Priceless Peonies
Anne Jaeger
What’s the value of a flower? Sure, it depends on whom you ask. Some wouldn’t call flowers invaluable, and others could care less. So, whether that concept strikes you as priceless or pointless, you will still be shocked by the price tags on today’s peony flowers.
When it comes to peonies, people will pay a pretty penny for just one plant (try saying that three times fast.) Case in point, three weeks ago a woman bought a tree peony at the Chinese Garden for $250 dollars. I kid you not. And at that price, the seven year old ‘Chinese Dragon’ tree peony was a deal with just seven humongous blooms.
Tree peony like that become heirlooms. In fact, a local grower once overheard two sisters remembering the beauty of their grandmother’s tree peony while they were wandering through his display gardens. Apparently, there was some question about who would get grammas pearls. Then they came up with an interesting compromise “How about you take grandma’s pearls and I get the tree peony.” When people start fighting over plants you know something’s up.
Peonies are a popular luxury because they are achingly beautiful, pricey and last for generations. Not to mention, peonies require less care, less water and come back every year bigger and with more blooms than the year before. Love that!
Rick Rogers of Brothers Herbs and Peonies is enjoying record sales this year. On Mother’s Day alone he sold 35-hundred dollars worth. And yes, the most coveted plants sell anywhere from $100 to $250 dollars. Things are going so well that he’s jokingly changed his name from the self proclaimed ‘Peony Guy’ to the ‘Peony King.’ Now, before the ‘King’ gets all carried away with himself, you should know this expertise runs in the family. Rick’s father Al Rogers wrote THE BOOK “Peonies” compiled from 70 years worth of work in the field. (So to speak)
Anyway, much of the fervor over this plant can be traced to a whole new breed of peonies gripping the nation by its collective pocketbook. Well, they’re not exactly new, just new to us (but I’ll get to that in just a minute.) Like most botanical nomenclature it’s hard to understand at first, but just give me a chance to explain why you want to remember this group of peonies called “intersectionals.” They are expensive because they are a cross between two peonies that will not breed in nature: Herbaceous peonies and tree peonies. Two completely different things. One dies to the ground before springing back every year and the tree peony grows to be a woody shrub without leaves in the winter. Here’s why these plants command the big bucks. An intersectional like ‘Bartzella’ has the delicate, very lacy leaves of a tree peony and flowers some 16” inches around –combined with the vigor of an herbaceous peony which increases rapidly year after year but has much smaller flowers. It’s like getting “apples and oranges” to ‘intersect’ with one another. Back in the 1940’s Japanese breeder Mr. Toichi Itoh spent years trying to get these two plants to “hit it off.” Itoh saved the pollen from a tree peony and waited and waited for the herbaceous peonies to bloom so he could pollinate the two. Rogers says that after some 20,000 tries, Toichi Itoh finally got just four seeds. Those seeds grew into ‘Bartzella’ and other Itoh crosses. Unfortunately, the process took so long, Itoh died without seeing his first intersectional bloom.
So just what is the value of a flower? For me, a flower celebrates life. It is only after a plant flowers that can it produce the seeds for new life. Life is priceless and so are flowers. Just ask Mr. Itoh.
