Paeonia suffruticosa ‘Green Dragon Sleeping Pool’ is a renowned traditional variety of peony. It is characterized by its vigorous growth and prolific blooming. The flowers are a light ink-purple color, in a corolla or crown shape, with a high ornamental value.
The base of the flower deepens in color, surrounded by broad, round, double outer petals that encircle finely shredded and curled inner petals. The female stamen in the center transforms into a shade of green, accompanied by long, curled, colorful petals.
Surrounding these are multiple layers of ink-purple petals, reminiscent of a green dragon lying in an ink pool, hence its name, ‘Green Dragon Sleeping Pool.’
The ‘Green Dragon Sleeping Pool’ (Scientific name: Paeonia suffruticosa ‘Green Dragon Sleeping Pool’) is a prized peony variety. It is a deciduous shrub with an expanding clump growth habit and abundant branching and foliage.
The leaves are large and round, with a thick texture and sparse, blunt incisions. The leaf surface is green with a purple hue. The flowers are light ink-purple, usually in a corolla shape, sometimes appearing like a crown.
The distinctively deep-colored base, broad, round, double outer petals surround finely shredded, curled inner petals. The female stamen in the center turns into a green color, accompanied by long, curled, colorful petals.
Multiple layers of ink-purple petals surround these, resembling a green dragon lying in an ink pool, hence the name, ‘Green Dragon Sleeping Pool.’ Its high ornamental value, vigorous growth, and abundant flowering make it one of the most famous traditional varieties.
The Azure Dragon Resting in the Ink Pool is a horticultural variety of peony. This deciduous shrub reaches a medium height of up to 1.5 meters, with its short and thick branches. It has an expansive growth habit with few branches and shoots.
Its leaves are usually bi-pinnate, with the terminal leaflet being broad ovate, 7-8 cm long, 5.5-7 cm wide, 3-lobed to the middle, with 2-3 shallow lobes. The leaf surface is green, hairless, with a pale green underside, sometimes with white powder, with short soft hairs or almost hairless along the veins.
The leaflet stalk is 1.2-3 cm long. The lateral leaflets are round ovate, 4.5-6.5 cm long, 2.5-4 cm wide, unequally 2-lobed to 3 shallow lobes, nearly stalkless. The leaf stalk is 10-15 cm long, and both the stalk and the leaf axis are hairless.
The leaves are large and round, thick, with ovate leaflets, few notches, and blunt. The leaf surface is yellow-green with a purple halo.The flower bud is guiform, sometimes crown-shaped. The flower bud is conical; the flower is a lighter ink purple (187-D); the flower diameter is 19 cm x 6 cm.
The outer petals are round and complete for 2 rounds, large, slightly curled up, the base color deepens significantly, with an ink purple halo. The outer petals surround the crumbled and curled inner petals, the pistil in the middle of the inner petals turns into narrow, curled green-colored petals.
The flower stalk is short, slightly soft, and the flowers open sideways. It is a medium-flowered variety. The filaments are purplish-red, pink, white at the top, about 1.3 cm long, anthers are oblong, 4 mm long.
The flower disc is leathery, cup-shaped, purplish-red, with several sharp teeth or lobes at the top, completely enclosing the carpel, splitting when the carpel matures. The carpel is 5, rarely more, densely hairy.
The capsule is oblong, densely covered with yellow-brown bristles. The flowering period is in May; fruiting period is in June.
Peonies prefer a warm, cool, dry environment with plenty of sunlight. They like sunshine, but also tolerate semi-shade, cold, drought, weak alkali, dislike waterlogging, fear heat, and direct sunlight.
They grow well in loose, deep, fertile, high and dry sandy loam soil with good drainage. Their growth is poor in acidic or heavy clay soils, with a suitable PH value of 6.5-7. Adequate sunlight is beneficial for their growth, but they cannot tolerate hot summer sun.
Temperature above 25 degrees Celsius will cause the plant to enter a dormant state. The suitable temperature for flowering is 17-20 degrees Celsius, but before flowering, it must go through 2-3 months of low-temperature treatment at 1-10 degrees Celsius.
It can withstand a minimum temperature of -30 degrees Celsius, but in the cold winter regions in the north, appropriate cold protection measures should be taken to avoid frost damage.
