RE: paeonia in med. climate

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Dear All

 

I grow many Peonia species in my Med. climate garden. we have very long, hot dry summers November until the end of April, virtually no rain and high temps up to 114 degrees sometimes for a week or longer straight. Our winter is cool and wet with occasional light frosts, some infrequent hail storms and very rarely - once in five years - some light snow. Our soil is rock filled loam over crumbly shales and quartz. I gow and flower P. cambessedesii, P. mascula, P. peregrina, P. russii, P. mascula, P. emodii, P. sternii, P. mlokowitschii, P. biebersteiniana, P. graeca, P. lithophylla and others I cannot remember right now. They all love to be in full sun for most of the day. They enjoy a deep litter type mulch (coarsely shredded tree branches) and the absolutely HATE competition from nearby tree and roots. My soil is slightly acidic but I grew some in my previous garden near the sea on a clifftop where the soil was definitely alkaline. I grow my plants from seed and plant them out when they are 2 - 3 years old. I think they do not like being split up and palnted as divisions; my experiences at this have all proven disastrous. The mother plants slowly died and the 'splits' failed to thrive and eventually died too.

 

I have seen peonies growing wild in Greece and Mallorca; the Greek ones seemed in slightly  more favourable circumstances but even so the growing conditions were tough. Very rocky soils in both cases; on Mallorca the plants were growing with roots fully exposed in a deep fist sized scree at the base of a cliff falling into the sea. This was P. cambessedesii. Some of my seed raised plants came from this site.

 

I have found that the plants are fairly reliable as perennials lasting 10 - 15 years before expiring. By this time I usually have a number of seedlings that have naturally regenerated and standing ready to take the place of their dead parent.

 

I do not give my plants summer irrigation so by the end of the foliage looks pretty battered and browned off around the leaf margins but this seems to do no harm. Fat healthy growth buds are evident just below ground level. I do water newly set seedlings for the first year.

 

trevor nottle

 

Trevor Nottle
Manager-Education
TAFE Horticulture Centre
505 Fullarton Road
Netherby
South Australia  5062
AUSTRALIA

 

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