More tree peonies – Japan, some species and a few yellows.
There are no tree peony species native to Japan, and sometime in the eighth century, the Chinese Moutan found its way into the country, where it became known to the Japanese as the Botan, and over the centuries, developed its own Japanese character. In his book ‘The Moutan or Tree Peony’ Michael Howarth-Booth – never…
Tree peonies – the ‘Moutan’ of myth
“One snowy winter day, Empress Wu Zetian , the first woman sovereign in China’s history, ordered all the plants to bud and blossom. But the peony, too proud to flatter the Empress, remained bare. The empress flew into a rage and had all the peonies in the Tang capital Changan ‘banished’ to Luoyang.” This is…
Corylopsis: a breath of spring
When I mentioned to Chris Sanders I planned to write a blog on Corylopsis, another genus that is vastly underappreciated and undervalued as a garden plant, he said ‘You’re a braver man than I am’. The taxonomy and nomenclature in Corylopsis is a constant source of discussion and debate, and too often so confusing it is…
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White House Farm Garden and Arboretum 