2013 Monrovia Itoh Peony 'Keiko'™ 愛幕 (Adored)

Monrovia Peony 'Keiko'™ 愛幕 (Adored)
So I saw these Monrovia Itoh peonies at a local garden center near me. They looked so lovely, they looked so intersectional, they looked so... expensive! As you can see from the tag on this one, they are tagged to sell for $89.99. However I definitely didn't pay that much. The garden center had them on sale for 30% off, and I also had a $50 Visa gift card that someone had given me. So I ended up paying a little more than $17 with tax after the sale and gift card.
Monrovia Peony 'Keiko'™ (Adored) Tag
These Monrovia peonies that they were selling are part of Monrovia's Japanese collection of peonies with Japanese names to honor the creator of Itoh peonies, Toichi Itoh, of Japan. The intersectional peony I selected was the largest plant I saw and the one with the best looking foliage. It is named Peony 'Keiko'™ (Adored), and from the picture of the bloom, it looks like it will be a lovely pink color. With it's Japanese name I figured this peony would feel much at home in my Japanese garden near my pagoda statue and Japanese irises. So that's where I planted it. I can't wait to see it bloom next year! Also I will have to keep my eye on these at the garden center to see when they go on clearance. :-)
Monrovia Peony 'Keiko'™ (Adored) Near Japanese Garden

2013 American Peony Society Gold Medal Winner - 'The Mackinac Grand'

At this year's 2013 American Peony Society Board Meeting, the APS Board elected Peony 'The Mackinac Grand' as its 2013 American Peony Society Gold Medal Winner. I do not currently grow this peony, nor do I have it on order. So I will have to get a specimen for myself to evaluate here in my growing zone. Since I was a member of the seated board, I was able to vote for the Gold Medal winner, but I decided to abstain since I felt I did not have enough knowledge of the candidates to elect the finest specimen. However from its photos, it appears to be a pretty plant with flowers held nicely above the foliage. Peony 'The Mackinac Grand' was hybridized by Reath and registered in 1992. The petals appear to be a true red with a bright yellow center of stamens showing through a large round of fluffy red petals. I'm interested to try this newest Gold Medal Winner!
Peony 'The Mackinac Grand'

2013 Deadheading Removing Spent Peony Blooms

I just spent the last 2 days deadheading my peonies - removing the spent blooms on my peony plants. You can do this on all of your peonies if you like. Or if you want to see if any seeds will develop in the seed pods you can just deadhead those with no seed pods - like most double and bomb type peonies. These types rarely set seed. The single and semi-double peony forms are more likely to set seed. I've heard it is very important to remove all of the peony foliage and never compost it. So any peony foliage I remove from my gardens is always sent to the landfill. If you have seen the effects of botrytis on peonies, then you know why this is so important. Botrytis is a fungus that can be spread in wet conditions most easily on developing and growing foliage. It will cause a black spotting on the leaves and stems, bud abortion, and in heavy cases black fungal growths with spores. So as you can see my peony refuse is bagged and stored in my trash receptacle until my friendly neighborhood trash man comes to take it away!

Bagged Deadheaded Peony Blooms & Foliage

2013 Last Peony Blooms of the Season

While cutting back some spent blooms today, I found these last two blooms of my peony season. (This would be like Week 8!) They are from Peony 'Kelway's Glorious', and it is just that - Glorious! I am so happy to find these last two blooms. I cut them and brought them inside right away and put them in a vase. I placed them on my mantle so that I could enjoy them next to our wedding cards. While cutting back this particular peony I also found several peony bombs on the ground. These are just peony blooms that never fully opened and just fell off the plant. Yes, it is true that sometimes late season varieties do not open here in this southern growing climate. However, that won't stop me from trying to grow them anyway. I had more than a few that did open on this bush, and as you can see I did get a few more that opened at the very end. So it is definitely worth it to grow this very late season variety, Peony 'Kelway's Glorious'!

Last Blooms of the Season Peony 'Kelway's Glorious'


Peony Bombs - Never Opened Blooms

2013 Peony Blooms Very Late - Week 7

It has been a great peony blooms season this year. What ever rain we had during the bloom season seemed to be limited to one day or if there was more than one day of rain, the sun seemed to come out at some point during each day to dry the foliage - which is great! This is the least incidence of disease I have seen on my peonies in quite some time. So the weather and in particular, the rain, really does make a difference in the spread of peony diseases. The blooms in week 7 are just barely hanging on. Most of the blooms you'll find this week are some of the last in a cluster of blooms to open. However there is still some beauty to appreciate and savor before the peony blooms season is over for the year. If you're looking for some very late season peonies to extend your bloom season, these are definitely some of the latest blooming varieties for me. I hope you appreciated all of your peony blooms as much as I did!

Peony 'Felix Supreme'	Peony 'Myra MacRae'
Peony 'Lady Orchid'	Peony 'Primevere'