The World of the Peony (VII)

In the course of peony cultivation by Man, numerous cultivars were produced in four great regions of the world: China, Japan, Europe, and the USA.

Tree peonies from China

China is the real country of origin for peony culture. During the Sung Dynasty (960 - 1279) garden culture was at an exceedingly high level. The Chinese gardeners forced peonies flowers to open with the help of warm smoke. They are said to have mastered the propagation of tree peonies through cuttings, and by selection they produced a lot of beautiful cultivars. Even then there existed a wide range of good scientific literature. The best work is the «Report on the Loyang Peonies», written by a high-ranking civil servant called Ouyang Hsiu (1007 - 1072). In it he describes the tree peonies as well as the gardening techniques of that time in detail. Double flowers with as many petals as possible corresponded best to the beauty ideal of the Chinese. Their crossing results were given such poetic names as

Paeonia suffruticosa 'Yao Huang' is a double creamy flowering peony, whose inner petals shine yellow. It is now available again. In the Sung Dynasty, this was by far the most sought after peony. It fulfils the Chinese ideal of beauty with its full double middle and a wreath of beautiful outer petals. Foto: Josh Westrich

In the Chinese cultivars of the tree peonies we find the genetic potential of the wild species that are described in the preceding chapter. In China all these species were cultivated as decorativ garden plants except Paeonia delavayi, Paeonia lutea and Paeonia potaninii. It seems that these only were used in Medicin and so their genetic potential is not present in the Chinese (and Japanese) cultivars of the Suffruticosa group.

The first Chinese tree peonies came to Europe at the end of the 18th centuary. The great pioneer of peony breeding, Victor Lemoine, crossed some of them with Paeonia lutea: the first Lutea hybrids were born.

Herbaceous peonies from China

At the same time in China the cultivars of the herbaceous peonies of the Lactiflora groupe were created. The first of theme came also at the end of the 18th centuary to Europe.

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