Officers of the Group

Chairperson Kath Carey The Peony Group St Annes Windmill Lane of the Hardy Society Appleton Warrington LU7 9NL e-mail [email protected]

Group Secretary Gail Harland Newsletter Autumn 2010 The Owl House Coddenham Green Suffolk IP6 9UN e-mail [email protected]

Treasurer John Richey 55 Franklin Court Brook Road Wormley, Godalming Surrey GU8 5US e-mail [email protected]

Newsletter editor John Hudson Deene Cottage Back Lane, East Langton Market Harborough Leicestershire LE16 7TB e-mail [email protected]

Desktop publishing and newsletter distribution is by Irene Tibbenham, The Barn, Clay Street, Thornham Magna, Suffolk, IP23 8HE e-mail: marktibben- [email protected]

Seed distribution is by Judy Templar, 117 Wood Road, King's Cliffe, Northants. PE8 6XR.

Other Committee Members are Peter Johnson (membership secretary).

Membership of the Peony Group is available to all members of the Hardy Plant Society. If you are interested in joining, please contact the Secretary at the above address

The opinions expressed by the authors are their personal views, and are not necessarily en- dorsed by the HPS Peony Group. The editors reserve the right to edit all contributions as necessary. Copyright of all contributions remains with their authors.

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Editorial John Hudson Seed List 2010

There is a definite emphasis on species in this issue HERBACEOUS creamy, pink) of the Newsletter. This is not new policy, but simply re- (P. daurica ssp. mlokosewitschii) flects the articles that were submitted, plus the appearance ex P. anomala ex P. mlokosewitschii (as above, yellow) of Hong's monograph on wild species. Of course, many of ex P. anomala (Finnish form, taller, ( P. daurica ssp. mlokosewitschii) the species are fine garden that would be more wide- red stems) ex P. mlokosewitschsii (yellow) (P. ly grown were they more widely available. A solution to ex P. biebersteiniana (P. tenuifolia) daurica ssp. mlokosewitschsii) this problem is to grow them from seed, an interesting and cheap, if lengthy, ex P. cambessedesii ex P. obovata alba endeavour. I commend our own seed list in this issue. It is quite extensive, ex P. x Chamaeleon (creamy with but further donations of unusual species would be welcome. Please note the ex P. officinalis pink veining) caution about open pollination. Bees love our promiscuous peonies. If ex P. officinalis (from Archibald seed) ex P. x Chamaeleon (pink) anybody hankers for more on lactiflora or suffruticosa cultivars, the solution ex P. officinalis ssp. villosa is to write something yourself, or persuade your friends to do so. There are ex P. ‘Judy’s White Peony’ ex P. peregrina several lactiflora seeds in the list too. It would be interesting to know, in a ex P. japonica (P. obovata) ex P. tenuifolia few years time, which, if any, yielded worth-while plants. ex P. kavachensis (P. daurica ssp. coriifo- ex P. veitchii (P. anomala ssp. veitchii) lia) ex P. veitchii ‘Alba’ (P. anomala ssp. Peony Group Website ex P. lactiflora ‘Antwerpen’ veitchii) ex P. lactiflora ‘Bowl of Beauty’ A major advance in our communicating with one another and, we hope, ex P. veitchii var. woodwardii (P. anoma- ex P. lactiflora ‘Lord Kitchener’ increasing our membership, is the new web page (www.hardy-plant.org.uk; la ssp. veitchii) follow links to specialist groups and peonies). This has been compiled by ex P. lactiflora ‘Lotus Queen’ Irene Tibbenham and installed on the HPS web pages by John Dyson. ex P. lactiflora ‘Miss America’ SHRUBBY There are also enticing pictures of peonies associated with the website. It is ex P. lactiflora ‘Prairie Moon’ (hybrid now possible to post articles too long or too specialized for the newsletter peony, ‘Archangel’ x ’Laura Mag- Subsection Delavayi on the website; the first example is mentioned below. nuson’) ex P. delavayi ex P. lactiflora ‘Red Rover’ ex P. ludlowii ex P. lactiflora single magenta, ex Chairman’s Report Kelways plant Kath Carey Subsection Vaginatae ex P. lactiflora ‘Watteau’ ex Gansu Group Summer has sprinted ex P. lactiflora ‘White Wings’ Purple (McLewin code 7.1.9) past. Warm and dry ex P. mascula Lilac (McLewin) to start and then ex P .mascula ssp. arietina (P. arietina) P. ‘rockii’ (white with blotch, inc. damp but for us in Cheshire no real drench- ex P. mascula ssp hellenica ‘Joseph Rock’) ing rain. The ground is still dust dry. The ex P. mascula ssp. russoi ex P. jishanensis early summer sun brought the peonies into ex P. mascula ssp. triternata (P. daurica ex P. suffruticosa (pink) flower in one concentrated ten-day period ssp. daurica) ex P. ostii (white flowers, ‘Feng Dan apart from my Sword Dance. Sword Dance ex P. mlokosewitschii (McLewin, wild Bei’?) Narcissus poeticus again flowered for several weeks right into pop. Lagodekhi, E Georgia, in John’s garden July. 2 15 Species peonies in John Hudson’s Leicestershire garden at the 2010 AGM delay. I would suggest that you send the seed to me, even after publication of Paeonia mlokosewitschii the newsletter. In this case it would be worthwhile making enquiries when or- dering your seed about species not listed.