Peonies have fleshy roots. When planting, choose loose, fertile, deep sandy loam soil, and choose a place with high and dry terrain and good drainage. They love fertilizer, and can flower on New Year’s Day and Spring Festival through temperature control.
The method is to pot the peony 35-60 days before the festival, gradually raise the temperature after moving into the greenhouse, 20-25 degrees Celsius during the day (open the window for ventilation if it exceeds 25C), 10-25 degrees Celsius at night, and increase the relative humidity.
Apply dilute fertilizer every 10 days, or spray the leaves with 0.2%-0.3% dipotassium phosphate as top dressing. If the flower buds do not sprout, you can use 300ppm-500ppm gibberellin solution to apply the scale buds, which can promote sprouting.
In this way, after 40-45 days, up to 60 days, you can flower. If the flowering is early, you can temporarily store the potted flowers in a low temperature (5C-15 degrees Celsius) room.
Planting: The soil should be loose, fertile, and slightly alkaline. Trim any broken or diseased roots from the peony seedlings to be planted, then immerse them in insecticide and fungicide before placing them in a pre-prepared pot or hole.
The root system should be spread out, and the soil filled to halfway up the pot or hole. Lightly lift and shake the seedling, then firmly pack the soil around it. The root stem should be slightly below the surface of the pot or ground level.
Watering: After planting, thoroughly water the peony once. Peonies do not tolerate standing water, so water judiciously during the growing season.
In the dry northern regions, water before flowering, after flowering, and before the ground freezes. For potted plants, to facilitate management, cut off the spent flowers after blooming and bury the pot underground.
Fertilizing: One year after planting, you can apply fertilizer in the fall, primarily using well-rotted organic matter. This can be combined with loosening the soil, top-dressing, or hole application.
In the spring and summer, use more chemical fertilizer, combined with watering before and after flowering. For potted plants, liquid fertilizer can be applied with watering.
Pruning: In the year of planting, prune flat. After spring sprouting, leave about 5 branches and remove the rest to concentrate nutrients and ensure larger, more vibrant flowers the following year.
In the fall and winter, clean the garden and cut off dried flower stems, weak branches, and branches without flowers. When growing in pots, prune to your preferred shape as necessary.
Cultivating: During the growing season, it is important to cultivate in a timely manner, removing weeds and monitoring for disease and pests. In the fall and winter, till the soil around peonies that are at least two years old.
Repotting: When a potted peony has been growing for three or four years, it needs to be repotted into a larger pot with fresh fertilized soil in the fall or divided and replanted.
Spraying: Spray with a lime sulfur compound before the buds sprout in early spring. In the summer, use a mix of insecticide and fungicide approximately every two weeks, depending on the health of the plant.
This can be combined with fertilizer application, and chemical fertilizers and growth regulators can be added as needed.
Forcing Blooms: To have blooms for holidays or celebrations, increase the temperature of the peony about 50 days in advance, depending on the variety. Maintain a temperature of 10-25℃, with an average daily temperature of about 15℃.
Keep the plant moist in the early stages, ensure good ventilation and light exposure once buds appear, and adjust the temperature according to the flowering period once buds have formed.
Regularly apply foliar fertilizer and ensure sufficient water supply. This way, you can enjoy blooms in both winter and spring.
Viewing: A single peony plant naturally blooms for 10-15 days, which can be shortened as the temperature rises. At 3-8℃, the blooms can last for a month.
For large scale planting, temporary shelters can be erected to shield the plants from wind and direct sunlight, extending the viewing period. When growing in pots, move the plant to a place where it won’t be exposed to direct sunlight, in a temperature of 5-10℃, and a well-ventilated and well-lit environment.
Water appropriately based on the plant’s appearance and the moisture level of the potting soil, but avoid getting water on the flowers to maximize the blooming period.
When cutting flowers for arrangements, cut the stems underwater or sear the cut to prevent damage. The water for the cut flowers should contain a preservative or a little sugar to prolong the blooming time of the flowers.
The specific method of division propagation involves unearthing a thriving peony plant and separating it at the point where the root systems intersect. The number of offshoots depends on the size of the original plant, with larger plants producing more offshoots and smaller ones producing fewer.
Typically, every 3-4 branches form one offshoot, complete with an intact root system. These are then dusted with sulfur powder and soil, which is evenly smeared over any wounds on the roots, before being replanted.
