2020 Chinese Tree Peony Seedlings All White

I just wanted to report back on some Chinese tree peony seeds I purchased and planted back in 2013 Chinese Peony Seeds from Ebay. These have been growing 7 years now, and I am sad to say they are all blooming white. The foliage of the plant and the pink and yellow centers of the flowers all remind me of my Tree Peony 'White Phoenix', 2018 Tree Peony 'White Phoenix' Best Performer - Week 2, which is just a named P. Ostii variety. The first of these tree peonies started blooming 2 years ago, just a single white bloom. Now 2 years later, there are several more blooming white, and all of them are growing with the same foliage.


Chinese Tree Peony Seedlings All White - 3/24
Maybe it is just me, but I am becoming a bit more distrustful of tree peony seeds sold from China. It seems like most of them are just common P. Ostii seeds (which are mostly white). None of them are actually from the bold, beautiful, brightly colored tree peonies they claim to sell you seeds from. I suppose many of those very fully double tree peony varieties pictured are probably infertile anyway, not actually producing seed. It all seems to be some sort of marketing scam to take your money and then send you some very common, cheap peony seeds instead. :(


Chinese Pink Tree Peony Seedlings

Chinese Pink Seedling Sign

P2 Black Tree Peony Seedlings

P2 Black Seedling Sign

P3 Blue Tree Peony Seedling

P3 Blue Seedling Sign

Chinese Tree Peony Seedlings All White - 3/26

Chinese Tree Peony Seedlings All White - 3/27

Chinese Tree Peony Seedlings All White - 3/27

2020 Planting Herbaceous Peony Seeds from Peony 'Faithful Dream' & Peony 'Lemon Chiffon'

Peony 'Lemon Chiffon' & Peony 'Faithful Dream' Seeds
Planted in Pots
Yes, I know it's not the right time of year, but I get to things when I can get to things, and these peony seeds will eventually grow. This time I decided to plant them in some plastic pots instead of in the ground. I keep noticing seeds disappearing or not reappearing the next year. I don't know if it is critters, insects, or our long summers, but lots of them seem to keep going missing! So I'm hoping that these pots will help keep them a bit safer and give me the opportunity to see these seeds grow to maturity.


Planting Peony 'Faithful Dream' Seeds
I put 5 Peony 'Faithful Dream' seeds in one pot and 7 Peony 'Lemon Chiffon' seeds in another pot. These are the seeds I'd found in the garden earlier this year, 2020 Peony 'Lemon Chiffon' Open Pollinated Seeds Found During Winter Cleanup. 2 of the 7 Peony 'Lemon Chiffon' seeds looked small and malformed. So I'm thinking only 5 of those really have the capacity to sprout, but we shall see. I mixed up the soil for the pots containing mostly peat with a little bit of top soil mixed in. I filled the planters about 2/3 full, put the seeds in, covered them with a bit more of the peat mixture, then topped with a little bit more top soil. Now just water & wait...


Planting Peony 'Lemon Chiffon' Seeds

2020 Tree Peony Seeds from Luoyang, China Grow!!

Tree Peony Seedling #2 on 3/9
I was beginning to give up on those tree peony seeds from China, 2018 Planting Tree Peony Seeds from Luoyang China, but it looks like they are starting to germinate this year! I stared at some empty dirt and kept picking weeds out of the area last year hoping to find a sprout, but never did. After not seeing anything pop up yet this year, I thought there was no hope for them this year, until I saw a seedling pop up in that area a week or so ago. Even then I was suspicious whether that seedling came from one of the seeds from China or just some random lost or rogue seed in the bed. When I looked for that first seed a few days later the bed was empty - no seedling. I began to wonder whether some underground (or above ground?) critter got the roots and/or seedling. I imagined some animal just sucking it underground, since the tree peony seedling was nowhere in sight.


Tree Peony Seedling #1 on 3/9
After spending some time pulling some miniature weeds from the seedling bed, I finally discovered that first seedling (Tree Peony Seedling #1 pictured above). As you can see it was either killed by some low overnight temperatures (which we did experience) or some kind of fungal wilt. The cold temperatures can also cause the wilt. So it is really hard to say what the culprit was in this case (but some corroborating evidence may exist for the cold theory, as I've noticed some selected tips of other new plants with burnt - dried & blackened - tips). So I think this tree peony seedling may have experienced cold burn/freeze damage. That's very sad. This is the first year this peony tried to grow a leaf, and it got knocked down. I don't think this one will be able to come back next year. I guess that is just part of nature's selection process.


