Re: paeonia in med. climate
- Subject: Re: paeonia in med. climate
- From: T* &* M* R*
- Date: Fri, 09 Nov 2001 14:48:46 +1300
Trevor Nottle wrote
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..
I think the problems with growing and flowering paeonies mainly relate
not to summer temps (they seem pretty heatproof), but to a lack of
winter cold. Even light frosts seem to be sufficient to stimulate
flower-bud formation.
I don't possess a Mediterranean flora, but the reasonably authoritative
"Mediterranean Wild Flowers" (Blamy and Grey-Wilson) lists the
following species as coming from areas which would probably not have
appreciably cold winters (I have given the provenence for each).
clusii (Crete and Karpathos), russei (Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily),
coriacea
(south Spain and possibly Corsica and Sardinia), cambessidesii (Balearic
isles), rhodia (Rhodes).
As to growing the species from seed, my English propagating book suggest
sowing in spring as soon as ripe and planting out in either September of
the same year or the following spring. They do not suggest the need for
any special sort of care, but say the may take up to four years before
the first flowering..
Moira
--
Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
Wainuiomata, New Zealand, SW Pacific. 12 hours ahead of Greenwich Time
