The Peony

June 2011

The Newsletter of The Peony Society

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The Newsletter of the Peony Society The newsletter is published four times a year, in March, June, September and December. Contributions, photographs or artwork and books for review should be sent to the Editor, whose contact details are on the back cover. The Editor reserves the right to edit articles before publication. The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of the Editor or of The Peony Society. Subscriptions to The Peony Society are £15.00 a year for individuals and £20.00 for a family membership. Please send your remittance to the Treasurer, Cheryl Sapcote (E-mail treasurer@thepeonysociety.org). Please note: All personal addresses have been removed from this public version of The Peony. DATA PROTECTION ACT 1998 Your personal details will be held on our computer system and will only be used by the Society. We will NOT sell or pass on your details to a third party but if you would prefer us to keep your details only in paper form please contact the membership secretary.

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From the Chair By Barbara Adam New Leaflet The Peony Society has produced a new leaflet, an example of which is included with this newsletter, and we would like to encourage members to distribute these when they open for NGS, for example, or go to relevant meetings. Currently further supplies of leaflets can be ordered from John Richey, membership secretary. See the back cover of the newsletter for John’s contact details. Our leaflets were handed out at Chelsea (together with Claire Austin’s peony catalogue) and we hope that this action will result in lots of new members. New Newsletter Editor From the next issue we will have a new Editor for the newsletter. Gail, who had edited the newsletter for 10 years with incredible dedication and flair has sadly resigned as newsletter editor. Gail’s newsletter has produced much joy for members and has become a quarterly highlight in the calendar of their peony year. In the light of Gail’s request, at the AGM we asked for a volunteer to become the new editor. To make the task less daunting, what Gail had managed single-handedly four times a year, has been divided into editing, production and distribution. Martin Page offered to take on the editing, Edward Westhead the distribution and the production is most likely to be done professionally. On behalf of the membership I would like to extend our heart-felt appreciation to Gail. Location for Future A.G.Ms We had a very enjoyable Annual General Meeting at Spetchley Park this year, see article by Cheryl Sapcote in this issue. Regarding future meetings, we could move the A.G.M. to a series of different locations in the country to better cater for members from all parts of the UK. Alternatively, we could have a further meeting at Spetchley Park (near Worcester) but have it much earlier in the season to see Spetchley’s incredible collection of species peonies. This would allow many more members to attend the A.G.M. who this year were prevented from coming because it was held during the main peony season and, as it turned out, on one of the most popular NGS days in the calendar of members who open their gardens under this scheme. It would be helpful if members could let me know their preference for future locations of our Annual General Meeting. Death of Ambrose Congreve

Ambrose Congreve, who died at the age of 104 whilst in London to attend the Chelsea Flower Show, was a passionate gardener. Inspired by his childhood visits to Exbury in Hampshire, he created an amazing garden at Mount Congreve, near Kilmeaden, Co. Waterford in Ireland. The garden hosts more than 3,000 varieties of rhododendrons, 600 camellias and has half a mile of hostas. At the celebration of his centenary lunch in 2007, he quoted the ancient proverb: “To be happy for an hour, have a glass of wine. To be happy for a day, read a book. To be happy for a week, take a wife. To be happy forever, make a

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garden.” The tree peony named for Ambrose Congreve was raised by Sir Peter Smithers in Switzerland from an open-pollinated P. rockii.

As his final legacy, Congreve left the house and gardens to the State. They are open to the public, admission free from March to September.

