2013 RHS Peony Bloom Color Chart Coding

I have been working on collecting data on my peony blooms' petal color for 4 years now. I use the RHS Mini Colour Chart for the bloom color groupings. I think I have a pretty good start on this project by now, so I can start posting some of my data, and will continue to update it in the future. I am dedicating a new page for this information called Peony Bloom Colors. Hopefully this information will help people in identifying unknown peonies, creating gardening and landscaping plans for their properties, and selecting just the right color of peony for their gardens.

2010 Peony Bloom Color Coding

2012 Peony Colors

RHS Mini Colour Chart for Peony Bloom Coding
The first year I collected data, I had 84 peony varieties color coded. This year I have 139 peony bloom colors documented. Please keep in mind that there is undoubtedly a margin of error in this information since it is all subjective. However these categorizations should be mostly accurate, and hopefully helpful in describing and grouping these peony bloom colors. Also please note that these color codings were taken on the first day of the open bloom, as peony bloom colors tend to fade over time. Some favorable controls in this information are that these peonies are all grown in the same location and the data was all collected by the same person. Also the standard disclaimer applies about the display of the color on different monitors. So please use these peony bloom color groupings as a general guide. :-) If you notice any variety that is grouped in a wildly different color category that what it should be listed in, please notify me, as I may have received a mislabeled peony from the grower. Thank you!

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

2013 Companion Plants for Peonies

Peonies and Oriental Lilies
I was thinking about how lovely these oriental lilies looked next to my peonies when I decided that might be a great topic to share - companion plants for peonies. Some other plants that I like to plant near my peonies are spring bloomers like irises, if you want to get some complimentary blooms. Or if you want to add some color to accent the gorgeous green summer foliage of peonies, tall summer blooming bulbs like lilies and gladioli are perfect complements to the medium height foliage of the peonies. I like to plant the lilies in between the roots of two peonies and maybe slightly behind. This has two purposes. One to give the lilies some support with the peony foliage in front of them, and two to hide the emerging lily shoot from the deer! I can't say this works all of the time, but in my yard it does work most years! I think that's the only reason I have lilies and hostas in my yard (because I surround them with peonies and hellebores!)
Peonies and Fairy Roses
Another summer blooming option for a companion plant to peonies is roses. One of my favorites is fairy roses. They're almost like knockout roses, except miniature. They bloom for months, and have several color options. I also like to plant daylilies near my peonies, just not too close. Daylilies form large storage roots underground just like peonies. So they would definitely be in competition if planted too close. Hellebores are another great companion plant to peonies, blooming at almost the opposite time of the year when peonies are in their rest cycle of winter. Hellebores would provide nice companion foliage during the peony bloom season and while they are going dormant, and lovely blooms while peonies are still asleep. These two should not be planted too close to peonies since they develop an extensive root system. So there are lots of plants that do well in the same light and soil conditions as peonies to keep the interest and color coming all year long!
Peonies with Daylilies and Hellebores

2013 Peony Disease Stem Wilt

Peony Stem Wilt
This poor bud was so close to opening, but unfortunately it was affected by a fungus causing the peony stem to wilt. This stem was infected with botrytis blight which can affect the plant in several ways like stunted growth, Bud Blast, Spotty Foliage, and stem wilt. As you can see from the close up photo below, the infected stem is covered with small reddish black sores or spots. These spots will turn darker as they age and the infected tissue rots. These spots are the evidence of the botrytis fungal disease on the stems. Unfortunately the only thing that can be done for this problem is removal, and the sooner the better. The botrytis blight needs to be removed from the plant as soon as possible to interrupt its reproductive cycle and prevent it from creating spores that will infect next year's foliage. The stem should be pruned back to remove all of the visible blight to just before the next clean leaf on the stem. Once the infected stem segment has been removed from the peony plant, it is imperative that the diseased tissue be removed from the area by trashing it and never composting the infected foliage. Careful, consistent, and timely sanitary practices should improve the health of your plant over time. Good luck!
Close Up of Peony Stem Wilt

2013 Intersectional Peony Garden in Bloom First Year

This is an update on the progress of my newest intersectional peony garden. My original intersectional peony garden is in partial shade/partial sun. This new one is in full sun. Last summer I first started with Soil Solarization. Then I added lots of New Dirt underneath. In the fall I Planted the intersectional peonies. Since several of these peonies were moved from partial shade to full sun, it didn't take long for them to get Toasted. However all of them came back this spring, except two of the Intersectional Peonies on Ebay I'd purchased. That was kind of disappointing, but that's a lesson on trying to buy things cheap! Anyway as you can see I did get some blooms in my intersectional peony garden this year, with the star of the show being Peony 'Sonoma Amethyst' that I'd purchased from an actual peony grower, Adelman. Another beauty near the back of the bed is Peony 'White Emperor' with which I was also quite impressed. As you can see it wasn't much to look at this year, but I'm very hopeful for next year. We have had so much rain this summer, it's just amazing. I think our rainfall this is going to break a record or come close! I just checked, and our local weather report says we are more than 10 inches ahead of last year's rain totals. So it has really been wet this year so far. I don't think the plants have had any opportunities to be thirsty this year at all! So hopefully that translates into bigger and better peony plants next year!
Intersectional Peony Garden in Bloom (May 2013)


Intersectional Peony Garden in Bloom (May 2013)