Excerpts from February 2010

President's Column by Blaine Marchand

Greetings from Pakistan, where winter is more like a Canadian spring than the cold, snowy Canadian season. As I start my new position as President of the Canadian Peony Society, I am here working at the Canadian High Commission on behalf of the Canadian International Development Agency, where I have worked since the late 1970s. I will finish my term here in August and then will return to Canada and retire so I can spend more time on my writing, my new job as President of your Society, and on the many gardens I have created on a three-acre property in Renfrew County, including gardens that have almost 200 peonies.

Here in Pakistan, the only peony that grows in these parts is the paeonia emodi, which can be found flowering in March in the foothills of the Himalayas. While there are many wonderful private gardens in Islamabad, there is nary a peony in sight, and by and large, when you mention it to people here, the name draws a blank look on faces.

Luckily in Canada, it is a flower with a long tradition and which continues to take a place of honour in public gardens across the country, thanks to the root donations of the Society and its members. This, in my view, is a worthwhile activity of our organization and one that needs to be further developed.

Although winter is not a time we spend in the gardens, our members remain busy in a number of activities within the Society at an administrative level. Brian Porter, Reiner Jakubowski, Marvin Belfour and myself are the committee working to update our Constitution and the Bylaws, as needed. A report on this will be forthcoming and a motion will be presented in June to members. Another committee, André Laurion, Margaret Sequeira and myself, is looking at the important Gilbert Collection, housed with members across the country, to come up with some recommendations on how the Collection can be grown and best used. Information on this will also be presented in the upcoming months.

Our root sale continues to do well and as a fundraiser, it is most successful. There were 153 sold with 225 requests for roots from 35 buyers. It brought $4943.02 to the coffers of the Society. Many thanks to Margaret Sequeira for her work on this.

Another project is being compiled by Quebec director, Martinus Mooijekind – a cd of members’ most beautiful peonies. Martinus is a most enthusiastic director and the hope is to launch the cd at our upcoming AGM and show.

Judi Denny and members from the Oshawa area are working on the 13th annual CPS AGM and show to be held June 12-13, 2010, at the Oshawa Valley Botanical Gardens (OVBG), Ontario in conjunction with the 6th Annual Peony Festival at the Gardens. Speakers, demonstrations, an auction of special peony roots, not to mention the show that will bring blooms from across Canada to be judged will be highlights. Garden tours of the Parkwood National Historic Site (within walking distance of the OVBG) will be offered. More information will be available in the May CPS newsletter and on our web site. So mark your calendars and come to the OVBG, located at 155 Arena Street, Oshawa.

And lastly, a big thank you to Brian Porter as outgoing President for all the work he has done over many years on the Board. It is members that make our Society strong and vibrant. I hope many of you will consider volunteering in the upcoming months and years.

Featured Article - Peony Profile - 'White Innocence'
by Mary Pratte

When people ask me which is my favourite peony, I can never answer.   There are just so many, all with different qualities, that I don’t know where to start!  Some are stunningly beautiful, some smell like the finest perfume, some hold their heads up in a rain and windstorm, and yet others lose their petals well as they sit on the kitchen counter, dropping them one by one with great delicacy.

But, if pushed to choose, one of my favourite peonies has to be ‘White Innocence’.  A giant in the peony world, this peony is the tallest of the herbaceous peonies, topping off at around 5’6” in my garden (I know that because I am 5’ 5” and it is just a little bit taller than I am!

Not only is this an unusual trait, making it a perfect plant to set at the back of a border, but it also has a few other interesting characteristics which make it a showstopper.
First of all, it has stems which are solid and straight, necessitating only four short bamboo canes with twine wrapped around them about 2-3 feet off the ground – this serves as a ‘vase’ in which the stems are held.  I have never had even one want to lean over, never mind bend with inclement weather.  Secondly, the flowers emerge in a totally different fashion from most herbaceous peonies – they have primary flower buds with a series of secondary buds surrounding the main one.  But instead of having the main bud open first, the secondary ones do, making the inflorescence look like a model of the galaxy, the sun at the centre and its surrounding planets orbiting around it.

The open flowers are wonderful as well – much smaller than most herbaceous peony flowers, they measure not much more than 4 inches across.  They are of the most delicate habit, looking like silk flowers one would see attached to a wedding dress.  As the wind blows, these little beauties bob and twirl in the wind.  Finally, when that primary flower opens, it reveals a mass of carpels swirled around each other in the center in what looks like a decorative button. 

‘White Innocence’ is a peony worth searching for and planting in your garden!