Peony Portraits

Itoh-Hybrids or Intersectionals -
a young group in the peony world

Walter Good

The three sections of the Paeoniaceae family

Introduction

Characteristics
of I-Hybrids

The three sections
of the peony family

Some fundamental thoughts on
the crossbreeding of I-Hybrids

The herbaceous
peony cultivars

Cultivars by
Toichi Itoh

Looking at the forms of the
cultivation of tree peonies

Cultivars by
Don Hollingsworth

Some details of the history
of cultivation of the I-Hybrids

Cultivars by
Roger Anderson

Peony Database

 

1. Paeon
The section Paeon includes all the herbaceous peonies of Europe, Asia and North Africa.

 

Paeonia wittmanniana var. macrophylla

Paeonia officinalis
Foto taken in the wild in Southern Switzerland

Foto: W. Good

Foto: E. Pasche


Paeonia lactiflora 'Festiva maxima'

Foto: W. Good

2. Moutan
The section Moutan includes the tree peonies which are all endemic to China. Here we can distinguish between two big groups:

 

1.

The group round Paeonia suffruticosa

The peonies of this group generally produce white to red-tinged or red-flared large flowers; they had been cultivated and experimented on for centuries in ancient China and Japan. The different species and subspecies have so far not yet been exactly classified botanically.

 

Paeonia suffruticosa, a Japanese cultivar

Paeonia yananensis
Foto taken in free nature in China.

Foto: W. Good

Foto: Prof. Hong Tao, Beijing


 

Paeonia rockii
 Foto taken in free nature in China

  

Paeonia suffruticosa, a Japanese cultivar

Foto: Prof. Hong Tao, Beijing  

Foto: Nassos Daphnis

2.

The group round Paeonia lutea, Paeonia delavayi and Paeonia potaninii

The plants of this group have considerably smaller flowers, which may be intensively bright red, or yellow, or even white. This group had played no part in hybridizing until about 90 years ago. As far as I know they were not used as decorative plants in the gardens of ancient China.

Paeonia lutea
Foto taken in free nature

Paeonia delavayi

Foto: Prof. Gian Lupo Osti,
Roma

Foto: W. Good


Paeonia 'L'Espérence' (Lutea hybrid)
Foto taken in the garden of Michel Rivière, France

Paeonia 'Gauguin' (Lutea hybrid)
Foto taken in the Linwood Gardens, Pavilion, N.Y

Foto: W. Good

Foto: N. Daphnis

3. Onaepia
The two American peony species Paeonia brownii and Paeonia californica together make up the section Onaepia. First attempts at crossbreeding with these wo varieties, which are very delicate in cultivation, are being made.

Paeonia californica
Foto taken in free nature

 
Paeonia brownii
Foto taken in free nature

Literature

     

Michel Rivière

Le Monde fabuleux des Pivoines, Floraprint France, Massy, 1992

     

F.C. Stern

A Study of the Genus Paeonia, The Royal Horticultural Society, London, 1946

     

John L. Fiala

Chromosome Abnormalities in Paeonia Lutea Hybrid 'Alice Harding' and others [(Bulletin der American Peony Society, Nr. 191, Dezember 1968)] (Bulletin of the American Peony Society, No. 191, December 1968)

     

Reinhilde Frank

Päonien, Eugen Ulmer Verlag, Stuttagart, 1989

Copyright:
Walter Good
Wettsteinstrasse 6
CH-8332 Russikon
Switzerland, 2000

Tel:
Fax:

+41 (0) 1 954 12 09
+41 (0) 1 954 12 09

E-Mail:

 

helios@bluewin.ch