Friday, July 12, 2013

2013 Peony 'Grace Root' Adventitious Bud Stem Flower


Peony 'Grace Root'

Peony 'Grace Root' definitely is a beautiful plant. This peony was hybridized by Saunders and registered in 1940. According to the registration for this plant, it is a lobata hybrid: "Single - Pink - Hybrid. Clear light salmon pink, cut shaped single. Albiflora x lobata. Lists in Bulletins 91 and 129." Peony 'Grace Root' is beautiful not only for her lovely neon coral-pink blossoms that stand out in the early peony bloom season, but also because of her rare ability to generate new plants from her roots.

Peony 'Grace Root' Plant
with Adventitious Bud/Stem Growing From Root

This curiosity is called adventitious bud development. These adventitious buds develop in an unusual place on the plant, the roots, instead of the usual location for bud development, the crown. This small plantlet can be separated from the mother plant by root division. Normal peony division would require a crown and root division to obtain a viable plant. However this new peony plantlet will develop its own crown when separated and planted out on its own.

Peony 'Grace Root' Adventitious Bud/Stem Growing From Root

This particular adventitious peony bud / plantlet is actually in its second year, and it also developed a bloom this year. It assumably benefited from still being attached to the mother plant, which allowed it to use energy from the mother's plants storage roots to develop a flower bud so quickly. When grown from seed, peonies can take 3-5 years to flower or more! I plan to separate out this adventitious bud / plantlet this fall. I'll keep you posted on how it does. I'm curious to see how well it grows, and how long it takes to make babies (adventitious buds) of its own!

Peony 'Grace Root' Flower on Adventitious Bud/Stem
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2 comments:

  1. lizbest111November 8, 2015 at 4:59 PM

    I too have a peony that reproduces from adventitious roots. It was sold to me years ago (think by Gilbert Wild, surprise!) as Lovely Rose but it's absolutely not. I've given away probably a dozen plants from that one 6-7 year old peony and still have 5 or 6 roots of it in my garden. I'd love to find the real name, it's a coralish semi-double. I planted a piece of it between some corals from a reliable source, maybe this way I can rule some out at least! If you have any ideas about how better to id I'd love to hear them!

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    1. AdrianaNovember 9, 2015 at 10:44 AM

      Liz,

      That's cool! I'm so glad to hear you are sharing this extra benefit with friends! I wonder which peony variety it is. Does it look anything like my Peony 'Grace Root', which is kind of a hot pink coral color, or is it more orange coral? The Peony 'Lovely Rose' I have is kind of a coral pink color. You can check out a picture of it on my Photos page...

      http://www.southernpeony.com/p/peony-photos-l-m.html

      Peony 'Grace Root' is the only peony in my garden that has displayed this habit so far, which is not to say that other varieties I grow could not display this habit in the future. This is just the first peony that I've noticed this trait with.

      Also, my Colors page might help you identify your plant by color if it is one I've been able to catalog...
      http://www.southernpeony.com/p/peony-colors.html

      Good luck in your id quest! Let me know if you figure it out!

      Thanks,

      Adriana

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