Woodland peonies
I have a 鈥渢hing鈥� about memorable plant names. It鈥檚 my Achilles heel -- a weakness, I know. When I come across a plant with an atypical moniker in a catalog, nursery, garden center, or big box store, I can鈥檛 pull out the credit card fast enough. It鈥檚 mine.
Campanula 鈥楶ink Octopus鈥�?聽 Mine! Hosta 鈥楰omodo Dragon,' H. 鈥極ut House Delight,'聽 and Ranunculus ficaria 鈥楤razen Hussy鈥�? Mine, mine, and mine.
Oh, don鈥檛 get me wrong. I typically make my purchases in a sane, rational manner.聽 But every so often, a sobriquet is so sublime it resonates passionately within that indiscernible and quirky fragment of my brain. It鈥檚 Pavlovian, and I鈥檝e been trained to answer.
So it was with my first While browsing the catalog contents of a specialty nursery, hardly made me blink, but the common name of 鈥淢olly-the-Witch鈥� stopped me dead in my tracks.
As it turns out, this unexpected happenstance introduced me to the exceptional beauty of species peonies. Unlike many of their more common and gaudy , which I also adore, species peonies 鈥� also referred to as woodland or mountain peonies 鈥� are the demure progenies of their wild ancestors.
They are members of a complex and often confusing family of plants, one that I confess I鈥檓 still trying to figure out. For example, it is said that is often confused with -- a plant we鈥檒l discuss next time -- which has very similar blossoms.
P. mlokosewitschii, the ethereally beautiful plant from the Caucasus mountains with the nearly unpronounceable name, is the 鈥渉oly grail鈥� of peony aficionados. It's a plant at once popular and frustrating.
Initially perceived as having only clear yellow flowers 鈥� the coveted 鈥渉oly grail鈥� --聽 it has now become clear that between natural variations and hybridization, which occurs even in the wild, the flowers may actually be cream, yellow, or pink-flushed cream.
Although I ordered what was listed as a yellow-flowered plant, my little elegant charmer is a pink-flushed cream with darker pink veining. Granted, I was mildly disappointed that the blooms weren鈥檛 yellow, however, to quote a line from a movie, when it opened that first bud, 鈥渋t had me at hello."
In late March, this totally awesome beauty is one of the first perennials to break the frozen ground with its optimistic, rich-lipstick-red buds. The dusty shoots explode into a smoky mound of gray-green leaves that are unlike anything else this early in the season.
By late April, the seductive beauty of its perfectly formed goblets of ethereal petals filled with delicious golden stamens is at once bewitching and beguiling.
Bloom period is short, usually less than two weeks.聽 And they are slow-growing and sometimes finicky about siting. But when all their cultural requirements are in perfect alignment, magic happens at the edges of the woodland garden.
Fall is a good time to plant them. Usually sold growing in containers, they may appear small when first purchased. But take heart, these queens of the early spring garden, although neither the showiest nor fastest growing, will mature within a couple of years into one of the most elegant and sophisticated plants to adorn your landscape.
Betty Earl, author of 鈥淚n Search of Great Plants: The Insider鈥檚 Guide to the Best Plants in the Midwest,鈥� writes a regular column for Chicagoland Gardening Magazine and The Kankakee Journal and numerous articles for Small Gardens Magazine, American Nurseryman, Nature鈥檚 Garden, and Midwest Living Magazine, as well as other national magazines. She is a garden scout for Better Homes and Gardens and a regional representative for The Garden Conservancy.
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