Finding the perfect peony
Peonies have delighted gardeners for thousands of years. A recent RHS Plant Trial aimed to highlight the best cultivars for garden use
The five-year trial at RHS Garden Wisley (2016–2020) included 140 herbaceous species and cultivars, plus 21 intersectional hybrids. Three plants of each were planted and together they created a wave of colour that began in April with citrus-yellow, copper, butterscotch and lilac-pink, and moved on to a confetti mixture of pink, cream and cerise, punctuated by soft coral-pink and lustrous red.
This RHS plant trial was assessed for the Award of Garden Merit (AGM) by the Peony Trials Assessment Forum.
Peony trial results
Of the 161 herbaceous and
Herbaceous peonies awarded new AGMs
P. 'Nellie Saylor'
Paeonia lactiflora cultivars
‘Augustin d'Hour’, ‘Barbara’, ‘Barrington Belle’, ‘Bouquet Perfect’, ‘Emma Klehm’, ‘Doreen’, ‘Florence Nicholls’, ‘Gay Paree’, ‘Hari Ai Nin’, ‘Immaculée’, ‘Jan van Leeuwen’, ‘Kansas’, ‘Kelway's Glorious’, ‘Moon of Nippon’, ‘Myrtle Gentry’, ‘Nellie Saylor’, ‘Nancy Nora’, ‘Noémie Demay’, ‘Nymphe’, ‘Shirley Temple’, ‘Sword Dance’, ‘The Fawn’, ‘White Cap’, ‘Wladyslawa’
Paeonia 'Claire de Lune'
Other species and hybrids
‘Claire de Lune’, ‘Coral Sunset’, ‘Mackinac Grand’, Paeonia emodi, Paeonia veitchii var. woodwardii, ‘Red Charm’, ‘Scarlet O'Hara’, ‘Wakatipu Wonder’
Intersectional hybrids (Itoh peonies)
A plate of Itoh peonies. Top row L-R: 'Lollipop', 'Cora Louise', 'Hillary'. Middle row L-R: 'First Arrival', 'Watermelon Wine', 'Border Charm'. Bottom row L-R: 'Bartzella', 'Norwegian Blush', 'Old Rose Dandy'.
Intersectional hybrids (Itoh peonies) gaining the AGM
- P. ‘First Arrival’
- P. ‘Morning Lilac’
- P. ‘Cora Louise’
- P. ‘Watermelon Wine’
Further award winners
Paeonia 'Coral Charm'
Re-confirmed AGMs
- P. lactiflora ‘Duchesse de Nemours’
- P. officinalis ‘Anemoniflora Rosea’
- P. cambessedesii
- P. x festiva ‘Rubra Plena’
- P. daurica subsp. mlokosewitschii
- P. lactiflora ‘Festiva Maxima’
- P. ‘Bartzella’
Patio peonies
- P. ‘Blaze’
P. lactiflora ‘Midnight Sun’
Additional AGMs after forum discussion
- P. ‘Athena’
- P. ‘Eliza Lundy’
- P. lactiflora ‘Midnight Sun’
- P. lactiflora ‘Minnie Shaylor’
- P. ‘Unique’
- P. ‘Lemon Chiffon’
- P. ‘Ma Petite Cherie’
- P. ‘White Frost’
Retained AGMs
- P. lactiflora ‘Sarah Bernhardt’
- P. ‘Coral Charm’
- P. 'Monsieur Jules Elie'
The expert's choice
Paeonia lactiflora 'Monsieur Jules Elie'
I adore this later flowering, pink peony because the stunning fragrance seems to change throughout the day
'Monsieur Jules Elie' is an old double-flowered cultivar that occasionally produces single blooms in dry conditions
I love Japanese peonies too, with their circlet of rounded petals and upright staminodes. Many are red, with almost gilded centres, but the one I fell in love with on the trial was 'Sante Fe' (Auten 1937). The outer petals are a vibrant mid-pink and the middle is a softer blend of pale-pink and white, so it’s easy on the eye. The flowers are smaller than many, but there are plenty of them and I find it less stark than the similar, white-centred 'White Cap' (Winchell 1946).
Notes and further reading
- Val Bourne is an award-winning writer, member of the RHS Herbaceous Plant Committee and was a forum member on the Peony Trial. She would like to thank the Chairman, David Foreman, for his help with this article.
- This article is an extension of an article by the same author in The Garden magazine, June 2021 edition.
- To learn more about this fascinating genus, read Peonies by Claire Austin and visit the links below.
