The American Peony Society

The History of the Peonies and their Originations p. 159

THE NEW HYBRIDS OF MOUTAN Leo J. Armatys (Central City, Nebraska)

Reprinted by permission of the Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society, London, England. Bulletin #198.

Few flowering shrubs have resisted application of the Mendelian mechanism quite so stubbornly as PAEONIA SUFFRUTICOSA, better known as Moutan, the woody-stemmed tree peony. None can match the results now promised as the magnitude of the GRATWICK-DAPHNIS hybridizing breakthrough becomes apparent.

Late in the nineteenth century, LOUIS HENRY of Paris and VICTOR LEMOINE of Nancy (France) made the P. lutea x Moutan cross using pollen from Chinese-type tree peonies. The resultant hybrids were maintly heavy yellow doubles. Some of them, including "Souvenir de Maxime Cornu", "Chromatella" and "Alice Harding", are still in commerce, many of these plants now coming from Japan under the names of "Kinkaku", "Kinshi" and "Kinkow". Fine though some of these hybrids were, their weak-stemmed habit of hiding blooms beneath the foliage, often face downward, was deplored by expert and amateur alike.

Shortly after World War I, PROFESSOR A. P. SAUNDERS of Clinton, New York, set out to develop hybrids with better balance between stem and flower. His crossing of selected strains of P. lutea and P. delavayi x single and semi-double Japanese-type tree peonies yielded seventy-five distinctive new varieties with uniformly good foliage and well-held flowers. Demand for these hybrids still exceeds the supply. Some of the better known kinds are"Chinese Dragon", "Black Pirate", "Silver Sails", "High Noon", "Golden Hind", "Golden Isles", "Age of Gold" and the scarce ivory single, "Coronal". In June, 1969, the American Peony Society celebrated the centenary of PROFESSOR SAUNDERS' birth with a mammoth display of varieties introduced by this master hybridizer.

PROFESSOR SAUNDERS grew older. More and more of his work was shifted to the willing hands of his protege, WILLIAM GRATWICK, of Pavillion, New York. This dedicated young man shared PROFESSOR SAUNDERS' oft-quoted opinion that the tree peony has reached the plateau of excellence toward which all other flowers must still strive. But he also believed that a plethora of worthwhile varieties remained locked in the mixed-up genes of Moutan. He dreamed of the ultimate breakthrough- the creation of a race of tree peony hybrids embodying the best qualities of the majestic Moutans and the LUTEA species in carefully contrived combinations. Moutan had the strong stems, the well-held flowers of great size and elegant texture. P. LUTEA would contribute finer foliage, vigour, and the yellow colour missing from the Moutan spectrum. He did not, as sometimes reported, set out to mould a plant with three parts. Moutan one part LUTEA. He proposed instead to make every conceivable cross, trusting nature to compress Moutan's millenia into mere decades.

In 1946 GRATWICK enlisted the aid of his good friend, artist NASSOS DAPHNIS, of New York City. A fortuitous partnership has endured to this day. GRATWICK had all the SAUNDERS hybrids plus two apparently sterile F2 offspring of those hybrids. He had hundreds of P. LUTEA seedlings from which he selected a dozen with superior foliage, flower and habit. He had specimen plants of all the better Japanese varieties and they were true to name-in an industry where this is all too seldom the case. He had long since discarded the ungainly Chinese doubles. He had three of his own introductions out of thousands grown from Chugai seed-strong, sombre, tall-growing "Guardian of the Monastery", the big, white, characterful "Companion of Serenity" and "Dark of the Moon", rated as best of all the dark ones. Other seedlings of merit in this group were saved but never introduced, in line with his policy of introducing only those kinds representing a measurable improvement over existing varieties.

The flowers produced by the two F2s that GRATWICK brought with him from PROFESSOR SAUNDERS' nursery were not impressive, but they were the only known members of the second filial generation. GRATWICK designated them simply as A and B. F3s and F4s soon followed. All plants used in the breeding programme were numbered and careful records kept.

BILL GRATWICK and NAS DAPHNIS were ready. They had the motivation and all the tools. They had familiarized themselves with such things as heterosis, linkage, the hypothesis of crossing over of genes in the pairing chromosomes with potential of unlimited new combinations of characteristics. The curtain was about to rise on one of the most ambitious projects in gardening history!

DAPHNIS started the crossings with P. LUTEA x Moutan, and became the first to reverse the cross, Moutan x LUTEA. This first filial generation (Fl) produced several dozen worthy new plants. Eleven have already been named. Only one, the extended bloomer "Tria", has thus far reached the market. "Tria" is a good garden plant with three crisp yellow flowers on- each strong stem, held high above delicate foliage. They open in sequence, usually at four-or five-day intervals, to give a longer blooming period than any other tree peony. It is the first of the LUTEA hybrids to bloom, and the last to go. Others waiting in the wings include the rich pastel pink "Redon" with 10-inch blooms; "Artemis", a strong grower with big pure yellow