| I had a great time presenting some talks on peonies and getting to meet other garden enthusiasts over the past week. Even though we were having some pretty rough, snowy weather folks showed up and we talked peonies. Many were amazed to see the slides showing the wide number of flower forms and color combinations. Excitment was even greater when they learned that not all peonies fall down. There were plenty of questions on tree peonies which seem to be gaining in interest for gardens that now have more shade than sun. I will be putting together a special presentation for the National Hosta Society on which peonies are suitable for shaded gardens. Hope you are having fun dreaming of this coming garden season. We know that we are!
A wide selection of some of the most fragrant and colorful peonies help brighten up your flower garden. Brigitte and I have spent a week cleaning and planting up our new crop of peony seeds that will provide the peonies of the future. A very few Itoh group hybrid seeds were produced by crossing a P. lactiflora cultivar with a fertile Lutea Hybrid Tree Peony. Our large planting of our next generation of hardy tree peonies bring together a combination of P. ostii, P. rockii, and the P. lutea hybrids. Despite a poor seed production year we still managed to plant more than 300 different seed varieties. Some crosses produced only a single seed while others provided over 100 seeds. All together over 10,500 seeds were planted and will produce a root during their warm moist germination period followed by an overwinter cold period after which the seedlings will emerge. Most excitng were some of the first time seeds produced on such reluctant hybrid parents as Alexander Woollcott, Athena, Bright Knight, Coral Charm, Edward Steichen, Flame, Golden Glow, Illini Warrior and Prairie Moon. A total of 27 seeds were produced from these 9 varieties so we are really hoping to get them all the way trough to a flowering plant as I may not see seed on these varieties again for many many years. Most years these hybrids produce no seeds at all despite hundreds of flowers being pollenated, so perhaps this particularly cold spring last year was just what was needed to encourage the seeds to develop. Few gardeners realize that the time required from planting a peony seed to introduction to the public is typically 20 years. Most of the seedlings to bloom are not superior to their parents so a grower must have strict guidelines to quickly eliminate the seedlings that don't make the grade.
Formost for us is that the seedling must exhibit good vigorous growth and freedom from foliage disease. They are evaluated every year until they begin to bloom around year 5 and only the best make it to the next round. | 
