| 
The New Peony
'Pink Spritzer' (on table). Clockwise
from bottom in jar: 'White Grace',
'Cytherea', 'The Fawn', 'Chiffon Parfait'
<b>The Coming of Change</b>
(Originally Published: May/June 2005)
THE PEONY, a longtime darling of Midwest gardens, is sporting new colors, better garden vigor, and unusual shapes and petals. Call it the new peony.
Change comes slowly because it takes at least 10 years to breed a peony and bring it to the marketplace. "But many new introductions are still on the way," says Roy Klehm, a member of a Midwest family known for five generations as one of the premier peony growers in the country. His company evaluates 600 to 700 new varieties every year in trial fields at Song Sparrow Perennial Farm & Nursery near Janesville, Wisconsin.
Roy calls peonies "perfect flowers for Midwestern gardens because they can live more than a hundred years. They have few pests or diseases, and they like our climate."
Jim Waddick, a founding member of the Heartland Peony Society in Kansas City, Missouri, and co-author of the book The Genus Paeonia, says peonies are the backbone of a good garden. "They're easier, and you get more bang for your buck than with some other perennials."
The best new peonies, Jim says, have stems that don't flop in rain and lush foliage so plants look fresh even after flowering is finished.
Hybridizers first pay attention to the health and vigor of new varieties. But the next level, according to Missouri peony innovator Don Hollingsworth, is to breed for more fragrance and unusual colors.
"The most dramatic new development is the clarity of the excellent yellows, corals, and yellows with red," says Don, whose Hollingsworth Peony Nursery in Maryville breeds and propagates about 600 varieties.
Yellow used to be an unknown hue among peonies. Now there are several yellow plants, including the breakthrough (and highly sought-after) 'Bartzella', bred by hybridizer Roger Anderson of Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, and Don's gorgeous 'Garden Treasure'. Both are intersectional, or Itoh, hybrid peonies, created by crossing herbaceous varieties (the kind that die back to the ground in winter) and tree varieties.
Gardeners will see more exotic purples, yellows, salmons and oranges, offering "another layer of color," Jim says. "There's a lot going on besides the double reds, pinks and whites."
