fresh seeds of peony aviable

[Hans J]

Hi all ,

Here start with ripening seeds from my peonies , maybe someone is  interested for fresh seeds .
I have in this time :

P. lithophila
P. arietina
P. mascula ssp. hellenica
P. russoi K
P. decomposita
P. rockii ( Bing Shan Xue Lian )

The most are open pollinated -but I have always plant my peonies seperated in borders -so there should be not any hybrids - also they have really different flowering times .

This is not a commercial offer -I would try to swap with interesting seeds or plants ( I'm most interested for Amaryllidaceae).

I will have in few days more new seeds ....

If anybody is interested please contact me !

With best wishes
Hans

[Hans J]

here some additions of seeds from today :

P. corsica
P. peregrina

[Paul T]

Hans,

What are the leaves on the Paeonia peregrina like?  I have something under that name here, but have been told that the leaves are not quite right.  Lovely pure red flowers, and unlike some of the other herbaceous paeonies it flowers EVERY year.

[Paul T]

Howdy All,

I can vouch for Hans' seeds, although the seeds of his that I am growing I actually didn't get from him.  I got them from a seed exchange, and the name of the Paeonia rockii variety he listed above made me realise that they came from him originally.  I must say I've been pleased with the germination, as I'm never quite sure how things will go with the change in hemisphere..... I find that quite often when I get seeds from up north they can wait an extra year before they germinate.... i.e they wait a bit longer to acclimatise to the seasons here before they germinate.  I got them in winter 2005 here, but they didn't germinate for me until at least the spring of the year following (i.e around Aug/Sept '06), with one or two I think only germinating last year.  I left them in their original group pots, only potting them on into larger pots in the last few weeks when I realised they were starting to shoot again.  I am SO looking forward to them flowering in a few years time, although I realise that it will likely take a while with the amount of neglect they get with me. 

As to sowing them, I treated them just the same way as I treat my normal bulb seed..... pot full of sowing medium, seeds pressed into the surface, then covered with a layer of 3-5mm gravel which keeps them cool and moist, letting air circulate freely.  Then I just left them to their own devices.  I was RATHER pleased when I got germination, as in the past I have tried a couple of paeonies from seed and had no luck with them.... Hans ones all germinated quite freely.  I've just had them in the shade house since sowing, where they get a few degrees below frost, but not heavy as yet.  I want to get them a bit larger before I put them out into the full cold.  The beauty of Paeonies is that they'll take such a wide range of conditions, and depending on species or types they can take climates ranging from relatively warm (i.e barely any frost at all) down to very cold conditions indeed.  Tree paeonies in particular don't need as much cold as the herbaceous ones, as they don't need to same cold requirements to mature their buds.  They still need cool conditions (i.e down to a few degrees celcius as far as I know), but not the frost etc that the herbaceous require.

So has anyone else grown Paeonia from seed?  What are your experiences?  I don't think there is that much around, which is why I am asking here.  Seems like a good place to raise it.

[Hans J]

Hi Paul ,

here to your question about leaves of P. peregrina

enclosed are two pics -one from my plant in my garden ( last spring )
the other is from a leaves - coll. on a habitat in southern Italy.
Very nice friends ( botanists ) give me a lot of of informations and help me to get a permission to collect there some seeds and some little plants .
I have visit by my travel in year 2002 two locations of P.peregrina in southern Italy - we saw thousend of plants .

If your plants of P. peregrina start always really early so there is a bit doubt ....my plants start middle or late .....

[David Nicholson]

Hans was kind enough to send me some Peony seed and I have also sown it in my usual seed mix, covered them with grit, and left them outside to the weather. So hope to see some shoots next year. The year before last I sowed some seed I saved from a common garden variety and had reasonable germination last year. I re-potted the seedlings into seperate pots this year and they are growing on nicely.
I sowed six seed of P. cambessedesii last year and had a couple germinate this year, maybe I will get more!

[Paul T]

David,

I feel a bit like I'm stalking you tonight..... I seem to be following you around the forums posting after you.    And it is 10:30pm here, so I am valid in saying "tonight". 

