Peonies strut their stuff

The people's choice is Hillary. Not the pantsuited presidential candidate, but the pink-petaled peony that shares her name.

"Everybody wants a Hillary," said Denese Erickson, a member of the Minnesota Peony Society.

Why? Looks are part of the appeal. The popular -- and pricey -- plant has a complex color pattern that shifts throughout its blooming season, with shadings of peach, mauve and rose.

Hillary also boasts a hot pedigree. It's one of the new intersectional hybrids, a cross between a tree peony and a herbaceous peony, and it's generating big buzz in gardening circles. Intersectionals, which combine the best qualities of each form, will be in the spotlight this weekend when the American Peony Society (APS) holds its national convention, "Parade of Peonies," in Bloomington.

"Minnesota is a peony hotbed," said Harvey Buchite, APS president and owner of Hidden Springs Flower Farm in Spring Grove, Minn. The state is home to a number of prominent peony growers, and many intersectionals are being developed and propagated here.

"It makes sense because peonies are perfectly suited for Minnesota," Buchite said. Unlike many flowering plants, peonies tolerate cold better than heat, he said. "In nature, they're found in some pretty harsh climates."

Tree peonies, the national flower of China, are less common in Minnesota than are herbaceous varieties -- the huge, heavy blooms your Grandma used to grow. But the new intersectionals combine the firm stems and graceful foliage of tree peonies with the toughness of traditional peonies.

And today's peonies come in colors Grandma could only dream of: yellows, oranges, lavenders, mauves and multicolors. There's even a "black" peony, Chief Black Hawk, a 2008 introduction from Century Oaks Peony Farm in Jordan that boasts velvety blooms of deepest burgundy. "It knocks your socks off," Erickson said.

Color isn't the only thing different about today's peonies. "The flower form is changing," Erickson said. "Hybridizers are experimenting with everything on the plant."

And as peonies evolve, their fans are using the plants in different ways, Buchite said. "There's been a major shift in philosophy. We've left the era of the cut-flower peony and shifted to the garden peony. Gardeners are always looking for less labor," he noted. "And putting up peony hoops is labor. Now there's an emphasis on identifying and developing peonies that can be enjoyed in the garden without mechanical support."

This year, for the first time, the APS invited the public to nominate their favorite peonies to receive the Award of Landscape Merit. "We're looking for dependable performers with good strong supportive stems," Buchite said. "It might not be the best cut peony, but the one that remains upright even if it rains hard." (The winner will be announced at this weekend's peony show.)

The new, improved peonies aren't inexpensive. Many varieties cost more than $100, while Chief Black Hawk retails for $349. But "prices have come way down," Buchite said, thanks to the "tissue-culture" propagation technique, which speeds production. It's less consistent, however. "Things can get mixed up genetically," Buchite said. "You can have a yellow peony that blooms pink," for example. "That's the trade-off."