Common name: Veitch's Peony.

A charming, relatively low-growing herbaceous peony, hardy to USDA Zone 3 or possibly colder, and over several years has shown that it is suitable for the wetter east coast climate as well. At this point we don't have any first hand knowledge of its suitability to the warmer west coast. It's been an easy and low maintenance plant for me, responding well to neglect. Sturdy stems of upright habit, with a bit of an outward lean to produce an almost dome-shaped bush form by the age of 6 or so; height: 1-1½' or a bit taller in cultivation, and to 4½' wide in an older plant. It has a slowly creeping rootstock which can extend to a breadth of more than 3', and is fairly generous with seed formation once it has been flowering for a few years. I seem to recall reading somewhere that this species is fairly popular in parts of Quebec, but of course can't find the source again.

Native to NW China (in the provinces of Gausu, Sichuan and Shensi), where it grows in subalpine meadows and scrub, and mountain grasslands at altitudes between 2500 to 3500 metres.

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How to Grow:

Light required: Sun to partial shade; P. veitchii is more shade tolerant than the garden peonies of P. lactiflora extraction, and it does nicely for me along the margins of woodland clearings as well as in more direct sun.

Soil: does well for me in a good loam* with reliable moisture, and good drainage especially in winter; in drier climates than the east coast it will probably be happy in clay: thus, the same soil composition which works well for your normal garden peonies**. Grows and flowers adequately in a moderately fertile soil, but benefits from a top-dressing of compost each fall. Responds well to wood ashes strewn about with the top-dressing of compost. It has few pests and is seldom bothered by disease. P. veitchii was untouched by botrytis which affected several of my garden cultivars and hybrids during the cool wet summer of 2000.

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Foliage: is very attractive. Average density; mid-green or a bit darker with perhaps a tint of olive; and of fine texture. The leaves are divided into pointed segments and sub-segments, which are somewhat fine compared to the garden peonies, but much more coarse than P. tenuifolia. Leaves are covered in minute bristles. Some plants have foliage with an interesting etched-like appearance to the veining, while that of others appears smooth. Mid-red buds form at or just above the surface of the ground in autumn and commence growth quite early in spring. The red colouration quickly fades to an olive tint and is virtually indistinguishable from my P. anomala at this stage. The foliage maintains a great appearance right up to the first frost with no ornamentally interesting colour-change.

Paeonia veitchii in bud

Paeonia veitchii embossed leaf plant

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Flowers: are about 2-3" in diameter, single, with 5 to 10 petals in shades of pink ranging from cotton-candy to light rose or even magenta-red, with a cluster of yellow anthers around the centre of 2 to 4 pale green carpels (ovaries). Semi-cupped and sort-of blousey. Quite lovely in their simplicity and nodding habit. On my plants, those with the lighter pink flowers mostly had 5 petals, while the darker ones mostly had 10 petals, but I don't know if this would be universal. I haven't noted any fragrance from the flowers. This is one of the species that forms sidebuds, which greatly extend the duration of bloom; the sidebuds are formed on separate small stems at the upper leaf axils of the main stems. In a good year my plants form 5 buds per stem, of which only 3 actually come into bloom. Flowers on the sidebuds are smaller than the primary flower at the top of the main stem.

Paeonia veitchii embossed leaf plant.

Paeonia veitchii

This species is one of the earliest to bloom, being just ahead of P. tenuifolia here, and in my garden is about 3 weeks ahead of the majority of the garden peonies. During 2000, my first veitchii blossomed on 30 May, and some sidebuds were still in bloom at the end of June. After flowering, the developing carpels are mostly somewhat hairy but may be smooth. When the seeds are ripe the carpels on some plants will take on a reddish hue, others will remain green, and the hairy ones will be brown-ish. The seeds are large and blue-ish, definitely ornamental if allowed to stay on the plant.

Paeonia veitchii carpels

Paeonia veitchii seed pod open

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Forms and subspecies: F. Stern wrote that veitchii was one of the later-blooming plants in England, which caused me some difficulty in being sure of the identity of my plants. However, a seed list has made mention of a late-blooming form, and I'm surmising that perhaps he had one of these to hand when he was doing his study; at the time there was not a lot of plant material to work from. There is a white-flowered form of veitchii, which should be an exquisite thing.

More formally there is P. veitchii subsp. woodwardii, which is a dwarf of height to 1', and has longer bristles on the leaf-veins. It is native to yak pastures at about 3000m elevation, in Gansu and NW Sichuan; a photo shows it having the etched-type vein appearance.

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Garden uses: the flowers are popular with bees of all types. Plants are of a size suitable for Rock Gardens (especially the subspecies) as well as more traditional perennial border plantings, where they can serve well in front of the taller and later-blooming garden peonies. Their tolerance to some shade makes them suitable to interplant among larger shrubs or in woodland clearings. They'd make a fine low herbaceous hedge, and would go nicely in a wildflower meadow. Plant them anywhere that a good reliable foliage effect is wanted. The flowers are suitable for cut flower arrangements, although not as much so as the garden peonies, but the season is earlier.

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Similar species: Paeonia anomala in some of its forms is at first glance very similar. I'll describe the more useful differences in the forthcoming article on that species.

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* Loam: in horticulture, a specific soil composition consisting of roughly equal parts of sand, silt and clay; organic content is not relevant to this definition.

** Garden Peonies: I use this to mean collectively the named cultivars of P. lactiflora and its hybrids.

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Leo Smit
Mt. Uniacke, Nova Scotia
Chair
Species Group of the Canadian Peony Society

Species photos by Leo Smit