Can I remind you that the seeds on offer are from plants growing in the open garden and may not be true to the seed parent. They should be labelled ‘ex seed parent’.

This year I have a dilemma following the publication of ‘Peonies of the World’ by Hong De-Yuan who has proposed many name changes and ‘lumping’ of spe- Paeonia delavayi cies. I am hedging my bets by listing the old names but giving Hong’s names of the herbaceous species in brackets where they differ. As you are aware peony Our AGM in May was held at seeds are large and most requests require a large letter stamp. Last year we bare- the home of John Hudson, near ly covered our costs so this year I am asking UK Members to send a large letter Market Harborough. My stamp with their requests. thanks go to him and Judy The seeds cost 50p per packet. UK members should make cheques out to ‘The Templar for not only providing HPS Peony Group’; overseas Members should add the amount to their renewal the venue but also royally feed- payment at the start of next year. Some donations are very small so perhaps you ing nearly 20 people. His gar- should send a ‘limit cheque’, omitting the amount but writing at the bottom of den was a picture in early May the cheque ‘not to exceed £x’, ‘x’ being the maximum amount your request with several species in flower would cost. I can then complete the cheque for the cost of the seeds supplied. and with the promise of more to come. Afterwards, we drove Please write with a list of your requests, enclosing a self-addressed sticky label and large letter stamp to Judy Templar, 117 Wood Road, King’s Cliffe, Peter- borough, PE8 6XR. Orders should be with me by 7th December 2010.

Treasurer’s Report John Richey

The best of our season is closing down on us, and the dark- er weather brings less bright news.

Whereas our bank balance remains at a healthy £870, the amount is down 20% from last year and is being eroded by rising costs of printing and postage. Your editors have managed to fix the print- ing costs for two issues, but postage will inevitably rise, with the result that we have arrived at the necessity of a rise in our subscriptions to partly cover actual costs.