AGM Visit to Spetchley Park By Cheryl Sapcote Members gathered together on a fine but windy May morning to meet at Spetchley Gardens, the highly acclaimed 30 acre Victorian paradise garden three miles east of Worcester, and located in the middle of fertile Worcestershire countryside. The garden, once private, is open to the public and has a vast collection of trees, shrubs, perennials and rarities. Spetchley Park originally consisted of a moated Tudor house and land and was bought by Rowland Berkeley in 1606. However a Scottish royalist army burnt the building to the ground in 1651 either by accident or intent – perhaps to prevent Cromwell’s men from using the building; rebuilding took some time and a house in the Palladian style was built by the Berkeleys on the site of the old stables. Work was completed as late as 1811. The existing garden is the creation of the Berkeley family, and has been nurtured by successive generations. The estate is currently owned by Mr and Mrs John Berkeley, the gardens have benefited from the horticultural enthusiasm of the family. Cedars were brought here as seed by John Evelyn the diarist. Eryngium giganteum ‘Miss Willmott’s Ghost’ may have been scattered here by Ellen Willmott, the finest female horticulturalist of her generation; as in August 1891, her sister Rose Willmott married Robert Berkeley and went to live at Spetchley Park . Both sisters were keen gardeners and Ellen made improvements which are still apparent today. Edward Elgar stayed at Spetchley many times and the pines to the east of the arboretum inspired him to pen part of his great composition ‘The Dream of Gerontius’. John Berkeley, the current owner, was bounced on Elgar’s knee as a child. Upon arriving at the fabulous Palladian style house, we were met by Mr John Berkeley who had allowed us to use the spacious reception rooms for our meeting. The meeting was attended by 20 people and was rounded off by a very interesting talk on peonies by Martin Page. Our teas and lunches were delicious, provided by excellent ‘in house’ caterers who specialize in weddings and conferences. In the afternoon cakes were provided and Gail had brought a superb lemony cake. After Martin Page’s talk we explored the garden with John Berkeley. We passed from the house by way of the ‘Horse Pool’ where there is a collection of Magnolias, drifts of wildly sown lilies and several pink single herbaceous peonies. We were led along borders skirting the outside of the walled gardens, deep with roses and geraniums. These West, South and East borders contained beds with an exciting mix of tree and herbaceous peonies, many bearing labels. To list: P. ‘Majestic’, P. ‘Ray Payton’, P. ‘Edmund Spencer’, P. ‘Red Charm’, P. ‘Barrymore’, P. mlokosewitchii, and the tree peony ‘Kokaryu Nishiki’. The plants observed were nestled amongst other perennials in deep beds framed by the tall brick walls, which were themselves graced with climbers and flowering shrubs. The effect was opulent and voluptuous, reminiscent of the best of Victorian and Edwardian gardening styles.

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Cheryl photographing Paeonia ‘Ray Payton’ at Spetchley Park Passing into the sheltered ‘Millenium Gardens’ fringed with yew hedges, we observed a veritable feast of peony plants, including the rare P. ‘Jenny’ and other gems. Plants in this area included, tree peonies ‘High Noon’, ‘Marchioness’, ‘Shin-shimana’ ‘Kagayala’, ‘Yachio Tsubabi’, ‘Kinkaku’ (orange form), ‘Black Pirate’, ‘Alice Palmer’, ‘Cardinal Vaughan’, ‘Gauguin’, ‘Black Panther’, ‘Charming Age’, ‘Satin Rouge’, Peonia ostii, and some 6 foot square P. delavayi clumps. Herbaceous plants included P. ‘Paula Fay’, P.’Scarlet O’Hara’, P. ‘Miss America’, P. mascula ssp. mascula, P. ‘Kelways Daystar’, P. ‘Lotus Queen’, P. ‘Bunker Hill’, P. ‘Carnival’ and P. ‘Paula Faye’ and intersectional peony ‘Garden Treasure’.

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Cheryl Sapcote, Lady Jane Berrill and Elizabeth Chatwin and Paeonia ‘Carnival’