Tree Peony Seedling Signs

Tree Peony Seedling #2 on 3/12
I guess you could say the biggest fail with these seeds are the signs. I took a lot of time to figure out how to plant these seeds with their signs since the peonies I purchased had no names on the flower only pictures. I even purchased some special Black & Decker UV plastic laminate to laminate them with. As you can see that laminate was not really UV protected. Too bad about the false advertising on those laminating sheets. These signs didn't even last 1 full year before fading. The flowers photos were all so beautiful and colorful when I put them on there. Oh well, at least I took a photo of them and scanned them into the computer before I put them outside in the sun to fade! LOL


Tree Peony Seedling #3 with Signs
These tree peony seedlings are definitely having some challenges. As you can see Tree Peony Seedling #3 (pictured below) looks like it had 2 tiny stems originally, and one of them looks like it has already been bitten off. I hope some of these Chinese tree peony seedlings make it through Mother Nature's wrath into adulthood in a few years, so that I may see their beautiful blossoms. I'm just hoping that they aren't all single, white Paeonia ostii seeds/seedlings. Only time will tell...


Tree Peony Seedling #3

2020 Peony 'Lemon Chiffon' Open Pollinated Seeds Found During Winter Cleanup

While cleaning up yesterday, I found a few seeds on my Peony 'Lemon Chiffon'. I'm not sure if they'll grow or not since I've waited so long to harvest them, but I figure I'll try anyway. I didn't even realize they were there. I was about to throw the whole stem and seed pod away when I noticed those beautiful, shiny seeds. So I just grabbed the whole seed pod off the stem before trashing it. I need to make a sign for the seeds before I plant them.


Peony 'Lemon Chiffon' Seed Pod
I had also found a few seeds on Peony 'Faithful Dream' this year. I don't remember pollinating either of these flowers, so I'm assuming they are both open pollinated. Mother Nature may have created something nice, though. I'm kind of curious to know what DNA is waiting inside those tiny seeds. Only time will tell, so I'd better get to work planting them. If you find any seed pods with seeds in them in your garden while cleaning up, plant them out somewhere. You never know what might grow from them! :-)

2019 Planting Open Pollinated Seed from Last Fall

2018 Open Pollinated Seeds in Bags
I know it is a little late, but I guess I just got back around to it. I finally got my seed planted from 2018. Maybe it was because I wasn't very excited about the seeds that I got, or maybe it was because I wasn't that excited about the number of seeds that I got. Whatever the reason, at least I finally got them planted. I guess I was a little disappointed that none of my intersectional crosses worked last year, 2018 Dismal Seed Production Year. Also it was actually a bad year for seed overall. Usually I have enough seeds that I am able to donate some to the American Peony Society Seed Distribution Program (which is a great program if you are looking to grow peonies from seed). This year, however, I only got 18 seeds, not just from one variety, but total - 18 seeds in total. It was a terrible year for seed production.


2018 Open Pollinated Seeds Planting Bed
I guess I finally decided to be thankful for what Mother Nature has given me (plus I got my label maker working again, well, working enough to print out a few seed labels). So I made a few signs for the seeds and got them planted on this nice 60 degree day in February (another thing to be thankful for, especially after the cold arctic blast we got this past week). I highly doubt these peony seeds will sprout this spring since I planted them so late, but at least they're in the ground. Hopefully I'll see some lovely peony blooms from them a few years down the road...

2018 Planting Tree Peony Seeds from Luoyang China

Peony Seeds from Luoyang China with Garden Stakes
It took me a lot longer to figure out how to label these 2018 Tree Peony Seeds from Luoyang, China than it did to actually plant them. I did get them planted last week though, before our big snow, 2018 7 Inches of Snow on Southern Peony Gardens! (just in time, I guess!) I don't know what if anything they will do, but we shall see in the spring, if not spring 2019, then spring 2020, I suppose. I ended up laminating the photos of the seeds and attaching those to some copper garden stakes I had on hand. Since they didn't have an English name printed on them, I couldn't easily print a Brother label for them. Just in case they don't do much, I didn't want to have my husband go to the trouble of trying to figure out the translation for each of them.


Chinese Tree Peony Photo Garden Stakes
So what I did to create these garden stakes was first write a number on every paper and every plastic bag (1-20) so I could keep straight which picture went with which bag of seeds. Then I scanned in all of these tree peony photos in case I need to reference them later. Then I laminated each photo with some UV resistant laminating material. Then I used gorilla tape to affix each laminated photo to the copper garden stake. I'm kind of curious to see how these hold up. Even if these peony seeds don't do much, it will be an interesting experiment to see if the photos fade or not, whether the gorilla tape withstands the elements well, and how these "photo" garden stakes hold up outside.


