Tree Peony-Nishiki

I wish the rain would stop.  It’s been raining on and off for a few days.  I know it’s good for the garden, but not all plants love a lot of rain.  We have waited for the Tree Peony “Nishiki” (Paeonia suffruticosa) to blossom, twelve flowers this year, but they’re too delicate to withstand a heavy rain and that takes the fun out of it.

The Nishiki started to unfurl one by one two weeks ago.  They look great on a sunny day. The flowers are around 8 to 10 inches in diameter when fully open.  On a cloudy day they refuse to open completely.  Perhaps a self-preservation mechanism as the flowers are too large for the stalk to hold up under the added weight of rain.    I cut the root suckers off them early this year to cut down crowding but one still sneaked out growing about a foot away from the main plant.  I think I’ll let it grow and then transplant it later on in the season.  I left them to bloom last year just to see what the flowers would look like.  They turned out pretty too, one layer of petals and a deep pink.  They looked more like the herbaceous peony (Paeonia officinalis).

Then the rain came down taking a lot of petals off the flowers.  Bummer.  The one that was only half-open looked great after the rain though.  Now we just have to wait for the herbaceous peonies to bloom and hope that the rain will let us enjoy them longer.