Chinese TP selections
James Waddick (Tue, 03 Aug 2004 06:36:57 PDT)

Dear John and all;
You could try any of these in the LA area, but, more
important, make sure they are not in full sun and given a cool site.
Probably the suffruticosa cvs will perform better. 'Fen Dan Fen' (a
big single pink) and 'Fen Dan Bai' a single white, AKA 'Phoenix
White' and 'P. ostii'* are abundant and easy. They both do fine here,
but can get late frost damages.
The rockii selections such as Zi He (rose pink single) and
Xue Lian (white single) may require more cold.
I think you can pix of all these on the Carsten Burkhardt
site mentioned earlier (http://www.paeon.de/name/).

These are all decent cvs, but you will have to try a variety
to see what actually does best. None of these 'flop' like herbaceous
plants and I don't think any of the Chinese cvs are coral in color.
Look to Saunders.lutea hybrids for that. 'Blue' peonies are in the
mind of the Chinese beholder.

Jim W.

* RE: P. ostii. This is a species and widely grown and selected for
herbal medical properties of its roots. Hundreds of thousands,
perhaps millions of plants are harvested each year for roots. Most
plants in cultivation are seed grown. Plants are hybrids or species-
at least somewhere down the line. Some look very much like the wild
species (including morphology of leaves, flowers, follicles etc) and
other are much less-so. I have grown about a 15-18 plants and only 3
(maybe) are close enough to look like the species.
Because it is so widely grown, it is relatively inexpensive.
Also easy from seed, but don't expect exactly true species.

--
Dr. James W. Waddick
8871 NW Brostrom Rd.
Kansas City Missouri 64152-2711
USA
Ph. 816-746-1949
E-fax 419-781-8594

Zone 5 Record low -23F
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