Paeonia mascula
Max Withers (Thu, 07 Apr 2011 10:34:10 PDT)

Thank you, Mary Sue, for your cautionary (and inspiring!) tale. I feel
very lucky to have obtained P. cambessedesii and P. mascula from Ellen
Hornig last year, just before she closed Seneca Hill. The former appears
to be thriving in a pot after its first winter here in Oakland. I'd
prefer not to talk about the latter.

Two notes of interest at least to Californians on the list:
1. UC Botanic Garden has several fine examples of what appear to be the
same taxon of tree peony, labelled T. suffruticosa, which was blooming
spectacularly last week. The massive white flowers have purple basal
blotches that I associate with P. rockii, but I do not pretend to have
an opinion about tree peony taxonomy. I believe Kew published yet
another monograph of Paeonia last year.

The garden is in the Berkeley hills, and probably gets a more chilling
hours than lower-lying areas, but I cannot say how many.

2. I have heard that a well-known Bay Area nursery frequently mentioned
here is growing P. cambessedesii, though I do not know when it will be
available.

Best,
Max
Oakland CA