California Peony
Paeonia californica, California peony
The California peony is blooming at the Regional Parks Botanic Garden at Tilden in Berkeley. I’d never seen one blooming before. To quote Las Pilitas, “You need perfect drainage, a very green thumb, and luck with this one.”
Paeonia californica, California peony
Deborah Small’s Ethnobotany Blog has a beautiful photo of one growing wild.
— Addendum —
California Peony going dormant
A photo of the peony going dormant in early July.
Tags: california peony
This entry was posted on Monday, May 4th, 2009 at 9:06 am and is filed under california natives, plants, public gardens, tilden. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
May 4th, 2009 at 11:14 am
As pretty as it is, I don’t think I want to grow it.
May 4th, 2009 at 11:27 am
That’s how I feel too, a plant to admire in the bot garden or hiking if you’re lucky, but too challenging for my small garden. Cool flower, though.
May 4th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Yes, very cool. I saw my first one of these weekend before last in our local mountains. The one you pictured is much more intensely and lusciously colored and might prompt a braver gardener than I am to try to grow it.
May 4th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
How lovely! I really like the leaves! Have to read up on it, might be worth a try if I can get one. Worst thing that can happen is compost ;->
May 5th, 2009 at 11:12 am
I had no idea that there was a native peony here! And it’s so gorgeous. I’d be curious to know if it’s fragrant. I must make a trip to the botanical park – and as Town Mouse says, the worst I could do is kill it…I’ve killed lots of plants.