‘Lotus Queen’ and ‘Pink Hawaiian Coral’ Photos by John & Panna Richey

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‘Gauguin’ by Cheryl Sapcote

Jan Adam, Alistair Gunn and Jane Berrill

The garden included many other herbaceous delights such as iris and geranium, with strategically placed rose varieties in striking and unusual colours; such as Rosa ‘Burgundy’, R. ‘Iris Webb’ (pictured left), R. ‘Deep Spirit’, R. ‘Twice in a Blue Moon’. This enclosed garden was fascinating and we spent as long as we could here, photographing the flowers and breathing in the delicious fragrances. The secretive Fountain Gardens were our next ports of call. These are

enclosed by yew hedges and intersected within by beds and many paths in a grid pattern. The enclosed gardens contain treasures in the form of specimen trees, shrubs, bulbs, perennials and wild flowers. The gardens were also bursting with peonies; tree peonies, species peonies, herbaceous peonies, as well as mature specimens of Paeonia delavayi, P. lutea and P. rockii. Fine herbaceous peonies perfumed the air. The vast walled vegetable gardens contain somewhat more than fruit and vegetables and boasts a new collection of young tree peonies, which include ‘Jin Zhi’, ‘Feng Gong Wei’, ‘Taishu-no-hokur’, ‘Kokomana’, ‘Haruno-akeboro’, ‘Suminoidu’, and the intersectional peony ‘Bartzella’. The North Border contained many species peonies which were un-named and some are possibly hybrids. These had finished flowering earlier in the year so there was less chance of accurate identification, although some were labelled for us, such as P. cambessedessii. The gloriously warm Melon Yard contained some good species peonies including P. mascula ssp. mascula.

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This is certainly a garden for peony lovers and nurtures possibly the best collection of peonies in the country. The Berkeley family have between 250 and 300 different Paeonia covering the entire season from early April to early July. Being planted within formal and semi-formal setting and within other plantings of shrubs, trees, herbaceous plants and rare collections, the plants take on the splendour of the surroundings as well as being cared for within a healthy plant growth regime. Plants generally are now mulched with a well rotted manure mixture made from a combination of cattle waste and general compost materials. The result is a gentle but rich mixture of soil improving material that can be laid onto the herbaceous beds without risk of over nourishing or burning plants. As we left clutching notebooks and cameras, we felt that we had visited one of the most unique and beautiful collections of peonies within a garden setting. This is a garden of delight, a plantsman’s garden, a traditional garden that transports us to a different age and a time of innocent pleasures. The stressed or depressed of our world should be prescribed a day at Spetchley to restore their souls.

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Hang Down Your Head In … By Edward Westhead A criticism levelled at some tree peonies is that the flowers face downwards, or at an angle to the vertical which makes them difficult to see and hence appreciate. Several culprits spring to mind – ‘Souvenir de Maxime Cornu’ (Henry, 1907), ‘Surprise’ (Lemoine,1920), ‘Kronos’ (Daphnis), ‘L'Aurore’ (Lemoine,1935) and the Gansu Mudan ‘Yu Guan Lan Dai’ (Chen Dezhong,1993-4), to name but five. When such varieties are referred to in peony articles the tendency is to simply declare this tendency to be due to the weight of the fully double flower being too great for the stems to support, especially when the plant in question produces relatively thin stems. This is undoubtedly true of some cultivars, ‘Souvenir de Maxime Cornu’ being a particularly pronounced case. However, having studied these plants when they are at the small bud stage, I think that it is necessary to differentiate between growth habit and flower weight. With the exception of ‘Yu Guan Lan Dai’, all the above mentioned cultivars have delavayi (lutea) as a parent and my two plants of this species produce smallish buds which start to bend in the stem just below the bud itself. This happens long before the flower opens which, in any case, seems to be of negligible weight in comparison with stem thickness. Exactly the same phenomenon can be observed in all but one the hybrids that I have named, and incidentally, ‘L'Aurore’ has a single flower, not a heavy double. The one exception is the Gansu Mudan which has no delavayi in its makeup and in its case the bud does not start to bend downwards when new; its poor habit seems to be due entirely to the weight of the massive, densely double flower being too much for the long growth of the stem. Of the others, flower weight undoubtedly contributes significantly to the problem but it is aggravated by the growth habit inherited from delavayi. This means that even propping up the stem with a twig does not always make the flower present itself nicely. Of course, there is rarely any indication of such behaviour in peony catalogues so the prospective buyer is left to await flowering. However, the superb annual catalogue produced by Riviere of France has, as part of the plant description, a small outline diagram of a flower on its stem showing the flower habit. This can be seen on the excerpt from the catalogue to the bottom right of the peony photograph. I consider Riviere's efforts in this catalogue to constitute a paradigm for all retailers. I have two spare copies of Riviere's catalogue – if anybody would like one, an e-mail to me will secure it.

