Most of us have peonies blooming in May and June. Some people that live in warmer climates will already have flowers in April and those in (very) cold climates will have them in July. Of course you could also grow some very early species to have peonies earlier or use a refrigerator to store the flowers for later use. But to have them in the garden flowering some two months after the normal season is something that few of us will have experienced. Still, this is such an experience I’d like to share here.

Back in 2014 we had the unfortunate event that a severe hailstorm hit us spot-on just at the end of the peony flowering season (June 7th). There was a whole lot of damage, no need to go into details, but none of the above ground foliage and stems of my peonies remained. At the time I grew about 300 different varieties of peonies, mostly herbaceous hybrids and lactifloras, next to some intersectionals and shrubby peonies. None of them was lost due to the event, they all flowered the following year, although several of them with fewer stems and flowers. Remarkably Coral Sunset flowered better the next season thanks to the fact that the leaf nematodes that were present didn’t have a chance of dispersing themselves from the buds to the foliage below it, which was one of two nice suprises. The other surprise was that there was one variety that started growing again, growing strong and flowering some two months later in the midst of Summer. That variety was the intersectional Canary Brilliants.

I didn’t have too many plants of it at the time, so the following year (after seeing there was no damage to them), they were dug, divided and replanted. Now, 2018, we are three years later, they have grown into large mature plants (about 160 of them) and I though the time right to do some ‘repeat’ experimenting. Thus right after flowering, June 6th, I took out my ‘mowing’-machine and mowed 100 of them flat. Not an easy task as there were many partly woody stems as is usually the case with intersectionals. Not a single leaf was left, otherwise the plants might not be triggered to start growing again from their secondary buds.

At the end of the flowering season

Mowing them down (June 6th)

And indeed, a few weeks later, the new buds started growing. We did have very unusually hot weather this Summer with nearly always day temperatures of 30-35°C (86°F-95°F) with some outliers at 38°C (100°F) some days. This will not happen every year of course, I live in Belgium, not in Greece or Italy. At around July 23 they started flowering, right up until the end of that month, thus some 45 days after mowing down. I suppose in a normal year, they will start flowering at the beginning of August and will flower for about two weeks as Canary Brilliants does during a normal season. There are not as many flowers as in May/June, but I got an average of 5 flowers per plant, which is not too bad I would think (and I suppose if the weather were not as hot, more buds would have developed). The stems are a little less sturdy, but still more than sturdy enough as you would expect from an intersectional. The flower bud now is rounded, whilst in May/June they were for the most part pointed and only the very last ones had round buds then. The flower size and stem length are as usual. As anyone will know that has used intersectionals as cut flowers, they tend to open rather fast and their vase life is somewhat less compared to usual peony cut flowers. The fast opening is something that cannot easily be resolved, surely when temperatures are as high as they were this year, but when you remove nearly all the foliage (up until the bud with perhaps one small upper leaf remainig (and the ‘involucrate bract’ against the bud itself)) they do have a good vase life (when placed out of sun and sheltered from wind of course).

Growing again

Unfortunately no other intersectional but Canary Brilliants has shown this phenomenon, thus I’m currently restricted to only one peony variety. Other intersectionals that were growing here and thus don’t give a second blooming season when mowed down: Garden Treasure, Bartzella, Cora Louise, First Arrival, Momo Taro, Hillary, Callie’s Memory, Millennium. Perhaps there are other intersectionals that might be usable, but I have not been buying many new ones the last years.

First ones growing fine July 1st, whilst some others just mowed down on the right.

End of July with on the left those mowed down June 6th, on the right those mowed down July 1st and after that the Canary Brilliants plants that were not mowed down. The foliage tends to become darker with the palest green on the last mowed down ones and the darkest those that were left to grow.

The nice thing about Canary Brilliants compared to many of the other ones is that the bud, when opened indoors, has a nice orange cast to it, something which quickly disappears outside due to sunshine and turning the flowers to yellow. It also flowers over a long period, is very floriferous, has sturdy stems and is tall and upright. An extra bonus is that is has a very agreeable strong fragrance. It thus makes a good cutflower even if it weren’t for this reblooming capability.

Ready to be sold, nice round buds this time.

Just opened (left), influence of the sunshine (right)

I also mowed down some plants about a month later, July 1st. But, although every plant also grew again, not many of them made flowers again. Only about 1 in every 3 plants gave me 1 flower, which is a bit too few to make it worthwile I would think.

Opened indoors at the end of July

It remains to be seen whether one could repeat this each and every year without damage to the plants. But if not so, then perhaps once every two  years might also be a viable commercial option if you grow them for cutflowers. I will be digging them again in October and I’ll see if there’s any difference between my different treatments (I left some of them as they were and didn’t mow them down). It might be an interesting niche for some commercial cutflower growers or for some gardeners as well to have peonies blooming when only Alaska has them in flower.

last updated by Linda 2 years, 1 month ago
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    • #20484
      khurtekant
      Moderator

      If you’d like to comment on this article, please do so below, your replies will be available both in the forum and under the article itself.
      [Read the full article: Reblooming peonies]

    • #21847

      Lest we forget, here are some pictures I’ve taken from the roots now that they have been dug. The first picture shows both the comparison between a plant that has been mowed down after flowering (right) and one that was left to grow (left). The one mowed down still had green foliage and stems of course. Then the next three images, the first one is from the ‘normal’ Canary Brilliants, and the remaining two from the rebloomer. I couldn’t see any difference between the number of eyes (buds), the only real difference is that the ones on the mowed down one are much smaller. That would seem obvious as many of the secondary buds from the Spring growing season were ‘activated’ into growing during Summer and even some new buds on the Spring flowering stems (you can see that if you look good at the images (click them to enlarge)). New buds were developed amongst those new stems, but they didn’t have as much time to develop into large buds as yet. Still, they are there and I’m sure they will grow fine.

