PÆONIES—WILD AND HYBRID

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21650, 21 May 1932, Page 7

PÆONIES—WILD AND HYBRID

SPECIES AND VARIETIES. One of the most remarkable events in the story of modern gardening has been the development of the herbaceous pasony. Though one of the oldest of cultivated plants, it was for a long while represented by a mere handful of varieties, and even these were accorded scant attention. But as soon as preony culture had been taken in hand by skilful hybridists, it was obvious that the genus had a great future. By using the early flowering European species, the later P. sinensis of China and others, our specialists soon raised an enormous number of kinds whicli gave in addition to a prolonged flowering season, a wide range of splendid colours in plants of extraordinary diversity. But the evolution of the picony did not stop there. The plant has gone from one triumph to another. Every season.endows it with new riches, and widens its cucle of admirers, and the vast list ot varieties now offered is the soundest proof ot the fact that these arc the fruit of an evergrowing deni and. lias this oiiihusiasm for paiopy culture been aroused only by the floral beauty of the p ants, their magnificent colouring and nobility of form. Tliev have appealed to ns because they arc .so hardy and easily grown: because, once established, they will carry on for rears with a minimum ot aUentm i. Then we can add to (hew virlnes the delicious fragrance po.-ses.-eu by many m them. The adaptability of the plflnt for table ilocoi-’.iioi* nnisf ni-o lie m'nnU'd, and not the leas' aim ng the paioliy s attractions are the gorgeon; colours o: tmspring shoots. l.m autumn foliage (.til-, and gleaming brilliance oi the gain ig capsu.es.

With regard to soil and situation, a wise old gardener once said that a garden which would not grow pasonies would not grow anything. But, while there is much truth in that, pseonies do delight in a rich, free loam. The bed should be trenched two feet deep and have a liberal dressing of really well-rotted _ cow or mixed farm manure worked into it during the process. A space of four feet is not too much to allow between each plant, but where a massed effect is desired more quickly a two-foot spacing may be adopted, every alternate plant being removed in its third year. Should manure be scarce, it can be supplemented by decayed vegetable rubbish, and a topdressing, forked in when the bed is ready, of basic slag six ounces and bone meal eight ounces per square yard will be i helpful. Stiff, cold soils should be rendered lighter by adding sand, grit, etc. Although pieonies will thrive in almost any aspect, and they enjoy part shade, a position screened from the morning sun is desirable, for this often prevents the young shoots from being injured by late frosts. How best to arrange the plants is a question each must decide tor himself, for everything depends upon the garden. They are excellent in the herbaceous and mixed borderland are unexcelled for bold bedding schemes, such as one might have about lawns and avenues. Grouped between shrubs they are extremely effective, and the pffiony is one of the few of our larger plants which can be as pleasing in the formal■ garden as it is in'the woodland and semi-wild. It is all a matter of. space, conditions, and expediency. Let the soil be thoroughly prepared, select colours with discretion! give the plants a good mulch of manure and compost early every B P rl °£>} with a few doses of liquid manure and plenty of water while the plants are budding, and the paaony mV I be an urn failing delight for years. Planting may be carried out at any time from April to September, and it should not J?.® ' sary to lift and divide more often than every fifth or sixth year. , So! prolific has the psony proved that snace is inadequate to do justice to a tithe of the wonderful varieties now listed. But, taking the sweet-scented Chinese first, a short selectmn in white to vellow shades in doubles include Ke' way’s Glorious, one of the finest whites ever raised: candidissima; Duchesse de Nemours; and Lady Alexander Duff,, a lovely French white, flushed on opening with rose. In double pinks, with which I the last is often included, we have such front-rankers as Eugene erdier, Pie - dent Taft, Aurora, the early, rose scented Faust, and Leonie. Richer in thei” shades of rose are Rosea superba, Philomele, Arethusa, and the lical-pmk M. Jules EHe; and among the deep, rose and crimsons are such gorgeous vaneties as Delachei. the blood-crimson Marshal MacMahon, Karl Rosenfield, and the handsome wine-red Louis van Houtte. Single pasonies have a distinct cbaim o their own, and the Chinese. section of these again provides a splendid airay ot attractive kinds, headed by Albiflora grandiflora (Whitleyi). which has snowwhite, golden-centred blooms of enormous size. Albiflora carnea, delicate pink, is another exquisite thing, and Victoria a grand crimson. St. Anthony, a Japanese, with vivid rose-carmine, anemonelike flowers, must be included, and Duchess of Portland a delicate blush, tinted with rose, is one of the best ot its C °Flowering from October to the end of November, the above will be preceded by the rather earlier Europeans, of which the double crimson or white P. officinalis is a familiar type. This fine old plant throughly deserves the recognition now accorded it. but the average gardener has still to realise the value of its moie un common affinities, notably such singles as the cherry-scarlet lobata, Sunbeam, glowing with salmon-cerise, and the double anemone-flowered crimson and purple La Negresse Some May-flowei-ing singles of the highest merit are also to be found in the P. anetma class, such varieties as Rosy Gem. Diogenes, Northern Glory, and Purple Emperor, giving, large, bowl-shaped floweis m various beautiful shades. . Regarding the species there is no herbaceous plant of any kind that gives more pleasure than P. Wittmanniana, the great primrose-yellow globes of which are illumined with the big central cushion of orange anthers. Avant Garde, in fleshpink, and Splendour, rosy-apricot, both hybrids from above, are also pasonies ot priceleps quality. P. decora elatior, whose big salvers of satiny crimson are tasgelled with gold, can be strong recommended. P. Woodwardiana is a pretty dwarf, with rosy-pink flowers; tenuifolia makes an 18-inch tuft of finely-cut fohag , in which nestle balls of Pink 9 r ruby-red, and a good companion for this would be the semi-tree ptcony, P. lutea, with globe flowers of a rich butter-yellow. Uncom : mon though it be, P Mlokosiewitschi cannot be passed over, for its bold seagreen foliage and large citron-yellow blooms claim for this magnificent plant a foremost place among the choicest ot its distinguished family. . . . , . An occasional objection raised to pfEonies is that they occupy a good deal of ground, yet tire only in flower for a comparatively short period. But this is to overlook entirely the fact that their spreading foliage makes an ideal giound cover for many lilies. Such lovely species as auratnm, regale, croceum, Henryi, testaceum, Browni, Batemanni, and tigrinum gain considerably from having a cool root run, yet, to see them at thenbest it is essential that their heads should be in the sun. This apparent contradiction in conditions can only be brought about by planting them amongst fairly low-growing but spreading plants, such as pieonies, or the dwarfer rhododendrons. The former association is well-nigh ideal, as most of the, lilies will flower after the pieonies have passed out of bloom. The most satisfactory way of utilising this scheme is to devote a bed—or beds — exclusively to pieonies and lilies. Where this is not possible, groups of three ot four plants in the herbaceous border may he used as ground cover for half a dozen lily bulbs with good effect.—A. T. J.. in Amateur 1 Gardening.