Paeonia lactiflora Red Charm

Paeonia lactiflora Red Charm is one of the beautiful and easy-to-grow peonies that bloomed faithfully in our grandparents' gardens, providing opulent and fragrant flowers for borders as well as effortless bouquets. It stands out with its large and beautiful, fully double, rounded flowers in a rich, deep, and intense red. Each flower showcases a large cluster of pointed petals set on a corolla of wider and flattened petals. In addition to its beauty, this early-flowering Chinese peony also boasts a pleasant scent and sturdy stems that hold up well both in the garden and in a vase. A reliable choice!

Chinese 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 Ranunculaceae or Paeoniaceae family.

The Red Charm variety is a creation dating back to 1944, awarded in the USA in 1956. It is the result of cross-breeding between two botanical species, Paeonia lactiflora and P.officinalis. The plant forms a dense, bushy, herbaceous clump from spring onwards, reaching 90 cm (35in) in all directions. Its very large, fully double flowers appear rather early, around early May depending on the climate, lasting for about two weeks at the ends of the stems. They emerge as large dark red buds and then open up into prominent, elegantly disheveled pompoms, surrounded by a crown of wider and flattened petals. The vegetation of this variety is vigorous, and its stems generally do not require staking despite the weight of the flowers. The young shiny and purple foliage unfolds into large, dark green, deeply cut leaves. They are carried on a petiole that divides into 3, with lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate segments. The leaflets are entire or sometimes lobed. The foliage disappears in winter, while the buds persist at ground level and will develop again in spring. This long-lived perennial plant grows from a large fleshy root that does not appreciate being moved.

Easy to grow, Chinese peonies thrive in any loose and rather moist soil, in full sun. Robust and reliable, they may take some time to establish, but they grow year after year and can live for more than 50 years, outlasting the one who planted them. These robust perennials are among the plants that form the foundations of a garden. In the past every garden, from the humblest to the most elaborate, proudly displayed clumps of peonies covered with fragrant flowers that made their way into the house, keeping company in bouquets with purple lilacs and blue campanulas. Opulent and generous, beautifully scented, the Red Charm Chinese peony thrives in borders or alongside pathways, paired with timeless and unpretentious perennials such as dark blue irises, columbines, campanulas, perennial geraniums, carnations, or Christmas roses. It can also be grown in the vegetable garden to supply cut flowers for the house. Growing it in a pot 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.