      I should add that the rebloomers had many stems without flowers. Thus the average 5 flowers per plant in the article means that I did have some 5 flowering stems and perhaps another 7 not flowering, thus say some 12 stems in total. The remark that during a normal season (without those unusually hot days we experienced this year) more flowers would be attainable is based upon the fact that several of the not flowering stems showed a dried up bud and I attribute that to the extremely fast growing. It is well known from research (in Israel) that very high temperatures during growth can result in some aborted flower buds. Of course, some stems without a flower is not too bad as you need stems with foliage on to have new buds developing. Alternatively it would be wise, when cutting during Summer, to leave part of the stem with foliage on, something which is not too difficult as Canary Brilliants has tall stems that at times reach 120 cm (4 feet).

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    • #25877
      Marina Mas
      Participant

      What a great info!
      This is the second time I am hearing about an intersectional peony reblooming. The other was a Bartzella, also after leaves were removed. Curious why it would sometimes rebloom and sometimes ignore being mowed over.

    • #25878
      khurtekant
      Moderator

      I didn’t know Bartzella was able to rebloom as well. At the time of the hail-storm I also had Bartzella, but it did not regrow. But as a cut flower Bartzella isn’t very interesting anyway, it doesn’t hold well in a vase, whereas Canary Brilliants does (though it opens fast). Some hybridizers cut off the first stems of a double-flowering variety to have the secondary buds start growing smaller stems with less double flowers in the hope of having more pollen or usable carpels. But that is usually done early in the season, say somewhere in March. With Canary Brilliants, if you do it shortly after it has flowered beginning June, it works, but if you wait a few weeks it’s not much worthwhile, it will regrow but you’ll hardly have any flowers. I do suppose there will be other intersectionals capable of regrowth this way, but these last years I haven’t bought any new ones, thus I have only tried the older ones (mostly from Roger Anderson).

      This is what they looked like back then, June 7th, 2014

      7 juli hagelstorm26 pioen voor

      I didn’t take photos of them at reblooming time then, but here they are in a vase that Summer, somewhere at the end of July, beginning of August:

      open

       

    • #28663
      Linda
      Participant

      Dear Sir,
      Have you done the reblooming experiments from 2018 to 2021?
      Are there any new progress?
      Looking forward to your kind share.

    • #28664
      khurtekant
      Moderator

      Hello Linda,

      Yes I have. It has always worked, although some additional remarks can be made. One year I’ve cut them down in the same month three times, to spread the flowering time in Summer. Each 10 days later meant far fewer flowers. Here in Belgium peonies usually flower in May, with most of the lactifloras around 20-30 May. Canary Brilliants is in the beginning of that period, around May 20 mostly. Cutting down June 1st works fine. June 10th and June 20th are progressively worse. This year was a remarkably cold and wet Spring and they only started flowering in June instead of halfway May. I thus waited until most of them had flowered before cutting down, hence this was around June 15th, when the last flowers were still on the plants. It seems the flowering time is no good predictor of the time to mow them down, I had very few flowers. It’s clear they have to be cut down around June 1st or possibly even earlier to have the blooming at the end of July, beginning of August. That means in a ‘late’ year, they’ll have to be cut down before their first flowering. This does limit the advantages of it somewhat you’ll surely agree. But such late years are a rare exception here, and becoming even rarer due to climate warming.

      I’ve also tried to add some GA3 to the plants after cutting them down as this is often done to remove cold requirements. It didn’t help at all. I guess the secondary buds simply start growing because the main stems have been cut down. It is well-known from reports by some hybridizers that you can cut down the main stems from double (lactiflora) varieties early in the season to induce the secondary buds to start growing (which may be less double and hence more usable in a breeding program). That has to be done when they have only sprouted a few weeks at most. I think Canary Brilliants simply reacts longer to this phenomenon compared to other varieties and that it has nothing to do with cold requirements of the secondary buds.

      I’ve not propagated my field of Canary Brilliants (some 750 plants) anymore. The flowers sell well in July/August, but the fact remains that that time of the year is when most people are on holiday and most florists close shop, thus demand is quite low anyway. And next to that July/August is, on average, warmer than May, thus they open rather fast. Canary Brilliants as a cut flower already opens too fast in my opinion, but in such warmer weather it’s nearly impossible to sell them easily. You cut them at the right stage in the morning. Put them in a vase and by evening they’re fully open, that’s too fast. Okay for some florists that have a wedding planned and so on, but for general customers that go to a flower shop and decide there what they’re going to buy, they are simply too far open. Given also that you have the remove all the foliage, which is quite a lot of work, I think it can only be a small ‘niche’-product. I’ve tried some other varieties as well this year, with GA3 added, but all I got was some leaflets and no flowers.

      So, that’s the story up to now. I don’t think much will be added in the near future. Perhaps the tree peony High Noon has some genetics that may be used to proceed in this direction (or Oukan, one of its’ (more fertile?) seedlings), but I myself am not working on this.

    • #28665
      Linda
      Participant

      Thanks for your soon reply.
      You do try your best to find out many important details,such as “mow down on June 1st work fine”,GA3 does not help,etc.
      Itoh peonies do bloom quickly and have quite short vase life. Still there are some methods to extend the life of the Itoh peony.
      In China, we also find some varieties can rebloom at early automn.

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