TREE PEONIES
Somehow I ended up with four tree peonies. I only paid for one of them, which was supposed to be yellow and turned out to have bright cerise flowers. The others came to me as gifts from a fellow gardener who was moving and couldn’t take his tree peonies with him. I have always had a soft spot for strays.
Most people know and love “regular” herbaceous peonies or Paeonia lactiflora, which emerge each spring with reddish new growth and eventually reach a height of about three feet. On some varieties, the lush, showy flowers feature a single row of petals and look almost like big poppies; others sport fat fluffy flowerheads with scores of soft petals. The colors range from pure white, thorough a spectrum of creams, pinks, corals, roses and bright reds. Some varieties are fragrant and all make good cut flowers, as long as you shake off the ants that are drawn to the sticky liquid exuded by the buds.
I have several herbaceous peonies and would grow more if I could only annex my neighbor’s property. She has never been amenable to this idea, so either I have to pull out a few rosebushes or content myself with my existing tree peonies.
Of course I could also uproot one of the tree peonies, but–orphans that most of them are–I have grown rather attached to them. Tree peonies or Paeonia suffruticosa are not trees, but woody shrubs. Unlike their herbaceous relatives, they do not die back in the summer, but hold on to their impressive green, deeply-dissected leaves until late fall, when they finally discard them for winter. The flowers are sumptuous and beautiful, similar to those of herbaceous peonies, but often with a more open appearance that reveals handsome centers full of golden stamens. The flower colors include yellow, and I have always wanted a yellow-flowered plant.
Fate has not been kind to me on that score. I ordered and paid for a yellow variety six years ago and received a healthy plant from the nursery. Tree peonies require patience and often don’t bloom the first or second year after you receive them. In my case that meant that by the time the first cerise flowers appeared on the plant, I had long since thrown out the receipt for the yellow-flowered variety that I really wanted. Besides, it seemed sinful to rip out a plant that had done nicely for twenty-flour months, and the cerise flowers were pretty, though they smelled terrible. Four years later, the cerise tree peony is beginning to reach maturity. This year it had about thirty gorgeous, foul-smelling blossoms. I stood upwind from the plant and admired them extravagantly. When neighbors stopped to gaze at my impressive tree peony, I smiled and accepted their compliments. Serendipity is a valuable thing in the garden, and it is better not to ask “why” about some things.
The other three tree peonies have been in the garden for two and a half years now. Last year each of them produced a single blossom. The gardener who gave them to me said that one of them might be yellow, so I had high hopes. He had originally bought four plants, but when it came time to dig them up, we could only find three. The yellow one evidently perished. One of my three strays has white flowers, another has pale pink blooms and a third sports flowers of darker pink. This year each produced two blossoms. Tree peonies are notoriously temperamental about being transplanted and the three strays sulked for quite awhile. I expect that over the next few years they will grow into healthy, mature specimens. They may not be yellow, but life has its little compensations–they don’t smell nearly as bad as their cerise-flowered cousin.
Even though your neighbors probably don’t have tree peonies, I recommend that you try one. Aside from getting the sulks over being transplanted, they are quite easy to grow. They like a sunny well drained site, but may require afternoon shade, depending on how far south you live. Mine have had nothing other than routine weeding and mulching since they arrived. A few varieties reputedly have an attractive fragrance.
Native to China and cultivated for centuries in Japan, tree peonies are celebrated for their glorious colors. The petals look like silk. One of my favorite varieties, which I will acquire right after I finally get the yellow-flowered object of my desire, is an heirloom variety called Joseph Rock. It has white petals with darkest purple “flares” or elongated center markings. It is one of the most distinctive flowers I have ever seen.
Good tree peonies–mature plants with strong root systems–are relatively expensive because nurseries have to care for them for several years before they are ready for sale. Expect to pay thirty to fifty dollars for a good specimen and much more for new or rare varieties. Some vendors will offer younger plants for less money and older ones for a higher price. For a good selection of both herbaceous and tree peonies, try Klehm’s Song Sparrow Farm and Nursery, 13101 East Rye Road, Avalon, WI 53505, (800) 553-3715, www.songsparrow.com. Free catalog. Also try Cricket Hill Garden, 670 Walnut Hill Road, Thomaston, CT 06787, (860) 283-1042, www.treepeony.com. Free brochure.