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The Peony Border at Penshurst Place By Gail Harland I have been meaning to visit Penshurst Place near Tonbridge in West Kent since I bought Martin Page’s first book on peonies The Gardener’s Guide to Growing Peonies some 12 years ago. I was totally amazed by the full page photograph of the 100 metre long peony border at Penshurst, packed with lactiflora peonies in different shades of pink. On the 4th June we had to attend a family gathering down in Eastbourne and a check of the map showed me that we would be passing very close to Penshurst. The gardens at Penshurst open at 10.30am, so by turfing my husband and sons out of bed bright and early we were able to squeeze in a quick gallop around the garden before going on to Eastbourne. Ideally of course you would allow a whole day to do justice to Penshurst; it is a beautiful and historic house with an interesting garden and extensive parkland and even a toy museum.

In a ‘normal year’ the 4th June would be peak flowering time for the peonies. Unfortunately for us the very early season this year, which resulted from the hot and dry spring, meant that the peonies actually came into bloom on the 18th May and were very much past their best by June. There was however still enough colour from side buds to give an indication of how truly spectacular the border must look when in full flower.

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The border is planted with just four lactiflora cultivars; ‘Lady Alexander Duff’, ‘Albert Crousse’, ‘Sarah Bernhardt’ and ‘Mons Jules Elie’. The total length is around 100m and is composed of three box-edged blocks of peony plants supported by pea sticks. The length is such that you do not actually notice it is not a continuous planting until you walk down it. Looking at Martin’s photograph it seems that they used to use lavender instead of the box (Buxus sempervirens) to edge the beds. There is much else to admire in the gardens. I particularly loved the immense Ginkgo biloba that is planted just 30cm (12in) from the tower of the house. However it is really worth a trip for the peonies. If you would like to be sure of seeing them in flower next year you can add your name to the Penshurst Place mailing list via their website to get notification as the peonies come into bloom (website www.penshurstplace.com). Helping Claire Austin at Chelsea By Barbara Adam I hate crowds. This has ruled out a visit to the Chelsea Flower Show in the past. But this year was different. Claire Austin was going to show peonies at Chelsea and she had asked volunteer helpers among the members of the Peony Society’s executive committee. This was a very different proposition from competing with thousands of fellow plant lovers for glimpses of show gardens and other displays, so I spontaneously offered to help. My Chelsea day started early: getting up at 05:00 am, train from Wales to London, tube and short walk, finding the venue and locating Claire’s stand – all that was easy. I had studied Claire’s superb catalogues the day before and used the train journey to swat up some more on the peonies and irises that Claire had planned to show at Chelsea. Comparing Claire’s cultivation and planting instructions for both catalogues I realized that these plants shared their cultural requirement: sun and sharp drainage, with irises just needing more regular splitting than peonies. John and Panna Richey, who had helped on Members’ day, had briefed me in the evening before and gave me lots of helpful survival tips for a day on which I was expected to be an expert not only on peonies but also on irises. I had hardly had time to appreciate and take in Claire’s stunningly attractive design, let alone study the plants, when I was called upon to talk to the first couple of visitors interested in knowing more about peonies: What did peonies need and like? Could they cope with sun, shade and or boggy conditions? When was the best time to plant them? How far apart should they be planted? What things does one need to know and watch out for? I must have answered these and similar questions in clusters of different combinations well over 100 times on that day. Quite frequently I also needed to dispel a number of popular myths – ‘you can’t move them’; ‘they are short-lived’; and ‘they only flower for a few days’. I spent much time reassuring the worried and gave advice about the timing of moving peonies. I waxed about their extraordinary longevity, informed about the diversity of cultivars and explained how to extend the flowering period from April to July by choosing appropriate plants. Then there were questions by worried owners whose peonies did not perform, by which they mostly meant that their peonies did not flower. Depth of planting, crowding and drainage usually covered the possible sources of the trouble. In other cases nothing more than patience seemed to be required. Martin Page’s little jingle ‘First year sleep, second year creep, third year leap’ came in useful on numerous occasions. Nearly everyone I talked to wanted to buy