Copper Tree Peony Garden Stakes

2018 Tree Peony Seeds from Luoyang, China

Tree Peony Seeds fron Luoyang, China
So there's one thing I didn't mention much about my trip to China this year, the peony seeds I purchased! I got a few here and a few there. Most of the seeds I purchased were just outside the garden gates during my 2018 Southern Peony Visits Luoyang National Peony Garden 洛阳国家牡丹园 (North). The seeds in the tiny plastic zip bags are the ones that came from the Luoyang National Peony Garden. You can see the table they had set up to sell the seeds below. I felt a bit skeptical as to whether these tree peony seeds actually came from the varieties pictured in the packets, but for 1 yuan (17 cents) for 10 packets, how can you go wrong? So I bought two different sets of them. My guess is they may be all the same variety, maybe even herbaceous or p. ostii. Who knows? I must say I am very curious, though to find out. Of course, it will probably take me five years or more to see any blooms from these.


Table of Tree Peony Seeds for Sale

Woman Selling Tree Peony Seeds
The photo above it the woman who sold me the seeds. She told my husband (in Chinese) that she and her husband have their own peony farm. I have no idea if it is true, but it sounds neat. They were also selling several varieties of potted tree (and herbaceous) peonies in full bloom as well. I wish I could have purchased a few of those tree peonies to bring back home! They also showed us how to sprout the tree peony seeds. They just used a plastic water bottle with and inch or inch and a half of water in it. I'm not sure if they put the seeds in the fridge to get them to sprout their roots first or just sprouted both the roots and the leaves in the bottle. That was certainly wild. I wish I could have found out more about how they did it. Maybe I will try a few of my seeds that way just to see what happens. I usually don't have much luck sprouting seeds that aren't in the dirt. I guess I just haven't tried or practiced it enough. I usually end up with mold of some sort.


Peony Seeds Sprouting in Water Bottle

Chinese Tree Peony Seeds
Here are a few more close up photos of the seeds I purchased (front and back of the packaging). You can click any of these photos to see a larger version. I don't know what any of them say. I guess I need to enlist my husband to help me translate them. I just can't decide if it is worth the time and effort to do so. The last time I had him take the time to meticulously translate each and every variety (and make a separate label for each), 2013 Ali Express Chinese Tree Peony Seeds, none of them sprouted!!! (I've placed more than one order for Chinese tree peony seeds in the past, and the other one from Ebay did sprout, 2013 Chinese Peony Seeds from Ebay , 2014 Chinese Tree Peony Seeds Starting to Sprout.) So who knows what these tree peony seeds will do, if they even sprout (I hope so!), or what color they will be, but I am definitely interested to find out!


Chinese Tree Peony Seeds

Chinese Tree Peony Seeds

2018 Dismal Seed Production Year

Empty Peony 'Martha W.' Seed Pods
It was a very dismal year for seed production, especially for the intersectional hybrids I'm working on. I actually got zero seeds! (Zero!), which is very disappointing considering I used so many different varieties of tree peony pollen this year, many frozen and several fresh too! I'm guessing it must have something to do with the weather, since the seed production on many of my other lactiflora peonies was almost nil as well. When I look back at the weather history for April of this year - 2018, it looks like most nights were in the 40s and 50s, but we did get a few 30s later in the month. On 4/17 it was 33°, on 4/20 it was 34°, on 4/21 it was 37°, and on 4/30 it was 36°. Even my Peony 'Green Lotus' and Peony 'Pink Spritzer' (which are usually loaded with seeds) produced nothing as well. The seed pods on my Peony 'Martha W.' plants grew and swelled normally (as if they were incubating lots of fresh black seeds), but when they popped open there was nothing inside but tiny, black failed seeds. Oh well, I guess there's always another opportunity next year, and there's still hoping some of the seeds from previous years (2016 First Intersectional Peony Seeds! and 2017 Intersectional Peony Hybridizing Efforts) will germinate this spring. We shall see...

