My 50p Tree Paeony

• 28 Nov, 2007
• 6 likes

I love tree paeonies. So far I have 3 in the garden. One is the P. lutea var. Ludlowii, has single, yellow flowers. The second is (allegedly) P. delaveyi. The 3rd is the one in the photo. I think it is P. sufruticosa 'Reine Elizabeth'. (Unless YOU know differently).
The first I have grown from seed collected in the local Horticultural college gardens. It is 3 years old and has yet to flower. The second I bought for £8.99 from a local nursery as a named variety. It flowered for the first time this summer, unfortunately it does not look like what the label claims it to be! The third cost me 50p in a clearout at one of the main garden centres just outside Derby. There was no label and it was a dead looking 2 foot long stick in a pot. There seemed to be life in a couple of the buds so I bought it, a mad, impulsive buy. And what a beautiful plant it turned out to be. One of my better gambles.