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a catalogue and study it at home before making choices and decisions about purchases. Those who placed orders there and then were few and far between. It was a joy to meet so many people who are enthused and wowed by these gorgeous plants – an unforgettable experience that I can highly recommend to future potential helpers. Planting Tree Peonies – A Criticism of Cheap Grafted Hybrids By Edward J.Westhead I live near The Fylde, the coastal plain of western Lancashire. It is an agricultural area with many farms and a surprising number of garden centres and nurseries. Many of the latter are small businesses catering for local gardeners or wholesale businesses supplying garden centres and they rarely sell plants which we might describe as 'specialist'. In recent years however, I have noticed an increasing number of them offering tree peonies as their business picks up in spring. These plants come as two types:

Chinese imports on their own roots. These are invariably named hybrids. Imports of Japanese hybrids as grafts. These are nearly always sold by colour, bearing

an alluring and some may say, garish label. I suspect that these plants are grafted in China, and incidentally, are sometimes yellow/orange French hybrids originally exported to Japan in the early years of the twentieth century.

The same plants can be bought at widely varying prices from different nurseries and if, like me, you are happy to wander around searching, it is possible to get hold of bargains, particularly of the named varieties on their own roots. It is equally possible to buy the second type cheaply as well; last year I bought four at £2.80 each. They come in 1 litre pots, often with the herbaceous rootstock sticking up above the soil.

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The first thing to be said about these plants is that the coloured label usually (invariably) bears no relation to the actual colour of the flower, or if it is a yellow flowered plant a picture that looks like 'Chromatella' or 'Souvenir de Maxime Cornu' is most likely to actually be 'High Noon'. The second thing to be said is that planting instructions are minimal, if present at all and this is the main reason for my complaint. It is probably true that most people buying these plants will know little about tree peonies and may not even recognise the stumpy herbaceous rootstock for what it is. This can have two undesirable consequences:

1. The plant might sucker and the buyer might not recognise what is happening, with the results that the herbaceous rootstock will eventually take over.

2. The plant will not be planted deeply enough – possibly with the rootstock left protruding above ground, and so there will be no chance for the scion to form its own roots. Under these circumstances the plant will not do well.

The capability of the average householder to plant things incorrectly should not be underestimated. I have grown rhododendrons for many years and they do not do well in the heavy soil characteristic of this region. Much soil enhancement and preparation needs doing if they are to thrive. It is not all that long ago that a lady living a few streets away knocked at my door and asked me to help her with her four year old rhododendron that was looking ill. I assumed that the illness was the usual chlorosis and clay-strangled roots, but when I investigated I discovered that she had planted the poor thing in open ground but still in its original plastic pot! Naturally enough, we in this Society want people to buy peonies and for them to thrive, but your average grafted tree peony needs more attention than a cheap root of ‘Festiva Maxima’. So if you have a neighbour with a tree peony whose rootstock is visible, a friendly word of advice might not come amiss. In Defence of Yellow Peonies By Jane Berrill The late Christopher Lloyd’s description of P. mlokosewitschii is often quoted: ‘It flowers for about five days in early May, and is at its ravishing best for about four hours in the middle of this period’. It is the reason he gives for not including it in his borders. I find that the beauty of its foliage throughout the season gives me pleasure both before and long after its brief time in flower and I grow it near the front door in a small bed devoted to yellow peonies. Nearby is a thriving plant which he compares unfavourably with the above. ‘Don’t be fobbed off with P. wittmanniana, which is comparable but a washed-out yellow and a coarsish plant’. Oh dear – I love its paleness and appreciate the fact that it normally flowers just as the former is going over. In the same bed is ‘Claire de Lune’. (The spelling always bothers me and makes me wonder grudgingly who she was that had the ‘e ’ added to ‘clair’ in her honour).

