Paeonia lactiflora White Cap - Garden Peony

The White Cap Peony is a particularly vigorous and floriferous herbaceous Japanese Peony that offers an unusual, brilliantly bicoloured, and fragrant flowering. It is a mid-season variety that produces large flowers composed of a corolla of round raspberry-red petals around a large heart of white petaloids shaded with pink. The solid floral stems of this peony do not collapse under the weight of the flowers. Robust and faithful, they sometimes take a little time to establish themselves, but they develop year after year and can live for more than 50 years.

Herbaceous peonies are mainly derived from Paeonia lactiflora, a perennial herbaceous plant native to Central and Eastern Asia (from eastern Tibet and northern China to eastern Siberia), where it naturally grows in woods and meadows. This plant belongs to the family of Ranunculaceae or peonies. Herbaceous Peonies, perennial by their roots, form a tuft of foliage that completely disappears in winter.

The Japanese White Cap Peony was hybridised by Winchell George E. (USA) in 1956. It won the "Landscape Merit" award in 2009 and the "Gold Medal" in 1991 at the American Peony Society, a major peony exhibition in the USA. The plant forms from spring a moderately dense herbaceous and bushy tuft, reaching 90 cm (35 in) in all directions. Its large flowers, 16 to 18 cm (6 to 7 in) in diameter, appear in mid-season, in June, depending on the climate, for about three weeks, at the end of the stems, but also from some secondary buds. They begin in the form of a pinkish-red bud. The vegetation of this variety is vigorous and has remarkable longevity. The young foliage is purple and shiny and unfolds into large dark green, highly dissected leaves. They are borne on a petiole that divides into 3, with lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate segments. The leaflets are entire or sometimes lobed. The vegetation disappears in winter, while the buds that will develop in spring persist at ground level. This very perennial plant grows from a large fleshy root that does not appreciate being moved.

Japanese Peonies are among those perennial plants that form the basis of a garden. The White Cap Peony will settle in a massif or on the edge of a path, associated with timeless and unpretentious perennials such as Garden Irises, Columbines, campanulas, perennial geraniums, carnations, or Christmas roses. It will also add to the supply of flowers for bouquets in the vegetable garden. Growing it in a pot is not recommended, as its needs will not be met. Over time, peonies become majestic and bloom more and more abundantly, producing up to 60 flowers. By combining different varieties with staggered flowering, it is possible to have flowers for 6 weeks from spring to early summer.