Oh wow that's stunning!! What is this flower?? What's TP?

TP = tree peony. Erqaio is a beautiful bicolor tree peony. Thanks for sharing the picks. I thought mine were ahead, but nowhere near blooming. Just starting to leaf out. Jujujojo, where r u?

Beautiful!

â¢Posted by graycrna4u 7 (graycrna4u@att.net) on
Sun, Mar 30, 14 at 17:43

I am in zone 7? Hmm?

Gorgeous flowers! Thank you for sharing them!

I am in Zone 7 and my TPs are just starting to leaf out. Where at in Zone 7? I am in North Carolina.

I'm in zone 6, upstate NY, and my Hua Er Qiao tree peonies are not anywhere close to what you have. They have barely started to break their leaves out of the buds.

â¢Posted by graycrna4u 7 (graycrna4u@att.net) on
Tue, Apr 1, 14 at 19:39

â¢Posted by stevelau1911 6 (My Page) on
Tue, Apr 1, 14 at 20:12

I am sorry that I have not made myself clear. The pictures were taken in zones 8 or 9. I live in zone 7.

steve lau,

Yours look like new purchase. I planted two hydrangeas of the same size into two pots. One pot is very large, the other is small. This year, the hydrangea in the large pot is significantly larger than the one in the small pot. I wonder if your pots are too small?

This post was edited by jujujojo on Tue, Apr 1, 14 at 23:15

I thought there is nobody here, then I realize there are a lot of viewings without posting. I want to ask a few interesting questions:

1. Is there a way to tell the future blooming color of a flower bud?

2. Is there a way to influence the future blooming color of a flower bud?

3. Are there any triggers (like sun exposure, temperature, location of branch, etc ) that make a bloom pink?

4. Are there any-triggers that make a bloom purple?

5. Are there any-triggers that make a bloom bi-colored?

6. It appears some flowers can produce seeds. What are the seedlings, if the seeds can be viable, look like?

This post was edited by jujujojo on Tue, Apr 1, 14 at 23:59

The roots were just too long so even though they are planted all the way to the bottom of the pot, some of them just won't fit all the way down, but that's fine with me. These are just 2 gallon pots.

Peonies are pretty easy to produce from seed as long as you have viable seeds and keep squirrels, slugs or other pests from eating them.

Some of them are well ahead of the hua er qiaos, and look like they will flower this year. The ones in these pictures are new purchases from last fall.

Here is a link that might be useful: first year seedlings

I decided to try out some spring grafting with hua er qiao. I know they are already breaking out of dormancy, but it's still worth a shot to see if the grafts will take. I have 6 of them, and in a couple days, I'll be able to see if they will actually heal.

I know fall and winter grafts will take, but I'll keep taking grafts just to find out when I can take them successfully.

steve lau, so you divided a plant into 6 parts and inserted them into much thicker "trunks". But the "trunks" do not seem to have root themselves. Could you do a little explanation?

The herbaceous nurse roots have a lot of starches stored in their cambium layer which in itself will be enough to push energy into the tree peony section if it takes well. In terms of water, the skin of the cambium is also capable of absorbing water. There are certain conditions that must be met for the graft to succeed however success rates are known to be fairly high with Chinese tree peonies.

This is similar to putting a potato into the soil. Once there are leaves produced, the plant will produce buds on each node, and those buds, or apical points will send auxins down into the nurse root which will cause the nurse root to develop roots. This usually only happens once the buds for the following year are well formed. The roots will start as callus bundles iow stem cells which differentiate into roots.

One way to get a newly grafted peony to form it's own roots and not rely on the nurse root quickly is to make a few cuts in the cambium right above the graft point so the auxins and starches will form callus tissue there, and form roots fairly quickly or else, they would likely form at the bottom of the nurse root without interruption for the first year.

I

l, that is great. I hope all six make it wonderfully.

When I bought a few, I planted them immediately. I dared not to do grafting or any advanced techniques on them.

There is a TP documentary (here). From 21:43, it interviewed one of the biggest TP growers in the Netherland. Followed by a visit to the most important TP growing region of Japan from 23:32 to 29:20. According to it, all 9 TP species have been successfully planted in a wild TP reserve in Mt Funiu of Luoyang, China. The video shows all 9 wild TP species from 42:03 to 42:53.

Grafting's not that advanced of a technique as long as you have the proper tools, and sanitation materials which I do.

It has only been 4 days, but I believe most of them have cured and will be planting them out today.

I wonder, what species should I try making a few more grafts of, or will it continue to work.

steve, how are yours doing? Did they surviveï¼Â

Some of them still look firm so maybe. It is not warm enough outside to cause explosive growth yet especially since the soil temperature is still in the 30s here in upstate NY.

Even most of my fall grafted tree peonies which have taken are hesitant to start growing for good reason. Given them 2 more weeks, and I should see better results.

Posted by stevelau1911 6 (My Page) on Tue, Apr 22, 14 at 21:04

Do you have any updates? Did they survive?