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Formerly a plant of P. cambessedesii also grew here but has died out, perhaps because, as a prolific seeder, I retained these for their colour until autumn. Today I have only one non-yellow peony in this bed: a rare white form of P. veitchii planted this year. It has not flowered yet and neither has my first year plant of the Itoh hybrid ‘Bartzella’ although other colours elsewhere put out a few buds which I steeled myself to remove. In the spring of 2010, as the result of a prolonged cold spell, delayed by the lateness of the season, all my yellow peonies were in flower together. The effect was breath-taking and lasted several days before, in sudden warmth, P mlokosewitschii lived up to its reputation. But Christopher (I did not know him well enough to call him Christo) was wrong about P. wittmanniana.

The Peony Society Seed Exchange

The seed exchange is once again being organised this year by Mary Bull. Please consider saving any seed from your peonies to share with other members. The details for sending seed are; For further information please e-mail the Editor (editor@thepeonysociety.org)

When sending seed please give parentage information where known, or if the plant was open pollinated. My intention is at the end of the season, any seed still in my possession I will try growing on perhaps to sell at society functions in future. There is no charge to members when ordering seed, but I would appreciate a stamped addressed envelope from UK members when ordering seed. [Large Letter stamps may be wise as packets of peony seeds can be more than 5mm thick. Ed]

是程の牡丹としかたする子哉 一茶

kore hodo no botan to shikata suru ko kana — Issa (d. 1823)

"It's this big!"

Tiny stretching arms

Form her peony. (translated by Joy Norton)

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Unusual Behaviour of a Grafted Tree Peony – Part 2 By Edward J.Westhead Readers may recall that I wrote a short article last year about a grafted tree peony – ‘Satin Rouge’ (Lemoine 1926) - that I purchased from Riviere of France in Autumn 2009. To briefly recap, in the following spring the plant made little or no new top growth, just very small shoots and leaves of no more than a couple of millimetres. When I dug it up in autumn 2010, everything looked fine and there were even signs that the scion was trying to produce its own roots. This spring the situation is similar – a large number of small green buds, each no larger than a match head have formed on the scion, but they are struggling to grow. I took a photo and sent to it Monsieur Jean-Luc Riviere and I have now received a reply. He has acknowledged the problem and states "Cette plante a certainement eu un problème de désherbage dans nos cultures". I interpret this somewhat vague statement to mean that prior to being dug up and having its leaves removed for despatch, the plant had been accidentally sprayed with some sort of hormone weed killer, with the peculiar consequences for growth that I have described. Fortunately, I have been promised a replacement in Autumn so ‘Vive La France et Leurs Pivoines’!

Cong Zhong Xiao

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Lydia Foote By Gail Harland Members may remember the lovely photograph taken by member Dr Mohab Zaki of Paeonia ‘Lydia Foote’ that we used for the front cover image of the March 2009 issue of the newsletter. My own young plant produced four of these beguiling flowers this year. I picked one to include in a bunch of flowers for a friend of mine. She had not come across tree peonies before and was overwhelmed with the size and beauty of the flower.

This prompted me to try and find some more about the peony and its namesake; Paeonia ‘Lydia Foote’ was raised by Sir Peter Smithers at his garden Vico Morcote in Switzerland. It was a seedling from an open-pollinated plant of the UK form of P. rockii. It first bloomed in 1978 and was named in 1992 for the Victorian actress Lydia Foote (1843-1892) whose real name was Lydia Alice Legg. Why Smithers chose to name it for an actress who died before he was born I do not know but would be interested to hear if any member knows. The peony is a frilly semi-double white with light red flares in the centre of the petals. Mature plants tend to produce fuller flowers to around 23cm across. Images of some of Smithers’ other peonies can be seen at www.smithers- foundation.com/index.php?option=com _content&task=view&id=16&Itemid=18

