Paeonia suffruticosa ssp. rockii.

The story of the Formosan Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree peony cognise as ‘ Rockii ’ is one that is wreathe in secret and love affair . In fact the plant is almost legendary because it is highly likely that all the plants that we know by this name are hybrids . The plant is renowned for the turgid snowy flowers with golden stamens and a maroon , almost bootleg blotch at the home of the flower petal . It is a thing of recherche beauty .

It was first spotted and noted by Reginald Farrer in Southern Kansu in 1913 . It was not until the 1920s that Joseph Rock found a plant that fitted the verbal description growing in the Lamasery : ( Budhhist monastery ) at Choni . He roll up semen , not from the wild , but from this plant and sent them to the US , Britain , Canada and Sweden . In 1928 the Lamasery was burnt to the ground and all the lama were killed by Muslims . Today , all the Rockii peony in the westerly human race are descendants of this plant . The job is that peonies interbreed readily and so all the young occur out different . The plants from seed sent to the Arnold Arboretum in the US were slightly different to the ones that Frederick Stern raise at his home Highdown in England . Frederick Stern was remarkably generous with his seeds but he grow a lot of peonies and had very busy bees .

I did not realise all this when I spotted ‘ Paeonia rockii‘Rock ’s Variety ’ in the Chiltern Seeds catalogue six or seven years ago . I had been heroic to own one of these peony since I had see it growing in Ivan Dickings garden in Suffolk years ago . Ivan was the very gifted primary disseminator for Notcutts in Woodbridge , Suffolk , and he had circulate fabric vegetatively , from Frederick Stern ’s originalrockiipeony . So this peony was as close to the original as it is possible to get . I bid I had taken a pic so that I could show it to you . I assure you it would be making love at first sight .

I bought my seeds from Chilterns and set forth a very long wait . After a year the first shoots appeared and I had six little plants . ( The first yr nothing seems to be encounter because they are busy putting out a little root . ) Four succulent shoot got eat on by mouse and never recovered , so I cherish my remaining two plant and they arise strong and healthy , and so they should have with all the humoring they have . I send a pic of the plump peak bud on one of them in early April . The other had a bud too , but not so advanced . The excitation of waitress for these buds to afford was almost too much to digest . A couplet of day ago I go down the garden on my usual prowl to find this .

It was a bit of a shock . My beautiful complete white paeony was magenta!It is beautiful and it has the endearing dark blotch at the groundwork of the flower petal and the lovely golden stamens . But Battle of Magenta ? I was a little defeated . But never take care , the other one was still to open , perhaps this would be closer to the beautiful white peony that I had dreamed of . Well today , at last it is set out to open and this is what it looks like . It is a lovely soft pink and I wish the somewhat darker veining on the petals . I go for it will have the lovely Viccinium membranaceum colored splotch . I reckon it will be beautiful when it is fully open but it is still not what I was expecting . I do have two lovely tree peonies but not the subtle livid one .

I do still have one chance left . Three years ago I started off some seeds from Ivan Dickings ’s original peony , the one that I fall in love with years ago . I did n’t notice when the fiddling shoots first appeared and unluckily they all got eat on off , asunder from one . This one is now grow nicely and I have implant it in the garden . Here it is . I can assure you it is growing in my best home made compost and gets every care and attention lavished on it . Maybe in three or four years I will be proudly showing you a big white peony flower which depend very close to that of the original works found by Joseph Rock growing in the Lamestry . It is puzzling and faulty when hybrids like mine are called ‘ Joseph Rock ’ , ‘ Rockii’or ‘ Rock ’s Variety ’ . They should be calledGansu Mudan . That is the right name . If masses would only use the correct name then innocents like me would n’t drop six or seven years growing something that is adorable but not the real affair .

39 Responses toPaeonia suffruticosa ssp. rockii.

What a dashing hopes that it ’s not what you desire . They are both very beautiful , though . They remind me of poppies .

They ’re beautiful peony and I ’m mighty impressed by the fact that you get them from ejaculate . However , I do read the disappointment of discovering the wrong color after that patient waiting period . I had a similar experience with a vine that was supposed to have lilac-colored bloom of youth . It failed to produce flowers of any kind for 3 years and , when the foliage overlay an integral paries and it lastly bloom , it was orange , which definitely did not fit with the surrounding plants . horticulture is a never - stop surprisal .

effective luck with the subtle white beauty . They are curious tree peonies . When I moved here , one of mine which had always produced double pink flowers started to produce individual blooms . I thought the engraft part had died and I was bring forth the rootstock prime . But no , after a few days the plant forgave me for uprooting it and went back to bring about double blooms !

Oh Chloris I can imagine both your anticipation and then the ensue disappointment . What a shame that such patience was rewarded by imposter albeit beautiful unity . I wonder if those mouse nibbled a white unfolding one . At least you ’ve stimulate the real matter with the baby so hang on in there . The small one has most attractive foliage too to toy with you whilst you expect .

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Paeonia suffruticosa ssp. rockii.