If you love flowers then you’re going to love Peonies. Peonies come in a whole range of colors and there are three types the Tree Peonies which we’re looking at in this article.
Herbaceous peonies we also have Itoh peonies or intersectional hybrids, and why they call tree peonies because they form a woody stem and they’re like little trees.
We’ll also cover growing conditions including sun watering soil and fertilizer and pruning. Well, we were on the way to suit to see Dennis Norgate’s varieties and try to put some names to them. But we could not walk past this
Japanese tree peony it’s called Sendai it’s got to be in the top 10 of Japanese tree peonies beautiful blush pink very strong growing plant.
Well, we’re going to present you with some of Dennis Norgate’s cultivars which he was kind enough to sell quite a number of plants to me. And the only problem is the history of a lot of these is rather scarce and there is not much information on the naming. So we’re trying our best to put the names to them as correctly as we can.
I believe this purple semi-double has been originally called Zeus but I can’t be a hundred percent certain about it but anyway it’s still a beautiful flower as are all of the varieties I got off Dennis.
This is another one of Dennis Norgate beautiful varieties I originally called it double Marchionese, but I’ve since
discovered that it may be called Hestia which is from Greek mythology the god of the fire-side beautiful three-quarter double flower.
Another one of didn’t Dennis’s it’s originally I call the double Nike. Because it looked like Nike in the double form but I’ve since found it’s called Surprise, I found that in a American Catalog and as you can see here it’s in glaring full sun flowering. To perfection, the bush shape is marvelous beautiful round tidy.
Peonies are lovers of the full sun. I face West here and we get extreme temperatures the foliage always looks fantastic not a problem. More sun more flowers.
Another one of Dennis’s favorites originally called the double Gauguin because of this strange wine red color.
But I’ve since found that it’s a Greek mythological name called Daedalus. But I’m not a hundred percent sure on that one.
But the growths on some of these plants are quite astonishing once the pH is neutral 7 which is what they like the best. Of course, is you the addition of plenty of calcium carbonate but I’ve also put a lot of animal manure on these plants mainly chicken manure cow manure is just as good. But the growth has been incredible since I’ve
been using large amounts of organic matter.
Gorgeous full double yellow peony called Golden Hind. I found the name of this one and it’s got a lovely
fragrance to boot that sensational double yellow some of these plants I did water initially to fatten the flowers. Normally most springs, water is just not necessary and of course, we all know they don’t need watering in summer because the root system is shut down.
So since they’ve started flowering I have ceased watering and they’re just flowering to perfection now this is one of the rarest Norgate varieties.
I have an f2 variety that is very similar called Midnight Serenade well I think that would probably make a very good name for this plant. I’d only have half a dozen plants of this Antique weird color. As you get used to growing tree peonies you’ll find there is no pruning required. If you’ve got a peony growing in the shade and its gangling out to the sun because they love the sun. You can trim them back and neaten the bush up, but the bush is merely telling you that it’s reaching out for light and searching for the sun. Because, well in the Sun though they’ll have much more flowers, otherwise pruning is not an issue.
This variety is another f2 called Gold Era not necessarily an Australian favorite but if you don’t have yellow in your tree peonies well you can’t appreciate all the other colors. I love yellows you’ve got to have at least one yellow penny in your garden.
Well, we’re going all the way back to the classic flower of Zeus and what sets its flower apart from
most flowers are the beautiful boss of gold and stamens in the center. It just radiates that vividness of the color of the petals. Its contrast is unique to tree peonies.