Peonies
are a sentimental garden favorite whose luscious — almost lascivious — flowers
never fail to conjure up memories of other Springs, other gardens. What I love
about peonies is also what I hate about them: these beauties can’t seem to hold their blowzy heads up,
even in the best of weather.
Though
many gardeners seem unaware of them, there are other kinds of peonies which
don’t have this problem. I’m not talking about tree peonies which literally
grow into a woody, small tree with dinner-plate size flowers. I mean the
progeny of wild peonies from Japan, Turkey, Mongolia, the Himalayas and other
romantic locations. Sometimes they’re also referred to as species, mountain or
woodland peonies.
Paeonia obvata willmottiae, of Chinese origin, has cerise pink flowers that glow against its crisp green foliage.
Whatever
you call them, these peonies are members of a complex family and I find it’s easy to
get confused, if not entirely lost, when trying to figure out their parentage
and origins. Suffice it to say that most of these are very early blooming,
herbaceous peonies that die back each year just like the more well-known border
peonies (Paeonia lactiflora). But many of these peonies can take a bit of
shade, like that at the edge of a woodland.
Most
are single flowered with petals that are silky with a faint crinkled edge
reminiscent of the deckle on handmade paper. They range in color from white
through mauve to pink and intense reds.
This woodland peony, Paeonia obvata var. alba, emerges with bronze foliage.
I’m
currently growing five varieties: Paeonia anomala, P. japonica, P. obvata var.
alba, P. obvata willmottiae, and P. vetchii. The obvatas and japonica (planted
in 2006) all flowered for the first time in the spring of 2008; all on May 7th. The
anomala and vetchii plants are still too young to flower; they need at least
another year to mature.
Paeonia obvata var. alba
I’m still
very much in the process of learning about these plants. For example, one
article that I read noted that Paeonia obvata var. alba is often confused with
P. japonica which has similar flowers but blooms later. I definitely agree that
the flowers are similar but both my japonica and obvata bloomed at the
same time this year and last. In fact, they opened at practically the same instant.
Paeonia japonica in bud.
The
flowers of both are ethereally beautiful but the leaves of Paeonia obvata var.
alba are extraordinary. They emerge the most amazing soft copper color and
stay that way until just after the plant blooms. Now they are slowly turning
to green which is the color the leaves of all my other peonies have been from
the first.
But as
beautiful as the leaves and flowers are, the obvata seed
pods are a brilliant blue-black and as Klehm's Song Sparrow catalog notes they “glisten against a red
backdrop.” Quite a spectacle, I can assure you!
The petals of Paeonia japonica flowers are silky white with a faint crinkled edge.
Alas,
you will have to do a little searching to find these peonies. Even the Klehm
family, who have been breeding peonies for generations, only offer a couple of
varieties of such peonies — and then not every year. In 2007 they had P.
japonica and P. obvata in their Song Sparrow catalog and on their Web site, but I could not find either of them listed
this year.
Plant Delights Nursery, another of my favorite sources for interesting and unusual
plants via the mail, has P. japonica and two varieties of P. obvata in their 2009 offerings.
Paeonia japonica
I’ve
discovered most of these less common peonies at Seneca Hill Perennials, a
nursery in Oswego, N.Y. with a terrific assortment of plants. For example, the
2009 catalog (available on-line only) lists 6 Hepaticas, 17 Cyclamen (a particular specialty), and about two dozen species peonies. For
many of its listings, Seneca Hill offers younger and smaller plants that make
for an economical purchase. Your credit card takes less of a hit but the catch
is that you may have to wait a couple of years for these plants to attain
flowering size.
Paeonia obvata var. alba (both photos directly above)
Prices,
being tied to size and age of plants, also vary widely. My 2005 Seneca Hill P.
vetchii cost $8 and the anomalas were $12 each. The 2006 P. obvata var. alba
was $10 from Seneca Hill while Klehm’s P. obvata cost $29.95. It is worth noting that both plants are of a similar size
now and both bloomed for the first time the same year.
Paeonia obvata var. alba (above) and Paeonia japonica (below) going to seed.
My
advice is to simply go looking to see what you can find and then buy what you
like. I’m completely smitten with these beauties whose delicate looks belie their hardiness. I can’t do better than turn to Reginald Farrer who captured
these unsung plants so perfectly, “Let all those peonies that are too wild and
small to cope with the bloated beauties of the border, have their acknowledged
place in the garden, in some fitting corner of deep hollow or high cool ledge.”
Don’t
despair if you have neither hollows nor ledges. My peonies are doing just fine
at the edge of a clump of old Austrian pine trees and a young Washington
Hawthorn.

Parts of this column about species peonies previously appeared under my byline in The Capital Times.