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Web watch The website of Oscar Morse Peonies of Indiana in the United States is well worth a look. There are many gorgeous pictures and an interesting guide to bloom dates, as well as a useful sorter section by which peonies are grouped by colour, fragrance, bloom times, planting situation and so on. http://web.mac.com/peonies/Oscar_Morse_Peonies/Home.html

The Plant List is a working list of all known plant species. Produced as collaboration between the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden it has been created by combining multiple checklist data sets held by these institutions and other collaborators. The Plant List provides the accepted Latin name for most species, with links to all synonyms by which that species has been known. http://www.theplantlist.org/browse/A/Paeoniaceae/Paeonia/

The forum of the Scottish Rock Garden Society is a very active group with a lot of peony enthusiasts worldwide. Their peony thread this year has shown some fascinating plants including an amazing population of wild Paeonia tenuifolia in the Voronezh area of Russia. http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=6964.210

NEW NEWSLETTER EDITOR

Martin Page has very kindly offered to take over as editor of the newsletter. Please support him by sending your contributions to: editor@thepeonysociety.org

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Weeds By John and Panna Richey What better way to learn the character of peonies than to work amongst them. Jo gave us that opportunity last month while getting the Bennison Peonies beds in presentable condition for the forthcoming open sales days. Rather logically , Jo and Jamie have the beds organised by peony type: species, intersectional and herbaceous, and by age; generally set out as five rows to the bed, with the newer beds for additional plantings of new and/or different stocks to expand the capacity and the variety of the plants on offer. When presented with a hoe and the chance to clear every little weed, the slow travel up and down the rows begins. It soon becomes apparent how the differing peonies types tend to expand their presence in the bed; some with aggressive growth filling a good square metre, others with slower measured displacement of space, almost insinuating themselves across the available surface. The leaf and stem structures for the intersectionals versus the species become increasingly obvious as you repeatedly move from row to row seeking intruders on all sides of each plant. By the end of the day you realise it has become easy to tell the difference between a P. peregrina and a P. mascula, and then there are the Scarlet Heavens and the Buckeye Belles and the Red Red Roses. They are each individuals with their own characters. That is, until Jo arrives with a basket full of labels to be placed in front of each appropriate clump. At that point the game is up so you follow around and relearn what you thought you already knew, but with satisfaction.

The good news is that new weeds sprout overnight so that there’s the opportunity to immediately review your work of the previous day, checking all the rows of all the beds on all sides to take out the interlopers. By now the shapes and sizes are more recognisable, even

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familiar, and you move with more confidence. We can recommend a few days of weeding as an accelerated learning process, accompanied by plenty of fresh Lincoln breeze and exercise. But you will have to apply early because we want the job again next year. Jp Bennison’s peony beds. ‘The Garden House’ at nearby Saxby has planted out a selection of Jo’s Itoh peonies (photography by Jo Bennsion).

PostScript According to Amazon the second part of Hong De-Yuan’s monograph on peonies, Polymorphisms and Diversity (Peonies of the World), is due to be published on the 31st October. It is currently priced at £70, so you should start saving now. It is a bumper issue this time, so my grateful thanks to all contributors and to everyone who has contributed over the ten years that I have been editing the newsletter. The deadline for the September issue is 15th August. Don’t forget to send any material to Martin Page. I am looking forward to receiving a newsletter in which all the content will be a surprise to me. Happy gardening… Gail Harland

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Phone & Fax: +31 228 512 563 - Mobile: +31 623 236 056 Email: wholesale@paionia.com - Website: www.paionia.com

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Picture above of ‘Earlybird’ and that on front cover of ‘Dian Jin Bai Yan Wei’ by Edward James Westhead, from his extensive collection of peonies.

For all enquiries and to join The Peony Society contact:

John Richey, Membership Secretary membership@thepeonysociety.org

Or download a membership form from the website; www.thepeonysociety.org For correspondence regarding the newsletter please contact:

Dr Martin Page, Editor editor@thepeonysociety.org All contents of this magazine are copyright and should not be reproduced without the written permission of the Society.