2018 Third Peony Bloom of the Season - P. Rockii Lavender Tree Peony Seedling

P. Rockii Lavender Seedling
The 3rd peony bloom of the season opened today, well, almost. It didn't quite open all the way. So I guess a bit of the excitement will be saved for tomorrow, but I got to see the full bud on this peony today, and the beautiful lavender color of its petals. The awesome lavender color on this one excites me, as well as the fact that it seems to be so vigorous, blooming much sooner than its siblings, and growing much taller and faster as well. This P. rockii seedling is actually from some seed I bought on Ebay, 2013 Tree Peony P. Rockii Seeds on Ebay, which turned out to be 2013 P. Rockii Peony Seeds from Cricket Hill Garden. It is the first P. rockii tree peony to bloom for me ever. It first bloomed last year, but I mostly missed it, just saw a few petals dropping after the bloom. I have been growing P. rockii's that I bought as plants (from 3 separate sources) longer than this seedling has existed, and they've still never bloomed. This P. Rockii lavender seedling actually has 2 buds on it this year. So I will get the chance to see two blooms on it!
P. Rockii Lavender Seedling with 2 Buds

2018 Planting Peony Seeds (Late!) ((Again!!))

The peony seeds I planted today are pretty important seeds actually. I purchased them from the APS Seed Distribution Program last year, and some of them are seeds from a really great peony hybridizer that I just missed my opportunity to interview. I had spoken with him by phone just a few days before he passed, and I think he wasn't feeling well. He told me to call him back another time, but unfortunately that "another time" never came. His name was Bill Seidl, and I had the extreme pleasure of visiting his garden after the APS Convention in 2016, where I was able to meet him, hear a few of his stories, and collect 2016 Peony 'Dreamtime' Pollen from Bill Seidl's Garden.
Bill Seidl and Nate Bremer 2016
Some these seeds I ordered are also from Nate Bremer's garden since the seed packs start with "NB-" and appear to be hybrids of some of Bill's and Nate's introductions. I did have the pleasure of interviewing Nate in 2016, and you can read the results of that interview here, 2016 Peony Hybridizer Interview - Nate Bremer. I am very excited to plant these seeds from both of these very successful hybridizers that are helping to create future peony hybrids. In honor of both of them, I thought I'd share a photo of them together and a group photo we took in Bill's garden during my visit in 2016. Most of the seeds I ordered last year were hand pollinated by these two gentleman, for which I am very grateful.
APS Members in Bill Seidl's Garden 2016
So it looks like this is what I ended up with:

2017 APS Seeds
Dreamtime	5 seeds
Dreamtime X Seidl Super	5 seeds
Dreamtime X Vanilla Gorilla	5 seeds
Lemon Chiffon	12 seeds
NB-???? (Captain Kate X MRV-11)	5 seeds
NB-SH79 (Captain Kate X Angel Emily)	5 seeds
NB-SH82 (Angel Emily X MRV-11)	5 seeds
NB-SH88 (Rockii hybrid X Captain Kate)	6 seeds
NB-SH89 (MRV-11 X MRV-4)	5 seeds

Let's see what sprouts!!!

2018 5+ Inches of Snow on Southern Peonies!

5+ Inches of Snow
Well, I'm not sure how we went from 5+ inches of snow cover 4 days ago to no snow and temperatures in the 60s today and tomorrow, but that is definitely North Carolina winter weather for you. We are still experiencing a "Moderate Drought" period right now. So we can definitely use the moisture from the melted snow. I decided to take the opportunity during these couple of warmish days to plant some seeds that I didn't get a chance to plant this past fall. I know the germination rates will probably not be as good planting them now, as they would have been if I'd planted them in the fall, but hopefully they'll all still be okay. I took a small opportunity to get the peony seed garden markers ready for planting, and I am really excited about getting an extra chance to get these special peony seeds in the ground!
Peony Seed Garden Markers

2017 Intersectional Peony Hybridizing Efforts

I meant to keep better records this year, I really did, but I didn't. Oh, well. I'm just lucky I got them in the ground! I know I had three types of intersectional peony crosses that were successful in producing seed this year: Peony 'Martha W.' X Tree Peony 'Angel Emily', Peony 'Martha W.' X Tree Peony 'Wisteria Reflections', and Peony 'Martha W.' X Nate Bremer's Rainbow (Tree Peony Pollen Mix). I wasn't able to get any seed from my Peony 'Lemon Chiffon' this year. It didn't have a good year for blooms. I can't remember if it was the cold or the rain, but Mother Nature got the blooms this year, and I wasn't able to hybridize with them. Hopefully better luck this coming spring...

