by Scott Shepherd
With the arrival of spring comes the much anticipated onset of magnificent peonies. Each year, the peony season comes and goes with mostly the same varieties. You may recognize varieties like ‘Kansas’, ‘Sarah Bernhardt’, ‘Jules Eli’, ‘Festiva Maxima’, and ‘Duches de Nemours’. Oh, and don’t forget ‘Coral Charm’, ‘Coral Sunset’, and ‘Red Charm’. These have become the staple varieties that we know to ask for year after year. Some of these varieties are earlier blooming cultivars which we have grown to depend on, but over the years new varieties that tend to bloom later in the season have become more plentiful.
Many of these varieties have been hybridized over the decades. New doesn’t necessarily mean recently created. New could be, and often is, defined as meaning the varieties have been around a long time but have finally become more available to the masses. Peonies can be a tremendous expense to plant, both in capital, labor, and land. Many varieties take a minimum of three years before blooms can actually be harvested. As you can imagine after millions of dollars have been spent in plants, the idea of tearing them out of the ground and starting with new varieties isn’t very attractive.
So as our palette of peonies progress, we want to take a moment to show you and make sure you learn and remember some names for this spring. That way, when you have a chance you can try them out. We have not used any kind of enhancement or filters on the pictures. We have used natural light in most cases to give you a sense of the true color