I am wondering if there is sufficient interest to do either a color or form series this year. In previous years, we did a color series. Maybe it is more interesting to change and post pics of peonies based on form rather than colors this time around. I am in no way an expert on peony flower forms so this will be a learning experience for me as well. What do you all think?

Great idea, Karen! You know I love talking about peonies!

Another thread with pretty peony pics? All for it!

Sounds good, however, camera often can not capture the color accurately.
It is a pity what you see in the photo is not often what you saw in real life.

For flower forms, one cultivar can have different flower forms.

You guys can also do a flare series.

Good idea Yes, our camera may not catch the colours exactly, but we can have an idea... On the flower forms, I would appreciate any discussion on this topic because I keep mixing "rose", "chrysanthemum" and "lotus" peony flower forms.

How about a new thread for any seedlings？Any seedling might take 3 to 5+ more years of waiting till its first bloom，we should share the excitement for those new bloomers in our garden。

Oh that would be fun! Go ahead and start a new thread. I don't have any seedlings.

I'm hoping I might have seedlings from Belle Centre. I was going to cut the seed pod for my daughter's nature collection but came back from a week away to find it had exploded, dispersing the seeds. Maybe one will take!

Thanks everybody! It sounds like there is enough interest in doing a series this year! If it is ok with everyone, I think I will go ahead and do a series on Peony Forms this year. There seems to be two systems of classifying peony flower forms, the American system and the Chinese System.

Here is the link to the American system:
https://americanpeonysociety.o...

Here is the link to the Chinese system:
https://www.treepeony.com/page...

Let's use the American system for herbaceous and itoh peonies. We can use the Chinese system for trees peonies. If all is good with this, I can start the threads tomorrow.

@ST52, I am happy to start a seedlings thread separate from the above series. I am sure we all love to see any peony seedlings pics. The issue is I don't think we have many members here with peony seedlings to show though. I myself don't have any seedlings to post. How about we start the peony seedlings threads after the Form series is done. I also would like to do a NOID thread. Many of us got and/or bought peonies with no names or mislabels over the years. It would be interesting to see everyone's NOIDs as well.

Distinguishing Japanese from Anemone is not a skill that I have yet developed. The other form factors I am more comfortable with.

EDIT: A couple of words about color and lighting. Pretty much everything in the environment influences what you see. The blue cast of the sky, reflected light from houses and cars, dappled shadows, and on and on and on. I think that in terms of photographing the unique single frame of something visually appealing, it is more important to get a sense of how something feels, how it really is perceived in that single fleeting moment, than to settle for a 1 to 1 representation of color.



Part of the charm of this variety (Friendship) is that it closes for the night and twilight has the blooms almost ready for the long wait to the rise of the morning sun. Colors and mood change in the low light, and while the colors perhaps aren't at their purest representation, this may be the moment that best defines what this variety can give you.

If the goal is to show the true color and character of a flower, I would suggest that it takes 8-12 photos, that a single one is never enough. One of my disappointments with most peony sales sites is that they seem to want to limit themselves to a single photo to represent a variety when I would happily view a small slide-show for each variety.

Top

Top, agree on everything. Regarding closing the peonies for the night, it is true to almost all young flowers in my garden, even doubles. When I invite somebody to the garden I always say that in the evening the won't see many peonies open.

anyagoro said:When I invite somebody to the garden I always say that in the evening the won't see many peonies open.

That's very interesting, Anya. I don't think that I've noticed much change in the varieties that so far have happened to have bloomed. So much so that Friendship seems a little special. Thanks for giving me something to watch for :)

Top

This sounds fun. We have to remember to be kind and patient with submissions as far as color and forms. Cameras can be tricky and a red can look pink.
I look forward to threads of beautiful flowers in the days and months ahead.

I agree with you Top! I wish all the vendors have the technological expertise to do a website that showcase a mini slideshow of each of their peony for sale. I used to love looking at the Swenson site but I think they did away with this feature. BTW, that is a lovely photo of Friendship! I haven't gone out the garden at night to see peony blooms. This year, I will make it a special project to see and photograph the peonies blooms at different hours of the day.

Just want to clarify - because we are doing a Form series, the Color series will not be done this time. Here is the timeline for the Form Series for Herbaceous and Itohs:
1/6 Bomb
1/8 Doubles
1/10 Semi-Doubles
1/12 Japanese, & Anemones I also have difficulty with these two groups. I put it together so perhaps we can have a discussion for each bloom to help each other identify which group the blooms belongs to.
1/14 Singles
1/16 Unusual Forms

Break

Timeline for Tree Peonies:
1/18 Singles, Lotus
1/20 Chrysanthemums, Rose
1/22 Hundred Proliferate, Golden Circle, Thousand Petal Crown, Hydrangea Globular
1/24 Peony Seedlings Exhibition

If anyone has suggestion to improve the above, please let me know. The goal is to have fun!

Karen, Becky announced their ordering website in late December and said they were still working on their website. Now it is fully functioning with flowers on several stages for each peony. It takes a lot of time to load all images on my home computer because our internet is pretty slow

THat's good to know, Anya! I am so glad that they keep this feature on their website. I love going through their catalogs and seeing all the blooms from bud to fade.

I invited Nick and Craig to join us posting on the Peony Form Series. If you know anyone else who maybe interested in participating, please invite them to join us too.

colour can not only vary with the camera but also the monitor. I would love to contribute to the unusual form group and the seedlings

I'll try to play when I can as well, just have very minimal pics from the last few years and the names on those are sometimes jumbled. Hoping to be in AL more this spring and maybe even full time by the following year, then you all will have to fight to get your pics in 'cause I'll be posting so many!