Paeonia peregrina

The Paeonia peregrina, sometimes called the travelling peony, is one of the most splendid botanical peonies in Central Europe. This wild plant, rare in cultivation, offers flowering of dazzling red. It chooses the end of spring, or sometimes the beginning of summer, to bloom in large flowers visible from far away, in simple cups adorned with prominent golden stamens. Rather late flowering, enhanced by foliage of brilliant dark green, deeply cut. This perennial plant of mountain origin is grown in ordinary, well-drained, rather moist soil, in full sun or partial shade.

The Peregrina peony is a fleshy rhizomatous perennial herbaceous plant, native to the mountains of Western Asia (central Turkey) and Southern Europe (Balkans, Italy, southern Romania), where it grows in clear forests, up to 1500 m (4921ft) altitude. It belongs to the family of renunculaceae or peoniaceae. It is a relatively hardy plant, especially when protected by a snowy mantle. Its growth is slow during the first years, the plant eventually forming a bushy clump of 40 to 50 cm (16 to 20in) in all directions. Its sticky stems bear leaves divided into 15 to 17 leaflets, 5 to 12 cm (2 to 5in) long, bright green on the upper side, dull and bluish on the underside. The flowers, in the shape of a simple cup, appear in May-June, at the end of the stems. They measure 7 to 10 cm (3 to 4in) in diameter and are composed of shiny petals like ray florets, intense red with magenta highlights, surrounding a large heart of yellow stamens. This flowering is followed by the formation of black, round and smooth seeds, which germinate after exposure to cold.

Peonies are among those plants that form the foundations of a garden. Not so long ago every garden, from the most modest to the most elaborate, proudly displayed clumps of fragrant peony flowers that made their way into the house, keeping lilacs and bluebells company in bouquets. Brilliant and wild, the Peregrina peony settles into a well-drained bed, cool rockery or alongside a path, associated with timeless perennials such as columbines, bellflowers, hellebores, carnations, or Christmas roses. Cultivation in pots is not recommended, as its needs will not be met. Over time the peony becomes majestic, multiplies, and blooms more and more abundantly.