Paeonia lactiflora King's Day

The King's Day Peony (Paeonia x lactiflora) is an herbaceous Peony that offers abundant, very attractive and subtly scented flowers. It is an early flowering variety that produces a large number of semi-double blooms, with pastel salmon to orange petals, surrounding a wide heart of yellow-orange stamens. This shimmering colour, quite unexpected, makes this variety very attractive.

Chinese herbaceous peonies are mainly derived from Paeonia lactiflora, a perennial herbaceous plant native to central and eastern Asia (from eastern Tibet, northern China, to eastern Siberia), where it naturally grows in woods and meadows. This plant belongs to the Ranunculaceae or Paeoniaceae Family. Herbaceous Peonies are bare-root perennials, clump-forming, with foliage that completely disappears in winter.

The King's Day Chinese Peony is a hybrid variety introduced to the market in 2019. The plant forms a herbaceous and bushy clump from spring, moderately dense, reaching 80 cm (32in) in all directions. Its large, semi-double flowers, 16 to 18 cm (6 to 7in) in diameter, appear rather early in May-June depending on the climate, lasting for about three weeks. They appear at the end of the stems, but also from a few secondary buds. They emerge as a large pale orange bud. This variety has good vegetation and remarkable longevity. The young foliage, purple and shiny, unfolds into large, dark green, highly dissected leaves. They are carried by 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 persist at ground level and will develop in spring. This long-lived perennial plant grows from a large fleshy root that does not appreciate being moved.

Chinese Peonies are among those plants that form the basis of a garden. The King's Day peony thrives in borders or alongside pathways, combined with timeless and unpretentious perennials such as Irises, Columbines, bellflowers, perennial geraniums, carnations or Christmas roses. It can also be grown in the vegetable garden to supply cut flowers for the house. Pot cultivation is not recommended, as its needs will not be met. Over time peonies becomes majestic and bloom ever more abundantly, producing up to 60 flowers. By combining different varieties with staggered flowering, it is possible to have blooms for 6 weeks from spring to early summer.