Peony

I love peonies, they are so lush, whatever their colour or shade (and there are thousands) they are beautiful and often have the most delightful perfume. My parents had a lovely peony, a soft blush pink, deepening do a deep cerise, with golden stamens. It was so stunningly beautiful that people passing would stop to admire it. When we moved here a dozen years ago I knew the soil would be right for peonies so we bought one, as near the colour of my parent’s specimen as I could find… foolishly we planted it in completely the wrong position and it ah now been dominated by a Japonica and a Christmas tree. It is near a fence and now we can’t get at it to rescue it, and I’m not sure even if we could dig it up it would like being moved.

The peony is native to many parts of the world, Asia, Europe, and western north America, and although most of common ones are smallish shrubs, some are almost tree like and can grow up to ten foot tall! I didn’t realise that peonies had many uses apart from decorative and to raise the spirits, but apparently nearly seven hundred chemical and biological compounds have been derived from them,  including monoterpenoid glucosides, flavonoids, tannins, stilbenoids, triterpenoids and steroids, paeonols, and phenols… I don’t actually know what any of these things are, but they sound impressive! These compounds have medicinal effects such as antioxidant, antitumor, antipathogenic, immune-system-modulation activities, cardiovascular-system-protection and central-nervous-system support… Good heavens!

Our peony, although squashed is healthy, but the plants can be prey to a number of diseases and problems, including, peony wilt, peony ringspot peony blotch , dieback, wilting and honey fungus. I think I need to be prepared!