Perfect peonies
Looking into the Itoh or intersectional peonies with huge flowers in painterly colours
I continue my diary this week with more garden visits, mainly recces for potential articles. It’s been so cold, so lots of things in the garden seem to be in slow motion - some of the irises have looked like they are about to unfurl for days, but remain stubbornly shut, and rose buds similarly held back in shivering limbo. I don’t blame them really. I’m looking forward to Chelsea next week, which as usual has completely crept up on me, and I think I’ll be wearing a winter coat rather than a summer dress! I’ll be sending an extra Chelsea preview post for paid subscribers on Monday just in case any of you are there and would like my take on what to see.
10th May
It’s a weekend of two seasons. Saturday is warm and sunny; Sunday cold enough to light the fire in the evening, with an arctic wind. I’m in the garden both days, all day long. I make the classic mistake of planting dahlias, courgettes and squash out - and then have to scrabble around with fleece to cover them up as the temperature drops dramatically. I have so many plants that need to get into the ground - they will just have to wait.
I wrote last week that the garden was in a quieter moment. It’s incredible how quickly things can change. The peonies and irises are starting to flower, and the pink cistus is fully out, adding bursts of colour to the wilder-looking base planting of the front garden. Centranthus ruber ‘Albus’ and Cenolophium denudatum are suddenly quite tall, flower stems pushing upwards and giving movement to the planting. The flowers of the cenolophium are camouflaged against the finely cut leaves, deep glossy green umbels before they mature to white. The centranthus is everywhere. Sometimes the balance gets out of kilter, it crosses over a line, and I have to start ripping plants out to regain the equilibrium.
Peonies have such a short time of impact, I sometimes wonder why I grow them. But those huge flamboyant flowers are such a source of joy that I couldn’t be without them. Rather like the tulips, they have their moment and are part of the ebb and flow of the garden. My most prized peony started flowering this weekend. It’s an intersectional peony sold to me as ‘Kopper Kettle’, and I bought it as a mail order bare root plant three years ago. However, I’m not sure it actually is ‘Kopper Kettle’. My flowers are deep raspberry pink with silvery white woven through, wheras KK is much peachier. I don’t necessarily mind - this one is still very beautiful - but I’m now determined to get the real KK, and I can feel an expensive habit starting (all the intersectionals come at a cost).
