Peony

Individual plants can live up to 50 some years and there are records of peonies in China as long ago as 1000 BCE.    Apparently centuries later, peony plants were so valued that they sometimes were bought for huge sums and also included as part of dowry settlements.   Sounds similar to the story of tulips.  The plants were also cultivated in Japan, Europe and North America.

I have white, pink and red varieties (no idea what their names are) and each year I look forward to their blooming.  Mine are almost done now.

It’s a myth that peonies need ants to open – the reason ants crawl all over the buds is because they want to get some of the sweetness.  It’s also a fact that peonies, if picked in the bud stage can be kept in the refrigerator for several weeks and then brought out to bloom.  I heard of this being done for a wedding.

Peonies have also been used for medicinal purposes.  Roots, bark, seeds and flowers have been used, mostly in oriental medicine.  Modern researchers are working on isolating compounds from the plants that may be of value.

Apparently the most well known and prolific peony breeder in North America was Arthur Saunders, born in Canada and later a professor at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York.

The Canadian Peony Society was created in 1998.  Their show and general meeting is on this weekend in Calgary at the Botanical Gardens.  I found a site on line of a company in Ontario that grows over 1400 varieties of peonies!