Precious Peonies

Big, blowsy and beautiful, these showy perennials bring structure and joy to the spring garden By Lorraine Hunter

Passionate about peonies? You’re not alone. Peonies (Paeonia) hold a special place in the late spring/ early summer garden. Easy to grow, once established, these regal perennials can live for decades—even a century or more—and often become family heirlooms. My friend Pat has one in her North Toronto garden that’s older than she is and comes up faithfully with dozens of bright magenta blooms every year.

P. SORBET. Fragrant pink and white double blooms in early summer. Foliage turns red in fall.

There are 278 peony plants in the TBG gardens, many planted by Dutch plantsman Piet Oudolf and Canadian landscape architect Martin Wade in the entrance courtyard when the new gardens were planted in 2005. “And, we added more as time and budget allowed,” recalls Paul Zammit, former TBG Director of Horticulture, “especially singles for pollinators.”

Bees are highly attracted to single peonies and ants love this flower’s nectar. Ants will not harm the flowers. In fact, the ants’ presence draws a variety of insect-eating songbirds.

P. BUCKEYE BELLE Semi-double, dark red, velvety blooms are held on sturdy stems. Good cut flowers.

Peonies have been cultivated for more than 3,000 years as ornamental and medicinal plants used to promote liver health and reduce pain, inflammation and stress. They are drought tolerant, low maintenance and deer resistant. Their flowers come in just about every colour but blue including shades of yellow, coral, peach, lavender, white, blush, pink, magenta and red. The pink ones are said to be the most fragrant. The flowers can grow as wide as 25 centimetres depending on the variety.

Peonies, are a genus of approximately 30 species, divided into three groups. The first, herbaceous peonies, are soft stemmed, clump-forming plants that die back to ground level in winter. The second group, Moutan or tree peonies, are deciduous shrubs with woody stems. And, the third, intersectional or Itoh hybrids, are a cross between herbaceous and tree peonies.

Peony blooms may be single, semi-double, double, anemone, or Japanese form and, according to the Canadian Peony Society, their scent can be classified as rose, lemon, honey or musk.

P. SARAH BERNHARDT The stunning favourite has huge, fully double, fresh pink blooms and glossy, deer resistant foliage.

When we did the photo shoot for this article there were at least 23 different peony varieties in bloom in the TBG

The Toronto Botanical Garden has over 250 peonies that bloom in the garden in late spring / early summer.

The TBG has a total of 278 peonies in the garden including: Chinese Tree Peony (Ostii), Lutea Hybrid Tree Peony, Fernleaf Peonies, Japanese Tree Peonies (Suffruticosa), Common Garden or Herbaceous Hybrids, Intersectional (Itoh) Peonies, Herbaceous Hybrid Peonies, Common Garden Peonies (Lactiflora)