New Compact City Peonies Container-Bred for Garden Sales in March 2016

Summary: Container-bred, new compact city peonies are expected to turn into 2016’s comeback flowers, with mixed bulbs, perennials and roses as comeback companions.

Paeonia lactiflora ‘Sarah Bernhardt’ is a multi-petalled, old-fashioned, pink-shaded cultivar that is making a comeback in the company of 2016’s eight container-bred, new compact; Friday, June 15, 2007, 18:37: Mike Bowler, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons

The new compact city peonies are turning the peony into both the comeback flower and the container plant of 2016, according to an article published in The Vancouver Sun Jan. 28, 2016.

Steve Whysall, columnist for The Vancouver Sun of British Columbia, Canada, and garden writer, brings to public attention the hardy garden species Paeonia lactiflora (milk-flowered peony). New compact city peonies can be considered solutions to criticisms that double-flowered Eurasian natives “take up a lot of space and flowers don’t last long enough.” Names honoring Eurasian capitals define the cultivars’ urban appeal: Athens, Greece; Dublin, Ireland; Kiev, Ukraine; London, England; Madrid, Spain; Moscow, Russia; Oslo, Norway; and Rome, Italy.

All eight emerge as cultivars “bred specifically for growing in containers” on balcony, deck and patio urban spaces.

Siting on balconies, decks and patios furnishes solutions to criticisms of attracting deer, being needy, claiming space and disliking disturbances since containers are inaccessible to deer.

Containers grow limited sizes in limited spaces for gardeners to pinch plant tips for a few large-sized blooms, not many small-sized, on the 30-centimeter (11.81-inch) cultivars. They help gardeners to plant at 5- to 6-centimeter (1.97- to 2.36-inch) depths that subsequently tend to lead to a few big-sized, not many little-sized, blooms. They involve fewer disturbances for disruption-intolerant peonies since successful siting gets the fertile, well-drained soil in full sun and late-afternoon shade right on the first potting.

Bulbs, perennials, roses and tree peonies join new compact city peonies in savoring 2016’s comeback flower and container plant status.

Gardeners, distributors and landscapers know that new compact city peonies fulfill historic peony roles as staples since “every garden needs some to complete a perfect picture.”

Peony comebacks lead to considerations of such companionable late-spring and summer-flowering bulbs as alliums, bluebells, columbines, fritillaries and lilacs and of bearded irises and peacock lilies. They mix ‘Brothers Grimm,’ ‘Souvenir de Baden Baden,’ ‘Wedding Bells’ and ‘Winter Sun’ shrub roses with floribunda roses and perennials such as foxgloves and Oriental poppies. A “prolonged season of interest” nudges ‘Coral Sunset,’ ‘Red Charm’ and ‘Rosea Plena’ early-bloomers into late-blooming ‘Bowl of Beauty,’ ‘Gay Paree’ and ‘Glowing Candles’ cultivated varieties.

The introduction of container-bred, new compact city peonies offers distributors, gardeners, landscapers comeback opportunities for intersectional, multi-petalled and old-fashioned cultivars.

Intersectional proves to be a popular designation for the non-woody and woody peony section crosses pioneered by Dr. Toichi Itoh of Tokyo, Japan, after 20,000 failures. Pink-shaded ‘Julia Rose,’ white-shaded ‘Callie’s Memory’ and yellow-shaded ‘Bartzella’ qualify as intersectional relatives of Dr. Itoh’s ‘Yellow Crown,’ ‘Yellow Dream,’ ‘Yellow Emperor’ and ‘Yellow Heaven’ originals.

The multi-petalled ‘Henry Bockstoce,’ ‘Kirinmaru’ and ‘Sorbet’ cultivars and the pink-shaded ‘Sarah Bernhardt’ and red-shaded ‘Karl Rosenfield’ old-fashioned cultivars return as comeback companions to 2016’s introductions. The “strong, sturdy” availability of container-bred, new compact city peonies strengthens the comebacks in March 2016 of the companionable, woody-stemmed ‘Houki,’ ‘Renkaku,’ ‘Shima-nishiki’ and ‘Shimadaijin’ cultivars.

So take time now to decide where on balconies, decks, lawns and patios to place 2016’s new compact city peonies.

Peony 'Kirinmaru' (left); Peony 'Red Charm' (upper right); Peony 'Sorbet' (middle right); Peony tenuifolia rubra plena (lower right): Steve Whysall @stevewhysall, via Twitter Jan. 29, 2016

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Paeonia lactiflora ‘Sarah Bernhardt’ is a multi-petalled, old-fashioned, pink-shaded cultivar that is making a comeback in the company of 2016’s eight container-bred, new compact city peonies; Friday, June 15, 2007, 18:37: Mike Bowler, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Paeonia_lactiflora_'Sarah_Bernhardt.jpg;
Mike Bowler (Mike Bowler), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/62993791@N00/554574841

Peony 'Kirinmaru' (left); Peony 'Red Charm' (upper right); Peony 'Sorbet' (middle right); Peony tenuifolia rubra plena (lower right): Steve Whysall @stevewhysall, via Twitter Jan. 28, 2016, @ https://twitter.com/stevewhysall/status/692937811058675713

For further information:

Steve Whysall @stevewhysall. "It's going to be an exciting spring with these peonies on shelves at garden centres." Twitter. Jan. 28, 2016.
Available @ https://twitter.com/stevewhysall/status/692937811058675713

Steve Whysall Garden Writer.
Available @ http://www.stevewhysall.com/italyfancetours.html

Thach, Joanna May. "Tree Peonies Can Be A Boon To The Lazy Gardener." The New York Times > Leisure. Sept. 26, 1982.
Available @ http://www.nytimes.com/1982/09/26/arts/leisure-tree-peonies-can-be-a-boon-to-the-lazy-gardener-by-joanna-may-thach.html

Whysall, Steve. "In the Garden: Headed for Peony Paradise." The Vancouver Sun > Life. Jan. 27, 2016.
Available @ http://www.vancouversun.com/life/garden+headed+peony+paradise/11682576/story.html