Paeonia lactiflora Nippon Beauty - Garden Peony

Paeonia lactiflora Nippon Beauty is a herbaceous Japanese-style peony with a slightly theatrical, red and gold colour scheme. Its single flowers display magnificent petals of a deep red, almost garnet colour, arranged in a cup shape around a centre composed of petaloids of the same red that turn gold as they mature. This compact variety has a late but prolonged flowering period, starting from the end of May. The sumptuous beauty of the flowers is accompanied by a light fragrance and the vigorous plant adapts quite well to dry soils. 

Herbaceous peonies mainly come 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 Ranunculaceae or peony family.

The 'Nippon Beauty' variety was introduced to the USA in 1927 by Auten. The plant forms a sturdy, bushy but stout herbaceous clump from spring, usually reaching 70 cm (28 in) in all directions. Its 14-15 cm (6 in) wide flowers appear at the end of the peony season, in May-June, for about four weeks, each lasting 7 to 10 days. They emerge as a large red bud, then open into a corolla of large rounded petals of a deep red colour. At the heart of the flower sits a pompon composed of delicate floral pieces: some stamens are transformed here into small, frizzy, fine petals while others are sterile (the staminodes) and devoid of anthers. All these floral pieces are red with a cream border at flowering, the cream border turning golden-yellow when fully open. The young foliage unfolds into large, green, glossy, highly dissected leaves. They are carried by a petiole that divides into 3, with lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate segments. In this variety, the flowers are very lightly scented. The leaflets are entire or sometimes lobed. They disappear 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.

Peonies are among those plants that form the backbone of a garden. In the past, every garden, from the most modest to the most elaborate, proudly displayed clumps of flowers that made their way into the house, keeping company in each bouquet with purple lilacs and blue bellflowers. Opulent and generous, Nippon Beauty peonies can be planted in a border or along a path, associated with timeless and unpretentious perennials such as columbines, bellflowers, grasses, carnations, or Christmas roses. It will also increase the flower supply for bouquets in the vegetable garden. Growing it in a pot is not recommended, as its needs will not be met. Over time, your peony will become majestic and bloom more abundantly, producing up to 60 flowers. Note that the flowers of Nippon Beauty sometimes lack a little in terms of vase life.