Paeonia (peony)

A stylish perennials

This is the time of year to make a splash with big, beautiful flowers. Peony (Paeonia) is a stylish perennial that’s perfect for delivering fabulous blooms where you want them, when you want them. There’s an exciting range of colours to choose from: shades of pink and strong reds predominate, plus there are white and yellow options too, with many shades in between. Flower forms are varied and interesting too with singles, semi-doubles or doubles in cup-shaped, bowl-shaped or anemone-form on offer.

Peony society

Peony is another of those plants that owes its popularity to the Victorians, but found itself sidelined by the gardening public in the middle years of the twentieth century. Now things have changed and there is even a peony society dedicated to telling us all how special these plants are and what a wonderful range there is from which to make a selection.

Sorts of Paeonias

The flowers really are breath-taking – brightly coloured and beautiful in form, they develop on the tips of stems, sometimes several to a stem. They are a fantastic addition to beds and borders, thriving in deep, fertile soil. Most cultivars are bred from Paeonia lactiflora, a very popular herbaceous species, bearing big, single, white or pale pink blooms. Look out for ‘Bowl of Beauty’, Paeonia ‘Krinkled White’, the pale or rose pink Paeonia ‘Avant Garde’’ or deeper pink Paeonia ‘Globe of light’, the flowers of which are soft pink with creamy white centres.

Combinations with Paeonias

Combining with other plants in the border can help to bring out the best of the peony. For example a combination of Paeonia lactiflora ‘Albert Crousse’, Rosa Gertrude Jekyll and Allium aflatunense will allow the colours of each to harmonise and their forms to contrast.

Another interesting combination that challenges expectation is that of Paeonia lactiflora ‘Auguste Dessert’ and the upright yellow-flowered stems of yellow loostrife. For the more conservative, delphiniums or lupins would make a subtler blend!

China's national flower

Peony is widespread in many regions of the world, but probably most treasured in China, where it narrowly missed becoming the national flower in 1994. It wasn’t that another flower was more popular – it just proved impossible to reach a final decision!

A wonderful addition to the garden

The European name derives from mythology when Paeon, the physician to the Gods obtained the plant from the mother of Apollo. Interestingly, in Japan the root of peony has long been held to have medicinal powers, including the ability to calm convulsions. For us however, peony is simply a wonderful addition to the early summer garden, sometimes fragrant and always visually delightful.