I know she's a bit late, but it's her first year in my garden, so I'm happy there are 2 flowers at all. I'm really looking forward for this to become a real shrub - it started from ground level this year...

I think the basal spots are not typical for the species? so does this count as a cultivar? or just a selection?

My lutea is plain yellow-I like yours better. I am a sucker for basal spots.
Not sure about the cultivar issue, but on my other yellow peonies (Itoh Intersectional Bartzella and Tree Peony Tria) I have found the basal spots do vary from year to year and even by individual flower. I think possibly a cold winter helps bring out the color but I am not sure.

I don't think the winter here was really cold - it started from ground level because the delivery I got had about 3 centimeters of overground wood (despite saying up to 60 centimeters in the description), but a strong root system. My supplier seems to have sorted them, because he explicitly offered greenish, yellow with spots, plain yellow, red, and Orange F1's Delavayi's. Actually, I'm glad he kept true to color, because size will change anyway...

I don't think they'll deliver to the US: http://pfingstrosengaertnerei.de/die-pfingstrosen-2/fotogalerie/strauchpaonien/arten-und-cultuvare/

I've just reread the description, it was a seedling on it's own root, so no cultivar in the peonie sense, just a color sorting by the seller.

Do the specs peons such as Molly the Witch really grow and bloom well in high Shade, and do the deer leave them alone? I have an area 30-' wide by 35' long in high shade that I would to grow them in, but because they seem so expensive I have hesitated to grow them there.

My species peonies, japonica, mlokosewitschii, obovata and wittmanniana all thrive in high shade, but they do get a little morning sun. And until the blooms mysteriously disappeared from my great new japonica this spring, I thought they were impervious to deer. Still not sure what happened to my new japonica, but deer are definitely a possibility. Unfortunately I have a very high deer burden, but they've never bothered my species peonies for 10+ years until this season. I really don't know who to blame for sure. Japonicas are widely available and aren't very expensive, so I would encourage you to go ahead and try one.