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Praise for peonies

Oh, it's a hard life ordering new flowers for the nursery. It is wonderful to be bombarded with all the newest and latest and greatest additions to the botanical world. Talk about your eye candy.

Oh, it's a hard life ordering new flowers for the nursery. It is wonderful to be bombarded with all the newest and latest and greatest additions to the botanical world. Talk about your eye candy.

But the one constant I have noticed over the years is that when designing a garden, I often rely upon the stalwarts of the flower world. New additions to the plant world are wonderful, but it is those popular perennials that were grown by my Prairie relatives who settled on the Coast - the tried-and-true reliable bloomers and disease-free stock that has been around for years.

One of my favourites is herbaceous peonies, in particular "Bowl of Beauty." The king of all perennial peonies would have to be the tree peony. This old-time favourite is generally sold in plastic bags with tempting pictures of large blooms on them and a shockingly large price tag.

Herbaceous peonies are a true perennial and die back to the ground each winter. Tree peonies have woody stems that remain above the ground throughout winter. They grow into a six-foot-by-six-foot shrub, so site it in a position that it can grow to maturity. Like all peonies, tree peonies don't like to be moved.

Peonies flower in the spring and come in a wide range of colours from white to delicate pink and maroon. All have the wonderful peony fragrance, which shouldn't be missed. Most are descended from Paeonia suffruticosa. If you can find P. lutea with its single yellow flowers and beautiful foliage, snap it up.

Because tree peonies are propagated by grafting, their cost is higher than your run-of-the-mill peony, but trust me: They make a wonderful investment.

Tree peonies thrive in fertile, nutrient-rich soil, which should ideally be well drained. You have to stay on top of this plant's irrigation as it suffers in periods of drought. They grow well in full sun, or part shade, but more sun will equal more blooms and flowers. These gems seem to take care of themselves and little pruning is required. But if you see odd crossing stems, you can remove them in late winter or early spring. These are long lived shrubs.

Tree peonies were first grown in China and Japan and didn't end up in Europe until the 1700s. Peter Valder, a peony expert, says that on the whole, the Chinese varieties are longer lived and hardier than their Japanese counterparts.

Luoyang, in the Hunan province of China is famous for its late April peony season, where more than one million peonies are in bloom and they showcase up to 500 cultivars. Put that on your bucket list.

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