The new subscription rates will be £4.50 for UK subscribers, with overseas sub- Paeonia tenuifolia scribers paying £6.00 which mostly covers the outflow. The year-end payment is fast approaching so we hope you will be able to accommodate these increases in Paeonia kavachensis your new budgets. 14 3 the short distance to 5. Mohab Zaki wrote concerning P. witt- Leicester and the Univer- manniana. He had bought two plants. sity Botanic Gardens. The first was slow to flower, the second The gardens are beauti- quicker. The second was a pink form fully kept and they have many species peonies happily self-seeding around. The Botanic P. wittmanniana Gardens are free and definitely worth a visit if that he identifies as its hybrid with P. anyone is in the area. lactiflora, ‘Mai Fleuri’. The second one flowered well this year; it is white and in At the AGM we were given a break down of the costs of producing the Hong's terms either P. daurica ssp. witt- Newsletter. Postage is a very significant element especially for the overseas manniana or ssp. tomentosa; its carpels members with the postage well exceeding the cost of producing the actual P. Mai Fleuri look tomentose in the photograph, Newsletter. We reluctantly made the decision that the subscription for the though that does not necessarily settle next year would be £6.00 for overseas and £4.50 for the UK. We shall look the matter. He also enclosed two photos of possible hybrids, one with attractive pale into sending copy overseas electronically to help reduce costs. The seed pink flowers and the other near-white with brownish stain- exchange is valued and will continue but costs will also be monitored. P. hybrid with blotch ing near the As for my seed sowing ventures over the last cou- base of the petals. Accord- pled of years, only one pot of the November 2008 ing to Hong, seeds (P. veitchii) came through in early April. this latter char- This is much later than usual but with a good acter is known success rate (nine out of ten). Any surplus will go in wild witt- to next year’s AGM. manniana. P. pink hybrid Seed Distribution Judy Templar Grafting Day with Jo Bennison, September 2010 Kath Carey I am encouraged to report that nine members have donated I had the pleasure this summer of contacting 23 members by phone. One of seed. We had a very tempting promise earlier in the year of our members, Jo Bennison, wrote an article in the Plantsman earlier this seed from a Member who gardens in France. The list of plants she grows is mouth-watering. However, gardening at 1300ft is challenging and she sent word that a fortnight of rain in mid-summer caused buds and to rot, leaving no healthy seed pods. We hope for better luck next year.

Some seed is slow to mature. I am waiting for my P. ostii to ripen. The pods feel full so it will appear in the list. Other members may be experiencing a similar

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Some reported experiences with peonies of Caucasian ancestry—John Hudson, Jo year on grafting tree peonies. At the AGM she was asked if she could do an Porter, Judy Templar, Mohab Zaki article for our Newsletter. Instead she very generously offered and at short notice to do a Tree Peony Grafting Day. We e-mailed those for whom we In his review of Hong's monograph, John Hudson mentioned that peonies bought had electronic addresses and phoned others. If by chance you were missed as one of the (former) species mlokosewitschii, wittmanniana or close hybrids of them out I can only apologise but we did try to contact everyone. Five of us even- do not always turn out as expected. Some examples have come to light among th friends in the Rutland HPS group, and another has been reported to John as editor. tually made it to Jo’s on September 8 and I was one of them. I had a seed- Judy Templar's article on Iranian peonies is also relevant. ling tree peony flower for the first time in May with luscious 20cm diameter palest pink flowers and a dark purple blotch at the base of each petal (seed 1. Plants from wild-collected seed of P. mlokosewitschii (from Will McLewin) were from Will McLewin supplied in 2002). I fancied a second plant. It was a grown by Judy Templar. One is the ‘typical’ yellow, the other a less attractive pinky- really enjoyable day and Jo provided all the equipment and some cuttings white. from her own garden as well. My thanks go to her for all her efforts on our 2. A plant she bought as P. mlokosewitschii from a very good nursery grew well but behalf. The grafts are currently in the airing cupboard and will be planted flowered bright pink. up in early October.

Both of these are explicable from the now-recognized variability of the natural popu- We hope to include an illustrated article describing the technique in the lation. Spring 2011 newsletter.

3. Jo Porter and John Hudson both From the Secretary Gail Harland bought small plants of P. x Chamele- on (supposedly P. mlokosewitschii x P. Here in the east of England we have had a good peony season caucasica) from another reputable with a long warm dry spell encouraging the flowers and reducing nursery, in 2006. We compared re- incidence of Botrytis. Sadly as soon as the schools broke up for sults at the 2010 AGM. Both plants the summer the weather had grown and flowered well from deteriorated and I have 2009. John's had red flowers, so he noticed some fungal dis- assumed at the time that it was simply ease on a couple of tree peonies. caucasica. Jo's was an attractive pale pink as the best Chameleon are sup- Our Annual General Meeting in May at posed to be. Are both also now to be John Hudson’s home in East Langton was regarded as belonging to P. daurica ssp. mlokosewitschii, from different parts of its a great success with some new faces join- colour range but the same gene pool? Jo is happy with her Chameleon and suggests ing us. we should only buy plants that are in flower. th 4. Jo Porter also reports that in the same bed as Cha- The AGM next year will be on 12 June meleon there is a plant of P. mlokosewitschii x P. witt- 2011 at the home of Maurice and Jean manniana supposedly from the Tibilsi Botanic Gar- Claridge in Waltham, Grimsby Lincoln- den, Georgia. She reports ‘This has not the same vig- shire and afterwards at Jo Bennison’s our or presence. The flowers are pale pink, fading to wonderful peony field at The Grange, almost white. The only redeeming feature is the dark East Firsby, Market Rasen so please do pink mass of .’ put that date in your diary now. Jo Porter with P. x Chameleon Gail & Mavis at the botanic garden