The best time for division propagation is from the autumn equinox to the frost season when the temperature and ground heat are relatively high. At this time, the peony is in a semi-dormant state but has a considerable period of nutritional growth.
Division planting does not severely affect root growth, and some new roots and a few plant buds can still sprout. If division planting is performed too late, the root growth will be weak that year, possibly not producing new roots, and the plant will be weaker the following spring, making it drought-intolerant and prone to death.
If division occurs too early, the temperature and ground heat would be high, encouraging rapid growth and possibly causing premature sprouting.
The mother plant of peony division should generally be a robust cluster. It is advisable to retain as many root buds as possible on the mother plant used for division propagation, and all roots on the new shoots should be preserved to allow for multiple divisions to produce new shoots over a period of 5 years.
Such plants are easy to survive after planting and tend to grow vigorously. The more roots are kept, the more vigorous the growth.
Peony grafting propagation, depending on the rootstock used, is split into two types: one uses wild peonies; the other uses peony root. The common methods for peony grafting include inlay grafting, whip grafting, and bud grafting.
Inlay grafting: Peony root is used as the rootstock. Because peony root is soft and without a hard core, it is easy to graft. The root is thick and short, rich in nutrients, and grows vigorously after grafting.
If the peony root is used for grafting, the wood is harder, making grafting more difficult, but has a longer lifespan. The best time for grafting is typically from late September to early October each year. The rootstock is a robust, disease-free peony root, about 2-3 cm in diameter and 10-15 cm long.
Whip grafting: This is a method for improving varieties by grafting different high-quality varieties onto the many branches of inferior peonies or 8-10-year-old medicinal peonies. The grafting time is from early July to mid-August.
First, select peony plants of excellent variety, robust growth, and free of diseases, and cut off the earth buds or short branches grown that year, 5-7 cm long, preferably with 2-3 robust buds, as scions. Leave a leaf stalk on the scion.
After the scion is selected, make a slanting cut on the back of the bud at the bottom of the scion to form a horse-ear shape, then slantingly cut the other side of the horse-ear shape into a wedge shape, so that after grafting, both sides can be in contact with the cambium between the xylem and phloem, making survival easier.
Except during the rainy season, appropriate humidity for normal plant growth should be maintained before and after whip grafting. Bud grafting is an effective method for propagating and cultivating peonies with multiple varieties and colors on one plant.
Bud grafting: This is carried out from May to July. Sunny weather is optimal for grafting. The methods include shield grafting and chip grafting. In shield grafting, a rectangular or shield-shaped cut is made in the current-year branch of the rootstock, including the wood.
A bud piece of the same size and shape is then cut from the scion, including the wood, and quickly attached to the cut on the rootstock and tied tight with plastic rope. In chip grafting, the axillary bud at the grafting site on the rootstock is removed along with its cambium, leaving a complete bud embryo on the wood.
Then, in the same way, the axillary bud of the scion is peeled off and quickly placed on the bud embryo of the rootstock, aligning them as closely as possible, and then tied tight with plastic rope. The grafted plants should be watered, loosened, and fertilized in timely manner to promote healing.
Cutting propagation is a method of propagating new plants by taking advantage of the ease with which peony branches form adventitious roots. This is one of the asexual propagation methods.
The method is to first cut off the branches to be cut, separate them from the mother plant, and then insert them into the soil or other substrates to root and form new plants.
The branches for peony cutting propagation should be the current-year earth buds that sprout from the root of the peony or branches that are full, with plump terminal buds and free of diseases, selected during the pruning of the peony, 10-18 cm long.
Peony roots are fleshy, preferring high, dry conditions and resisting drought. Therefore, the seedbed should be located in a sunny and well-ventilated place, and high-bed nursery should be built. When cutting, water should be poured after each row of cuttings, soaking it once.
Paintings
Because of the peony’s association with wealth and honor, it is often used as a gift for housewarming and weddings. The peony’s noble temperament and its vibrant colors have been a symbol of wealth and peace in paintings throughout the ages.
The peony flower in these paintings, combined with other flowers, birds, or stones, has different implications related to wealth and is also used as a decorative art piece in homes and public places.
Peggie was once a high school mathematics teacher, but she set aside her chalkboard and textbooks to follow her lifelong passion for flowers. After years of dedication and learning, she not only established a thriving flower shop but also founded this blog, “Flowers Library”. If you have any questions or wish to learn more about flowers, feel free to contact Peggie.
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