In China , their cradle, tree peonies symbolize immortality . The fact is that they show a good longevity ... Evidence of the indestructible Duchesses of Morny 150 years , crumbling under huge corollas super double of a quaint rose, in the bourgeois gardens of the nineteenth century, era who adulated their opulence. "Note, since they bloom 15 days a year , they do not tire," ironically Michel River who creates sublime in recent decades. Our world champion tree peony still exaggerates a bit. For, of course, they bloom briefly, but not all at the same time. Between the first and the last shrubs, from mid-April to the end of May, here is a month and a half delighted .
? Herbaceous peony, at home everywhere
Ah, herbaceous peonies , these lovely old country gardens! The first to blossom, in April, gave its name to a vibrant red, it is the officinal peony , the one of our childhood, whose fugitive perfume haunts the memory of all those who, one day, have plunged their face.
He succeeds the long procession of other Chinese peonies , whose wide brews more or less high (30 to 80 cm) of double archi flowers with the scent of old roses bloom from mid-May until the end of June.
With frizzy petals here, bicolor effects there, large curly corollas still and sometimes exquisite simple flowers with wavy petals. The most popular are Sarah Bernhardt, a big rose full of petals , or Monsieur Jules Elie, a huge ball of small pink petals . Beautiful peonies, not expensive, not difficult and generous . They like the good soil of vegetable gardens and we often see them bordering the potatoes or sprawling in borders of carnations mignardises between two bouquets of sorrel. A particular sign, they also manage very well in the shady massifs in the company of columbines, the Heart of Mary (Dicentra spectabilis), thalictrums and heucheria. They are popular, rustic flowers, at ease everywhere, that are exchanged between neighbors by dividing their stumps in the fall . Delicately, because they break a little. And not too often because they bloom well that left quiet and, above all, not too much buried!
