Paeonia lactiflora Green Halo

Paeonia lactiflora Green Halo is a rather unique herbaceous peony, still difficult to find. With its semi-double and crumpled corollas, curiously disordered and frizzy, in discreet shades, it will seduce enthusiasts of varieties with a quirky charm. In shades of white and pale green around a large bouquet of yellow stamens, slightly fragrant, its flower will work wonders in refined bouquets. Easy to grow, Chinese peonies thrive in any loose and rather moist soil, in the sun. Robust and faithful, they sometimes take a little time to establish themselves, but they develop year after year and can live for well over 50 years, outliving the person who planted them.

Chinese herbaceous peonies are mainly derived from the 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.

The Green Halo variety is an American creation by William Krekler and Roy G. Klehm, dating back to 1999. The plant, of medium vigour, forms an herbaceous and bushy clump from spring onwards, moderately dense, reaching up to 75 cm (30in) in height and 80 cm (32in) in width. Its semi-double flowers appear in the middle of the peony season, in May-June, earlier or later depending on the climate. They bloom for about two weeks, each flower living for 7 to 10 days. They emerge as a large green bud and then open into a tangle of irregular petals with more or less cut and fringed edges. Those located in the centre of the flower are white, while the thicker ones at the base are tinged with pale green. The golden stamen cluster is very visible. In this variety, the flowers have a light fragrance. The shiny foliage is composed of large leaves in a vibrant green, divided into fairly thin leaflets. They are carried on a petiole that divides into 3, with lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate segments. The leaflets are either entire or sometimes lobed. The vegetation disappears in winter, while the buds persist at ground level and develop in spring. This very long-lived plant grows from a large fleshy root that does not appreciate being moved.

Peonies are among those plants that form the foundations of a garden. In the past every garden, from the most modest to the most elaborate, proudly exhibited clumps covered in peony flowers that made their way into the house, keeping company in bouquets with purple lilacs and blue bellflowers. Out of the ordinary, the Chinese peony Green Halo is a beautiful botanical curiosity that can be planted in borders or alongside pathways, associated with timeless perennials such as garden irises, columbines, bellflowers, perennial geraniums, carnations, or Christmas roses. It will also increase the supply of flowers for bouquets in the vegetable garden. Growing in pots is not recommended, as its needs will not be met. Over time the peony becomes majestic and blooms more and more abundantly, producing up to 60 flowers. By combining different varieties with staggered flowering times, it is possible to have flowers for 6 weeks from spring to early summer.