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Peony Group AGM 2010 Jo Bennison broteri, clusiii and coriacea from Europe and adjacent Africa, P. daurica mostly from the Caucasus, Turkey and Iran, and Pp. obovata and mairei from east Asia. Roots are The sun was shining and bouncing off vibrant Euphorbias and scarlet tulips carrot shaped, lower leaflets usually few (9, up to 21), flowers solitary and terminal. as I walked around the house into the garden of John Hudson editor of the P. daurica becomes a broad species; comments below. P. japonica is included in syn- Peony Group newsletter and our host for the AGM at East Langton in onymy in P. obovata. Leicestershire. Early May, and spring had arrived at last after weeks of dank greyness. Around 15 peony group members had nobly turned away from Subsection Paeonia includes Pp. officinalis, peregrina, arietina and tenuifolia. Lateral their own gardens and all the delayed spring jobs to discuss peony group roots are tuberous or fusiform, lower leaves with leaflets divided to many (21 to 340) matters. segments, flowers solitary and terminal. The species are variously distributed from southern Europe to western China. John and Judy Templar provided a superb lunch with lots of home P. arietina is moved from the mascula group, as in Page. P. tenuifolia is treated as a grown produce. Their garden was single species. looking lovely with many species Perhaps the most intriguing result of Hong's work is his radical revision of the peo- peonies still in flower despite wor- nies we have been accustomed to call Pp. mlokosewitschii, wittmaniana, tomentosa, mac- ries that most would be over. A rocarpa, caucasica and triternata in various combinations of species and subspecies. particularly fine specimen of Paeo- All are regarded as belonging to a wider species of which the valid name is P. daurica. nia mlokosewitschii in full flower This was foreshadowed in an earlier paper on Caucasian peonies, as noted in this caused many members to genu- Newsletter by David Victor (Spring 2006). Hong recognizes seven subspecies: daurica, flect and reach for their cameras! coriifolia, macrophylla, mlokosewitschii, tomentosa, velebitensis and wittmaniana. P. triterna- ta (often regarded by others as a subspecies of P. mascula) becomes P. daurica daurica. Kath Carey, our chairman started the meeting with a round-up of events P. caucasica, P. ruprechtiana and P. kavachensis are included in ssp, coriifolia. P. steveni- during the last year and thanked all members of the committee for their ana is in ssp. Macrophylla. work and support. Subsequent discussions covered membership, the news- Some of these taxa are distinct in horticultural terms. Certainly the best known is P. letter and other means of communicating with members. mlokosewitschii. It is well known to gardeners that plants grown from seed, or pur- chased in the hope of obtaining the classic yellow form, often turn out to be various shades of pink. This has been noted in the wild population before, as quoted in the McLewin and Archibald seed lists, and is confirmed by Hong's work. The species lagodechiana, with pink flowers, is part of this variation, and so, it seems possible, is the ‘hybrid’ x Chameleon (not mentioned by Hong). This has been supposed to be a natural cross between mlokosewitschii and caucasica (daurica ssp. coriifolia). Chameleon is known to be variable as noted by Page, and confirmed by our own experience: see next article).

Botanists will have to engage seriously with Hong's monograph, and serious garden- ers can study it with profit too. At the very least, it makes you look carefully at your species peonies, and wish you knew more about where they came from. I often can't Following the meeting there was a friendly jostle around a small plant table even remember where I bought them, still less their wild provenance. with young plants for sale donated by John and Judy. I thank Judy Templar for many hours of discussion

6 11 Peony discussions at the Harold Martin Botanic Garden following the AGM

Book Review John Hudson Many thanks to John and Judy for hosting the meet- Peonies of the World: and Phytogeography, Hong De-Yuan: Published by Kew Publishing, London and Mis- ing and making it such an souri Botanic Garden, St. Louis, 2010 enjoyable event.