Intersectional Peony Seed Harvest
I also can't remember how many of each seed I got/planted. I know the intersectional peony seed harvest count was much higher this year than last year. Last year I had 7 seeds with my first ever First Intersectional Peony Seeds!. This year, there were probably more than 30 seeds (20+ from Nate Bremer's Rainbow, 5+ from 'Angel Emily', and 5+ from 'Wisteria Reflections'). I harvested them at the end of July, but I didn't get them planted until about a month ago (late November). I think I waited a bit too long to plant them, as some of them had cracked open already. (Maybe those weren't the viable seeds anyway. Who knows???) The Tree Peony 'Wisteria Reflections' pollen and the Nate Bremer's Rainbow tree peony pollen were frozen from the 2016 APS Peony Convention Tour of Solaris Farms. The Tree Peony 'Angel Emily' pollen was fresh from my own tree peony that I've been growing since 2014. I'm guessing the turnout won't be great, but I still can't wait to see what comes up this spring. Maybe some of my 2016 intersectional seeds will sprout this year too! Happy New Year, everyone!
Intersectional Peony Seed Planting

2017 Tree Peony Seeds from Canada Sprout!

I was beginning to wonder if any of those 2016 Paeonia rockii Purple Tree Peony Seeds that were sent to me as a replacement for the 2015 Purple Peony Rockii Seeds from Ebay Canada were going to sprout. Since none of the seeds from the original batch sprouted, I was worried that the second batch might not sprout either. However it seems the second batch of seeds were good because I now have 5 baby P. rockii tree peony seedlings from the second batch of seeds! How exciting! I am curious to see if any of these grow into a lovely purple flower with dark purple flares like the mother plant. Now that the seeds have actually sprouted, the only thing to do now is wait for a bloom! :-)
P. rockii Seeds Sprout

2017 Red Tree Peony Seeds Sprout!

Red Tree Peony Seedlings Sign
Remember those red tree peony seeds I planted this past fall, 2016 Planting Red Tree Peony Seeds from Georgia? Well, I was beginning to think that they weren't coming up, that perhaps there were not actually viable. However about 2 weeks ago, I finally noticed a few green things popping up in that spot (that weren't weeds). LOL! So far I have 6 baby tree peony seedlings from those 2016 Red Tree Peony Seeds from SP Reader in GA. I'm guessing a few more peony seedlings may still pop up. If not this year, then perhaps next spring. We shall see!
Red Tree Peony Seedlings

Red Tree Peony Seedlings

Red Tree Peony Seedlings

2017 Questions - Reliable Source for Peony Seeds

I received this question from Mubarak in zone :

"I am looking for reliable source for peony seed for my home garden. While searching on internet I found your blog southernpeony.com. Thank you so much for all the information at one place. Please let me know where I can buy seed or can you share some seed with me. I will pay for the postage. Please help me in this regard."

American Peony Society Seed Distribution Sale
I would highly recommend the American Peony Society as the best (and most reliable) place to buy peony seeds. However you do need an APS membership to buy the seeds. One year's APS Membership fee is $25, but it may be worth it if you are buying lots of seeds. Also the seed list for this year was just posted last week, and there are lots of fabulous choices on it. A very talented hybridizer that passed away recently, Bill Seidl, donated all of his seeds to the American Peony Society. So their Seed Distribution Program has lots of rare, hand pollinated, choice seeds (many are limited to 1 pack per person) to choose from.

Also there is an American Peony Society Annual Convention & Show coming up in June of this year in Raleigh, NC. The APS seeds will be at the peony show for sale to the public (no APS membership necessary) and no shipping fee! I'm not sure how far you are from Raleigh, NC, but this will be a great show to see the myriad of peony varieties available, and if you have time, you may want to join APS and attend the whole convention. 😊 Hope to see you there!

2017 American Peony Society Convention

2017 First Intersectional Hybrid Seedling Sprouts!

First Intersectional Hybrid Seedling Sprouts
I can't believe it! Yesterday when I was pulling a few weeds from the bed near the house, I noticed something! Something special. Something I'd been waiting on. Something that was taking so long, I thought it might not come until next year - My First Intersectional Hybrid Seedling Sprout! Wow! That is just an amazing feeling! I did it (with some help from my friends). I can't believe it. I am so excited!!! Now I feel like I have a lot more responsibility. It almost feels like a have another child, and I need to make sure it becomes an adult, watch over it, help it grow, and make sure it stays out of trouble. LOL!
Peony 'Martha W.' Intersectional Seedlings 2016 Sign
Since I've never seen an intersectional peony hybrid seedling before, I guess I cannot be sure that this is definitely a tree/herbaceous peony hybrid. However just looking at the foliage, it seems a little different than my regular herbaceous peony seedlings. The edges of the foliage seems a little less even, and the leaf substance seems a little more billowy and rounded. I will get an expert opinion to double check. If you missed the beginning of this intersectional peony journey, and you'd like to read up on the process to get to this, you might want to read up on a few of my previous posts - 2015 Hybridizing Peony Martha W., 2016 Intersectional Peony Hybridizing Seed Pods, 2016 First Intersectional Peony Seeds!, 2016 Planting First Intersectional Peony Seeds.