This type of woody (tree) peony hybrid was the most widely available Chinese form in the west until the country became more open in the late 1980’s. Only then were Chinese exporters able to supply other types (see Gansu Mudan) which had a different specific history. Suffruticosa hybrids are thought to have developed from P.spontanea, P.ostii and P.rockii, although the absence or muted presence of basal petal blotches suggests that the latter is of least significance. These have been cultivated in China for over 2000 years and many hundreds of varieties exist and were the first to be exported to the west. Their hybridisation continues to this day, mainly in China itself, although Riviere in France has produced several plants which he describes as hybrids of suffruticosa.For examples see the Suffruticosa group within the Gallery Index.

This is a name introduced fairly recently to group together tree peonies that have been hybridised in Gansu province. Unlike Central Plains hybrids, the predominant species in their history is P.rockii which accounts for the pronounced black or black-red blotch or flare at the base of the petals. They come in flowers ranging from single to fully double, some with flattened stamens (stamenoids) and in colours ranging from pure white to dark red. No yellow exists (yet) but some, sold as yellow are just very pale cream. Many Gansu Mudan are white with dark blotches and bear a very srrong resemblance to the true species P.rockii, and there is still argument amongst botanists as to whether the original P.rockii imported by seeds in the late 1920s is the true species or simply a fine specimen of Gansu Mudan. For examples see the Gansu Mudan group within the Gallery Index.

Some continental nurseries refer to this group of hybrids as ‘Px lemoine’ in recognition of the fact that the amongst the first (western) hybrids having a true yellow in their coloring were produced by Emile Lemoine (L’Esperance 1910 and several others). These hybrids are still widely available but many more using the yellow fiorm of delavayi (lutea) were hybridised in America by Prof Arthur Saunders. Others, using the deep red form were also created and plants with flowers approaching true orange were produced, although the colouring tends to fade to yellow after a few days. Some of the yellows - Souvenir de Maxime Cornu(Kinkakau), Chromatella(Kinshi), High Noon(Hainun or Hai Huang), Alice Harding(Kinko) and L’Esperance have been re-exported by the Japanese (and now the Chinese) and are often sold under different names. For examples see the Hybrids of delavayi (lutea) group within the Gallery Index.

Japan has no endemic tree peonies and so imported Central Plains plants from China have been used for many centuries as a base from which to develop the Japanese ideal of floral beauty - enomous flowers in vivid colours on an upright plant. Thus many Japanese tree peonies have truly enormous flowers with bright colours (particularly the reds). However, some are reluctant to produce more than one main shoot and require hard pruning to stimulate side growth.
This is not intended to be a put-down, the author has often stared in amazed delight as a new plant has opened its colossal flowers. Occasional westen use of a Japanese plant as a breeding partner has yielded good results, for example, the tree peony ‘Lydia Foote’ has as its parents ‘Rock’s UK’ (rockii) and a double white Japanese plant. The result is a tree peony whose flowers are enormous, yet of superb form and appearance.

Taxonomists have long disagreed about the classification of species (i.e. wild) tree peonies and there are still unsettled arguments amongst learned botanists as to the ‘correctness’ of classifications. The writer is not qualified to comment critically on this topic and will content himself by listing the ‘more or less’ recognised species and tentatively mentioning that DNA analysis would seem to be the way forward through this thorny thicket.

P.jishanensis. P.ostii,P.qiui,P.rockii,P.rockii ssp.linyanshanii,P.szechuanica, P.yannanensis,P.yunnanensis,P.delavayi,P.lutea,P.potanini.

The picture to the right is of P.delavayi

When Joseph Rock distributed seeds in the West that he had collected from a superb tree peony in China, he introduced a plant that subsequently attained an almost mythical status amongst gardeners. Seen illustrated in reference books,it was impossible (or nearly so) for the interested gardener to obtain. When China had recovered from the Maoist inspired horrors of the ‘Cultural Revolution’ and started to embrace ‘openness’ and their peonies began to appear again in the West, it rapidly became clear that there were many hybrid plants on offer which bore a very close resemblance to Rock’s seedlings (which in themselves, varied slightly from each other). This fact led some taxonomists to question whether Rock’s plants were, in fact, true species. The llustration on the right is a vegetativly reproduced plant from the one at Sir Frederick Stern’s Highdown Garden in W.Sussex.