Originator
The name and date following the Originator label indicate the surname of the person who bred the peony and the date that it was either registered with the international peony registrar or the date it was introduced. When two names are present this usually means that two people were involved in the beginnings of the peony. The first name is the breeder, while the second is the person that actually undertook the registration process. Some people collect the peonies of specific breeders. Some are just interested to know how long ago a particular peony was introduced.

Flower Form
The shape of flower is classified as either single, semi-double, Japanese, anemone or double with the term novelty used occasionally to describe a flower that fits none of the preceding descriptors. To learn more about flower forms, consult the About Peonies - Botany page.

Height
Average herbaceous or intersectional peony height is between 60 and 90 cm at maturity. It will take about 3 years for a peony to reach this height and it will only reach it if the growing conditions are appropriate. There are a number of particularly tall peonies just as there are a number of diminutive peonies. You will find these indicated as > 90 cm or <60 cm respectively.

Tree peony height is dictated by genetics but also often by climate. Winter conditions can often cause some branch die back. A tree peony may reach 2 meters in areas with milder winters, for example, the west coast of British Columbia. That same peony may thrive and flower well here in Southern Québec but hardly reaches 1 meter. Our severe winters kill back much of the above ground branches each year.

Fragrance, Staking
Comments about fragrance and staking are based on my own observations and as such are subjective.

Bloom Period
Instead of using the traditional very early, early, mid-season etc. I have classified the peonies by the actual week they bloom over the 7 week bloom period we normally experience here.

A peony shown as Week 5 can be expected to start flowering 5 weeks after a peony shown as Week 1. It does not mean that the peony is in bloom for 5 weeks.

A word of caution - unusually hot or cold weather can compress or extend the bloom period changing somewhat the actual week a peony blooms. Even with the vagaries of the weather though, I believe that classifying peonies by their week of bloom will be useful to gardeners who want a more precise indication of when a peony can be expected to bloom with respect to another peony.

Side Buds
Many peonies will produce more than one flower per stem. This is indicated in the descriptions by the number of side buds noted. In general, the more side buds a stem has, the longer the plant will remain in flower. Unfortunately however this also often means that the stems will not be able to hold all the flowers up without some form of support.

Colour
Computer monitors are notorious for the different ways they display images. Descriptions using words are not much better at accurately representing a colour. If the colour of a specific peony is critical to your design, don't hesitate to contact me and I will attempt to provide a more specific description.

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