In herbaceous peonies everything is fine-a luxurious flower, a delicate fragrance, a beautiful Bush with decorative foliage. And many advantages: they are quite unpretentious, little affected by pests and diseases, very hardy. Not to mention their longevity-the life of a peony Bush is estimated in tens of years.
In total, about 5 thousand varieties of peonies are registered in the world, but not all of them are suitable for use in landscape design.
According to the shape of the flower garden peonies are divided into 5 main groups:
- single,
- semi-double,
- Japanese,
- anemone,
- double.
Until recently, the undisputed favorites were considered Terry, or so-called “cutting” varieties. Then the beauty of the flower, its size and aroma were at the forefront, and other qualities – the General habit of the Bush, the decorative leaves, the strength of the stems – were almost not given importance. These varieties and received the most the spread of.
Their stems could not withstand the weight of large double flowers and bent, and after the rain, filled with water, just lay on the ground. Such varieties had to be tied up or set around them support. Naturally, they were not suitable for landscape design.
Peony varieties for landscape design
Recently, the attitude to the decorative qualities of peonies, dictated by practical needs (which influenced the change in aesthetic tastes), has changed significantly. So, with the new trends in the selection of peonies-the emergence of hybrid varieties-sharply increased demand for varieties with single, semi-double, as well as the Japanese form of the flower. Most of them have light flowers, strong stems and strong bushes that do not require support, perfectly fit into any landscape composition (of course, such bushes can suffer in a hurricane, but this already applies to force majeure).
Varieties with light flowers, I think the most elegant and refined, they prefer in my collection. We call such varieties Park, in foreign catalogs they are marked as “A Best landscape”, ie they are recommended for landscape design.
A separate peony Bush blooms up to two weeks, varieties with lateral buds – up to three. Therefore, to extend the flowering period of “peony garden” to 1.5-2 months (from may to July), it is necessary to select varieties with different flowering periods, starting from very early (many species of peonies, garden forms Paeonia officinalis, some hybrid varieties) to late (from the group lactiflora, which includes most of the “Japanese”). Terms of flowering varieties can be shifted in one direction or another, depending on weather conditions.
It is wrong to think that only varieties with non-double, semi-double and Japanese flowers can be successfully used in landscape design. There are double varieties with strong stems, which are quite suitable for this purpose, for example:
- ‘John Howard Wiegell’
- ‘Karl Rosenfield’
- ‘Kevin’
- ‘Lavender Bouquet’
- ‘My Love’
- ‘Old Faithful’
- ‘White Sands’
- ‘Feather Top’
I want to tell you about the now popular group of peonies for rocky gardens, United under the name “Rock Gardens Peonies”. These are undersized (30-60 cm tall) varieties, mainly with non-double flowers. Many of them are hybrids of P. tenuifilia and have a very ornamental, finely dissected foliage. By the way, peonies with such foliage perfectly harmonize not only with stones, but also with low conifers. During flowering, they create a bright spot of color among the greenery, and after-openwork Bush fits perfectly into the “environment” and itself resembles a coniferous plant. All these varieties of early and very early flowering periods, for example:
- ‘Dutch Dwarf’ – miniature rose “Japanese”,
- ‘Merry Mayshine’ – c slightly wavy narrow leaves,
- ‘Eaglet’ – forming a Bush in the form of a vase,
- ‘Tiny Tim’ – a small Bush in the form of a “cap”,
- beautiful ‘Fairy Princess’.
It is impossible not to mention another new group of pions-intersectional hybrids, or, as they are called, ito-hybrids. These are hybrids between tree and herbaceous peonies. They have flowers unusual for herbaceous peonies colors, often with contrasting spots at the base of the petals, like tree peonies, and annually dying (ie, completely frost-resistant)aboveground. Some varieties have a pure yellow color of the petals, for example ‘Bartzella’, ‘Garden Treasure’, ‘Viking Full Moon’. And some-changing (iridescent) color. For example, the variety ‘Julia Rose’ opens cherry-pink, then, starting from the edges of the petals, goes into orange, and then-in yellow, ie, on one Bush can be flowers of three colors.
Of course, these plants look quite extraordinary in floral design, especially given the fact that intersectional hybrids are very beautiful (like tree peonies) foliage, often with reddish venation and edging. But these peonies can still be attributed more to the “exclusive”, given their rarity and very high price.
Peony Bush decorative from spring to autumn — as they say,”from snow to snow.” Peonies look very impressive in the spring, when red shoots appear on the background of the dark earth, from which unusual carved leaves of various shades – from bronze to crimson-red and almost brown-gradually unfold. For example, the leaves of Paeonia tenuifolia hybrids look absolutely exotic in spring.
During flowering, the curtain of lush bushes, strewn with magnificent flowers, has no equal. Foliage at this time-green, different shades, and some varieties have red-colored stems, veins and petioles (‘Akron‘,’Bev‘,’Karl Rosenfield‘,’Midnight Sun’ and others). In autumn, the color of the leaves of many varieties is also very decorative and is from yellow-bronze to purple-red.
Some peony varieties have red-colored stems, veins and leaf petioles-for example ‘ ‘Akron’ (left) and’ Midnight Sun ‘ (right)