A couple of tree peony questions

13 years ago

I have two tree peonies, both bought from reputable local nurseries and planted about six years ago.

One question has to do with colors. They were tagged as dark red and dark orange. What they actually turned out to be are hot pink and yellow, respectively. Was this false advertising, or possibly due to something in my soil?

The other question has to do with the number of blooms. Each has increased slightly every year, as I expected, but this year the pink one, which is much larger now than the yellow, has only three blooms where last year it had seven or eight. I've never pruned either one of them, just watered and fertilized.

I'm not very experienced at gardening and would appreciate your thoughts on these.

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Comments (3)

goodhors
13 years ago
Could be the tags had color problems in printing or was photo enhanced. I see that on other plants I buy. Tag color is deep, but plant itself, in other gardens too, is not that dark or bold of color.

I have not heard of an orange tree peony, but haven't followed the latest creations this last couple years. If one had been developed I am sure there would have been lots of hoopla, discussion about it on here. That is such a radical color change from what has been available till now!

I would think your orange plant is a form of dark yellow. While soil and location could affect the color a bit, I would be surprised to see a true ornage colored peony. My one yellow with a red edging, is very dark, and sometimes a flower looks tangerine/orangish, but is not really an orange.

Not sure on the dark red. Descriptions are misleading, or we have different expectations than plant can deliver. Maybe the graft died and plant reverted to a "natural" color pink. Few of the darn things are blooming when you get them to insure correct color you wanted. I bought a white in bloom, kid cut the flower in Kindergarten to take in to school. That same plant is JUST NOW setting buds for second bloom, and kid is 17 at this time!! I figured buying in bloom would mean peony was happy, would bloom every year after! Like Lilac bushes will!! I have been using it for foliage, gave up on flowers years ago.

Congrats on yours blooming and increasing in flowers. Some of my newer plants will be blooming their first time this year. So excited to see what the flowers look like from their exotic names. They were tiny stubs when planted so it has been a long wait.
maifleur01
13 years ago
What is normally sold in this country as orange is KINKAKU = 'Souvenir de Maxime Cornu'. Some of Bill Seidl's tp's are orange but few are on the market in this country.
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saltimbocca
Original Author
13 years ago
Interesting info about the colors, thanks. The pink one did actually start out with very pale pink blossoms and after four years of blooming has darkened to a hot pink, almost (but not really) red.

Re: the number of blooms, should I be pruning them in the fall? Would that help increase the quantity?