Renaming has always been a thing.
I recall reading that a peony named 'Queen Victoria' (and that name should give you an idea about how long ago this happened) was actually a renaming of Whitleyi and was in commerce. Sometime about that time Kelway released their cultivar named 'Queen Victoria' and here we go with two different cultivars with the same name, one of which also now has an AKA name. (The time frame for this was around 1910.)
This story continues a bit... Hollingsworth asked for folks to send in their family grown cultivars and from the mid-west he got a lot of white peonies that were all the same variety. There is no way to know for sure, but it is probably Whitleyi. Anyhow, Hollingsworth sells it under some abbreviated name that I can't recall (and their website is down pending a catalog update).
The reason that I have this tale to tell is that my wife's family has had a white peony that has been handed down since at least the late 1930's. And it appears to be the same plant as what Hollingsworth collected. I also spent a few weeks in the spring visiting cemeteries and if peonies were allowed, every cemetery had at least one example of this white, with some having 5 or 6 plantings of it. Regardless of what commerce is wanting to sell, this nearly unsold white seems to be the most common peony in my area.
Top
