Peonies are slow-growing but rewarding plants with a brief but keenly anticipated flowering in late spring to early summer. Often growing petals that are tightly packed together, peonies come in a range of shades that make them perfect for any garden.
Award-winning herbaceous peonies
Paeonia lactiflora ‘Augustin d’Hour’ is a clump-forming, upright Perennials are plants that live for multiple years. They come in all shapes and sizes and fill our gardens with colourful flowers and ornamental foliage. Many are hardy and can survive outdoors all year round, while less hardy types need protection over winter. The term herbaceous perennial is used to describe long-lived plants without a permanent woody structure (they die back to ground level each autumn), distinguishing them from trees, shrubs and sub-shrubs.
Paeonia lactiflora ‘Moon of Nippon’ is upright and bushy with divided dark green leaves and large, single fragrant white flowers with striking yellow centres from late spring to early summer. Hardiness rating: H4.
Paeonia lactiflora ‘The Fawn’ is an upright, mid-season flowering variety producing large, double blooms in June. The scented flowers are a shade of mid-pink with small speckles of deep-pink spots visible on the petals. Hardiness rating: H6.
Paeonia lactiflora ‘Sword Dance’ is a clump-forming perennial to 90cm tall with glossy, dark green, divided foliage. Flowers borne from late spring into early summer comprise deep red petals surrounding golden-yellow staminoides streaked with red. Hardiness rating: H6.
Award-winning intersectional hybrids (Itoh peonies)
Intersectional peonies are sometimes called ‘Itoh’ peonies in honour of the Japanese breeder Toichi Itoh, who first developed the hybrids in the 1940s.
Paeonia ‘First Arrival’ is an intersectional or Itoh peony and an upright and compact herbaceous perennial with attractive, dissected dark green foliage, green in summer, tinged bronzy-red in spring and autumn. Erect stems holding showy, spicily scented, semi-double, saucer-shaped pink flowers fading to cerise pink towards the centre appear in late spring and early summer, with a particularly long flowering period. Hardiness rating: H6.
Paeonia ‘Morning Lilac’ is an intersectional or Itoh peony, and an upright and compact herbaceous perennial with attractive, dissected dark green foliage, green in summer, tinged bronzy-red in spring and autumn. Erect stems holding showy, spicily scented, semi-double, saucer-shaped lavender-pink semi-double flowers and a darker pink centre around yellow stamens appear in summer, with a particularly long flowering period. Hardiness rating: H6.
Paeonia ‘Cora Louise’ is an intersectional or Itoh peony and an upright and compact herbaceous perennial with attractive, dissected dark green foliage, green in summer, tinged bronzy-red in spring and autumn. Erect stems holding showy, spicily scented, saucer-shaped pale pink flowers with a hint of lavender and a dark magenta-pink ring around a centre of yellow appear in late spring and early summer, with a particularly long flowering period. Hardiness rating: H6.
Paeonia ‘Watermelon Wine’ is an intersectional or Itoh peony, upright and compact herbaceous perennial with attractive, dissected, fine mid-green foliage, green in summer, tinged bronzy-red in spring and autumn. Erect stems hold showy, spicily scented, semi-double, saucer-shaped raspberry-pink flowers, fading to a darker reddish pink towards the centre in late spring and summer, with a particularly long flowering period. Hardiness rating: H6.
Other species and hybrids
Paeonia ‘Coral Sunset’ is a bushy, clump-forming perennial to around 70cm tall with divided, deep green leaves. Fragrant, semi-double blooms open in late spring and early summer with ruffled, coral-pink petals that fade with age to a soft yellow-white. Hardiness rating: H6.
Paeonia lactiflora ‘Wakatipu Wonder’ is a clump-forming, upright perennial to around 75cm tall with divided, deep green foliage and large, double, white flowers that emerge from red-streaked A bud is a small, undeveloped shoot that contains the potential for new growth. Buds are typically found on stems, where they can be apical (found at the tip) or axillary (found between leaf axils) and may develop into leaves, shoots or flowers.
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