P. cambessedessii is a glorious paeony.  I grew it a number of years ago but one particularly bad summer I lost a couple of the herbaceous species I had.  The single deep pink flower is just such a strong colour, stronger than any of the other species I have seen (or at least my plant was, anyway).  Just beautiful.  unfortunately I've never been able to replace it.  I do hope your seedlings grow well and eventually flower for you, as it is a really beautiful species.

[Paul T]

Hans,

Unfortunately I think mine usually start pretty early, but I'll have to check and see what are in my photo records.  It does look very similar.  Whatever it is, it is a beautiful single red flower, and I love it.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

I've also sown some P. cambessedessi from SRGC seed this early spring - pots also left out in the open.  I've got 3 plantlets germinating  and plan to leave them in the original pot util next year.  Is this the right way to proceed ??

[Paul T]

Luc,

That is how I personally would be doing it.  I don't know about paeonia specifically, but I know some peopel advocate pricking out plants as soon as they first emerge, because they have less root system to disturb.  I've always left anything perennial for at least a year in their pots befor doing anything, and then if possible only potting them carefully up into a bigger pot without disturbing them.  This can be a problem with some plants I would imagine as the roots then do merge together quite solidly, but I think in general a larger plant is more likely to survive the shock of being separately than a small plant.  With bulbs, I don't think I have ever disturbed a pot before it has been there for two years, sometimes I leave it for 3 or more depending what genus.  Some genus are so darn small at the end of one year that you couldn't find them anyway in the mix if you tried. 

And if you do repot anything, always try to recycle the seed mix somewhere where any ungerminated seeds have a suitable condition to germinate.  Some seeds can sit for quite a few years before doing anything.  It's quite possible that you could get more germination from your paeony seed next year as well.  Leaving them where they are doesn't disturb those seeds that are waiting out this year.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

I'll do as planned and let them undisturbed for the winter Paul !
Thanks for your second opinion. 

[Paul T]

Luc,

Of course, I hadn't thought about that.... they're germinating for you in the autumn there, aren't they.  I wouldn't be touching them myself if I were you until at least winter next year, i.e giving them the full growing season next season as well.  I would generally give my plants two full growing seasons before I disturbed them, at least in most cases. 

Hopefully someone here can advise you what to do with these seedlings for winter, as I am not sure what your winter will do to them.  They shouldn't really be shooting for you now I think?  Depending on how cold you get you might need to protect them this winter, because they need a chance to build up some roots for dormancy?  I hadn't even thought about the fact that you were in autumn, I just assumed as they were germinating that it was spring.

Anyone else have advice to offer to Luc?  I don't want to lead him down the wrong path through my ignorance.

[David Nicholson]

David,

I feel a bit like I'm stalking you tonight..... I seem to be following you around the forums posting after you.    And it is 10:30pm here, so I am valid in saying "tonight". 

P. cambessedessii is a glorious paeony.  I grew it a number of years ago but one particularly bad summer I lost a couple of the herbaceous species I had.  The single deep pink flower is just such a strong colour, stronger than any of the other species I have seen (or at least my plant was, anyway).  Just beautiful.  unfortunately I've never been able to replace it.  I do hope your seedlings grow well and eventually flower for you, as it is a really beautiful species.

Paul, it's raining here so can't get in the garden and Maureen has abandoned me in favour of a girly shopping trip with our daughter. So, a feller has to do something!

[David Nicholson]

Not that I'm an expert but I had planned to leave my P. cambessedesii seedlings outside, expecting the shoots to die back for the winter and re-sprout again next Spring with hopefully a couple more seeds germinating. Ever the optimist, should I be more pessimistic?

[Paul T]

David,

But yours have been growing for a while haven't they?  I got the impression from Luc's posting that his have only just now germinated, so they haven't had the time to build up the reserves for a winter dormancy.  Mien were left out in the shadehouse from when I sowed them, and went dormant the winter after they germinated, without any problems.  But they did germinate in spring, not in Autumn, which is what I am unsure about.