 | The emperors loved the luxury of the flower. Walls, castles were erected, hiding under the castle, But the rumor flew above the castles, above the walls, And not a single wall hid this glory. |
The history of the appearance of peonies in gardens is hidden in the mists of time. Over the centuries, the fame of the luxurious, delightful beauty of flowers, worthy, as it was believed in those days, only the imperial gardens in the Celestial Empire, was formed. These plants have come a long way to find themselves in the gardens of ordinary people, fascinated by the unique beauty of flowers. They invariably delight in their splendor. Their beauty is perfect, shapes and colors are varied, they organically entered the history of national culture, painting, sung in poetry. Peonies able to satisfy the most demanding tastes. Luxurious, lush, magnificently beautiful flowers are epithets that invariably characterize peonies.
Peony varieties (Raeonylactiflora), loved and revered at home in China, at the beginning of the 19th century, they appear in France, which becomes the birthplace of the famous varieties of peonies, which have retained their magical charm to this day. The lifestyle of that period in France was distinguished by the pursuit of grace and perfection. The milk-flowered peony played an important role in the selection of peonies. Well-known, talented breeders who achieved the highest achievements in the selection of peonies of that period worked here. They have created a large number of varieties of peonies, characterized by an impeccable shape, pure tones of colors and a wonderful aroma, comparable to that of the best refined French perfumes. These peonies entered the world of peonies as classics. Some of them were forgotten, others, tested by time, measured in a century or more, gained unfading glory. Until now, the early-blooming deep pink Edulis Superba admires with its wonderful delicate aroma of a fragrant rose (EdulisSuperba) N. Lemona. The famous and popular peony with a refreshing cool scent of lily of the valley, the snow-white Duchesse de Nemours celebrated its 150th anniversary (DuschessedeNemours) Kahlo. The great breeder Victor Lemoine, among many other fine varieties, creates the peony Sarah Bernhardt(SarahBernhardt), which has remained a genuine, generally recognized, unsurpassed masterpiece for 100 years.
The relay of the achievements of the French breeders was continued by the American ones. They were guided by other criteria. It was a search for new forms of not only double, inherent in varieties of French selection, but also peonies with a simple flower shape from single-row, double-row to semi-double. The attention was also attracted by the creation of peonies of various colors and peonies with a bright contrasting color. The achievements of American breeders have been recognized as outstanding. The world of peonies only benefited from this and began to play with new bright colors.
For a person who first plunges into the wonderful world of peonies and faces a rather difficult choice of varieties for his garden, it is easy to drown in this sea of abundance of varieties. The choice is large: semi-double, double, with a simple flower shape and multi-row, anemone peonies and peonies, which received the names of Japanese. Each group of peonies has its own recognized favorites and those that will just become them. Getting to the exhibition of peonies for the first time, it is difficult for a beginner to immediately decide. You often hear that you like everything or almost everything. Having acquired and planted your favorite varieties, you will definitely want to acquire others that will again shake your imagination, and you will understand that it is simply impossible to do without them. Fascinating magic. We will try to help you choose.
Among the peonies that adorn our gardens, there are always varieties of milk-flowered peonies. They have a number of advantages.
One of them is their ability, with proper planting and competent, simple care, to feel great in our climatic zone, to grow and develop well. Peony bushes can grow for a long time without transplanting in one place, practically without pain.They calmly endure our winters, which can be sometimes snowless, with sharp temperature changes, severe frosts, and the unpredictability of our capricious summer with possible droughts or torrential, prolonged rains. At the same time, they are stable, bloom annually over the years, increasing the strength and beauty of flowering. In some years, when weather conditions can be critical (this was the winter of 2002-2003), flowering may not be as spectacular, but then it gains strength again.
Another advantage of milk-flowered peonies is their long flowering time interval. In the early stages, white Duchesse de Nemours, a domestic variety of white-pink tones in Memory of Gagarin, bloom in our garden for lactic-flowered peonies. Their light colors perfectly break the red range of early hybrids blooming at the same time, such as Red Charm. (RedCharm), Red Grace (RedGrace), Aut 816 (Auten 816), Red Red Rose (RedRedRose), Postilion (Postilion) and others.
Then comes the flowering time of medium-term peonies, a real celebration of the flowering of lactic-flowered peonies. Here is the semi-double variety of Miss America (MissAmerica) - the only variety of peonies, twice awarded the gold medal of the American Peony Society in 1956 and 1971. The ever-popular pink Bessie (Bessie), Mrs Roosevelt (MissisF.D. Roosevelt), Angel Cheeks (AngelCheeks), Raspberry Sand (RaspberrySundae), white corina versan (CorinneWersan), Blush Quinn (BlushQueen), Red Black Velvet (BlackVelvet), Kansas (Cansas), Jay C. (JayCee) and many others.
In the middle period of flowering, peonies belonging to the Japanese group begin to bloom. First to dissolve Velma Atkinson (VelmaAtkinson), bright pink with yellow staminodes. White Bu Te (BuTe), Carrara (Carrara), pink lilac neon (Neon), spectacular, contrasting gay paris (GayParee), and White Cap (WhiteCap) - dark pink, with almost white staminodes, Charm (Charm) - dark red, staminodes of the same color, with golden tips, and many others - all light, airy, with soaring flowers.
The time of flowering of late varieties of peonies comes. They are distinguished by a longer flowering period on the bushes. White Anshantress (Enchantresse), Joseph Christie (JosephChristie) and the latest Ann Cousins (AnnCousins).
The decorative qualities of the bushes of milk-flowered peonies also deserve attention. Different heights and varied forms of plant bushes, beautifully dissected foliage, differing in different varieties in color, texture, inherent in some varieties of gloss of leaves, or their slight omission - all this is attractive in peonies. Burgundy, elastic sprouts of peonies frozen at a low height in April present an interesting composition with bulbous plants blooming in early spring. In autumn, the foliage of peonies becomes crimson-bronze in some varieties, yellow-green in others, and more intense green in others. The changing colors of the foliage complement the outfit of the autumn garden and become a beautiful backdrop for the autumn crocuses and colchicum blooming at this time.
A signal to transplant a peony bush is a decrease in the number of flowers and a deterioration in the quality of flowering. There are varieties of peonies in our garden, such as Duchesse de Nemours, Festival Maxima (FestivaMaxima), Shirley Temple (Сhirley Temple), Amabilis Superbissima (AmabilisSuperbissima), planted in 1971. Until now, these strong, overgrown peony bushes have not been transplanted, but they delight us with annual friendly flowering.
In addition to these advantages, the flowers of peonies exude wonderful aromas, sometimes very diverse. Even if we cannot identify the scent of a peony, we can always catch its special individual scent inherent in this particular variety.
