Take a relaxing walk through our English Garden in the summertime, and you’ll come across our beautiful peonies! Did you know that across the Park, we have 75 different varieties of this Paeonia species? Learn more about them below.
Basics: Peony plants are herbaceous and perennial, growing up to 0.25 – 1 metre tall. They have deep leaves and fragrant flowers and can range in a variety of colours, such as pink, red, and purple. They also bloom in a variety of ways, from single or double rows of petals to anemone, where the petals encircle a petal-like staminode. Tree peonies are more akin to a shrub, characterized by aerial, woody stems.
Peonies have a short blooming season (around 7 – 10 days) but are popular in a variety of regions.
Habitat: Peonies are native to North America, Asia, and Europe. Most species reside along the Mediterranean and eastern Asia.
Asian Connection to Peonies: China has a long history with peonies, with Tree peonies being first documented in China 1400 years ago! They were crowned the ‘king of flowers’ in the Chinese Tang Dynasty. The Chinese peony, Paeonia lactiflora, for instance, is used as an herbal remedy in traditional Chinese medicine. They also partially boil and sweeten fallen petals from the Paeonia lactiflora plant as a tea-time delicacy.
Guide to Peonies in Assiniboine Park: Here are just a few of the peonies you can expect to find on your next visit to Assiniboine Park this summer:
- Fern leaf peony
- They are magenta and are the first to bloom.
- Pink peonies
- They were initially planted in the Park back in the 1990s!
- Itoh crossed tree peonies
- They have the regular hardiness of a tree with colourful blooms.
- Bowl of beauty peony
- They can be found around the pond at the Leo Mol Sculpture Garden.
- Dark red peony
- Japanese tree peonies