An expanded version of this review is available on the peony group website. Those without internet access are invited to write to the editor for a copy.

This impressive volume is the first of a proposed three. The second will illustrate the diversity within and between species with photographs taken in the field. The third will deal with phylogeny and evolution.

The present volume is not for the botanically faint-hearted. It deals only with the wild species, with only brief mention of cultivation, largely historical, and nothing on artificial hybrids or cultivars arrived at by selection. A feature of the discussion is the study of wild populations and their distribution. The maps showing distributions are very informative, and details of important localities are given. The field studies result in an emphasis on the wide variation found in most populations, in obvious characters such as colour of petals, but also in subtle features such as the different kinds of "hairiness" on leaves, stems and carpels. Hong finds that most of the single characters used by previous authors for specific determination are too variable to be relied upon. Thus many described species are reduced to synonymy. This aspect may well prove controversial.

So what is there in this for gardeners who love peonies? I will pick out some of Hong's conclusions that affect plants that many of us know, or think we do. I have used Martin Page's 2005 book for comparison, also comments in seed lists from Will McLewin and the late, much lamented, Jim Archibald, in the absence of formal pub- lications from these authorities.

Hong divides the genus Paeonia into three sections. I shall only discuss the Section Paeonia, the old-world herbaceous peonies. Hong recognizes 22 species in three subsections, each of which contains species that many of us grow. I shall mention only the commoner species.

Subsection Albiflorae (literally ‘white-flowered’; applies to many but not all of them) includes Pp. lactiflora, emodi, and anomala, mostly from east Asia. The subsection is characterized by having carrot-shaped roots, mostly smooth foliage, and generally several flowers per stem.

P. veitchii becomes a subspecies within P. anomala, as suspected by McLewin.

Subsection Foliolatae (literally ‘broad leaved’) includes Pp. mascula, cambessedessii, 10 7

Some Peonies in Iran, Judy Templar picture was taken of a rather poor tattered specimen the battery gave up in my slide camera. So out came the digital camera. You will never know just how In April 2004 I was lucky enough to visit Iran with the Alpine good these images were – close ups of flowers, whole plant, groups of plants and Garden Society. We saw some wonderful plants including many a habitat shot. When I got home I just had to print out the pictures and they species of fritillaries (a fabulous valley with masses of F. imperialis looked wonderful even on ordinary paper. Some years later I bought a new com- stretching as far as the eye could see), tulips, dionysias, irises, and puter and my son, never to be forgiven, failed to install the Iran images. Howev- to my delight peonies of the wittmanniana type in northern Iran. er, Peter Furneaux, who was on the same trip, has let me have his images which are reproduced here. The peonies were growing on a steep Back at the hotel after seeing these peonies we met some friends of ours who hillside under de- were on a private trip to Iran. They had missed ‘our’ peonies, but not too far ciduous trees and from the site, had seen some bright yellow peonies of the mlokosewitschii type. were in full flower. The accompanying photos were Their creamy pale taken by Bob Charman. You yellow flowers must will see that the plants are more have been about compact, the foliage more blue and the flowers brighter and deeper coloured than those we have in cultivation. I believe that these plants were growing on a more open site which could account for the more compact habit. The late Jim Archibald mentioned in his 2008 seed list 'an undescribed 10cm wide with a deep yellow one in the Iranian Talysh' which I suspect was this peony. (No seed boss of stamens offered at that time) surrounding the tomentose carpels All these peonies in Northern Iran, according to Hong in his new book ‘Peonies with red stigmas. of the World’, should now be The leaves were a called sspp. tomen- most attractive tosa. This would 'fit' the plants I bronze-green col- saw but I could not be sure about our. the yellow plant. From the pho- tograph the leaves appear to be At the time I was obovate with a rounded apex, still using a slide which would indicate Paeonia camera and experi- daurica ssp. mlokosewitschii. I do menting with a new not know whether Hong visited small digital cam- this site. I should dearly love to era. After the first revisit Iran to see it for myself. 8 9