Paeonia suffruticosa ‘Two Qiao’ is a traditional treasure of Luoyang peonies, ranking first in the bicolor series. The same plant and branch can produce both purple-red and pink-white flowers, or the two colors can coexist on the same flower, which is quite unique.
Originating from Luoyang, it is also known as Luoyang Brocade or Flower Two Qiao. Its flowers are bicolor, with the base of the petals presenting a dark purple hue. The plant stands tall, with a proud crown of flowers reaching straight into the blue sky.
With its gorgeous flower colors, proud posture, and charming demeanor, it has become a prestigious peony variety.
Paeonia suffruticosa ‘Two Qiao’, also known as Luoyang Brocade, is one of the prestigious peony varieties. It is a deciduous shrub with a tall plant shape and a stem height of up to 2 meters, standing upright.
The branches are thin and hard, with long annual branches and long knots; the scale buds are round and pointed.
Medium-sized round leaves, usually pinnate leaves, are green on the surface, hairless, light green on the back, sometimes with white powder, and short soft hair or almost no hair along the veins.
The flowers are single, at the top of the branch, the bracts are 5, elliptical, varying in size; the sepals are 5, green, broad ovate, varying in size. The flowers are rose-shaped, the buds are flat round, and the flowers are bicolor.
The same plant and branch can produce both purple-red and pink flowers; the same flower can also produce both purple and pink colors.
The upper part of the stamens is white, the anthers are elongated, the floral disc is leathery, cup-shaped, and purple-red; the carpels are 5, densely hairy. The fruit is elongated and densely covered with yellow-brown hard hair.
‘Two Qiao’ originates from Luoyang, it is a medium flower variety and a traditional treasure of Luoyang peonies, ranking first in the bicolor series.
‘Two Qiao’ is a horticultural variety of peonies, a deciduous shrub. The plant is tall, with a stem height of up to 2 meters, standing upright. The branches are thin and hard, with long annual branches and long knots; the scale buds are round and pointed.
Medium-sized round leaves, hard, slightly sparse, with a total leaf petiole length of about 12 cm, oblique; the leaves are usually pinnate, sometimes the leaves near the top of the branch are 3 small leaves; the terminal small leaves are ovate, the end is gradually pointed, 7-8 cm long, 5.5-7 cm wide, 3-lobed to the middle, the lobes have 2-3 shallow lobes.
The leaves of pink flowers are more shallowly notched, and the leaf surface is yellow-green; the leaves of purple-red flowers have fewer and deeper notches, the leaf surface is smooth, green; the leaves of the bicolor inlaid flowers, according to the inlaid position, grow two kinds of leaf colors and leaf shapes on the corresponding parts of the branch.
It has strong growth, a high flowering rate, and many sprouting branches.
The flowers are single, at the top of the branch, and rose-shaped. The buds are flat round; the flowers are bicolor, the same plant and branch can produce both purple-red (61-C) and pink (38-D) flowers, the same flower can also produce both purple and pink colors; the flower diameter is 16 cm × 6 cm.
The petals are hard, neatly arranged, with a dark purple base; the stamens are slightly petaloid; the pistils are 9-11, and the ovaries are purple. The flower stem is 4-6 cm, long and hard, and the flowers go straight up.
It is a medium flower variety. The stamens are 1-1.7 cm long, the filaments are purple-red, pink, the upper part is white, about 1.3 cm long, the anthers are elongated, 4 mm long; the floral disc is leathery, cup-shaped, purple-red, the top has several sharp teeth or lobes, completely wrapping the carpels, and cracking when the carpels mature; the carpels are 5, densely hairy.
The fruit is elongated and densely covered with yellow-brown hard hair. The flowering period is May; the fruit period is June.
It prefers a warm, cool, dry, and sunny environment. It likes sunlight, can tolerate semi-shade, cold, drought, weak alkali, dislikes waterlogging, fears heat, and fears direct sun. It is suitable to grow in loose, deep, fertile, high and dry, well-drained neutral sandy loam soil.
It grows poorly in acidic or heavy clay soil, with a PH value of 6.5-7 being suitable. Adequate sunlight is beneficial for its growth, but it cannot tolerate the scorching sun in summer, and the temperature above 25℃ will cause the plant to become dormant.
The appropriate temperature for blooming is 17-20℃, and it can withstand a minimum temperature of -30℃, but in the cold winter areas of the north, appropriate cold protection measures should be taken to avoid freezing damage.
Planting: The soil should be loose and fertile, neutral to slightly alkaline. Trim any broken or diseased roots of the peony seedlings to be planted, immerse them in insecticide and fungicide, and place them in a prepared pot or hole.
The roots should be spread out, fill the soil to about halfway up the pot or hole, lightly lift and shake the seedlings, compact the soil, and the depth should be slightly below the pot surface or ground level.
Watering: After planting, water thoroughly once. Peonies dislike waterlogging, and watering should be appropriate during the growing season. In northern arid areas, water is usually applied before flowering, after flowering, and before freezing.
For pot cultivation, it’s easier to manage if you cut off the spent flowers after blooming and bury the pot underground.
Fertilizing: One year after planting, fertilize in the fall, mainly with mature organic fertilizer. It can be combined with soil loosening, spreading, or hole application.
In spring and summer, use more chemical fertilizer, combined with watering before and after flowering. For pot cultivation, liquid fertilizer can be applied with watering.
Pruning: In the planting year, it’s common to trim evenly. After sprouting in spring, leave about 5 branches and remove the rest, concentrate nutrients, so that the flowers are large and colorful the second year.
In autumn and winter, combine with garden cleaning, prune off dry flower stalks, weak, and non-flowering branches. For pot cultivation, trim as needed into your preferred shape.
Tillage: During the growing season, timely tillage is needed, weed removal, and be aware of disease and insect occurrence. In autumn and winter, turn over the clods of peonies that are two years old or older.
Repotting: When potted peonies have grown for three or four years, they need to be repotted into larger pots with fresh fertile soil or divided and replanted in the fall.
Spraying: Before bud break in early spring, spray with a lime sulfur mixture. In summer, use a mixed solution of insecticide and fungicide, depending on the disease, once every 2 weeks. Combined with fertilizing, it’s suitable to add chemical fertilizer and growth regulators.
Forcing Flowers: To increase the festive or celebration activities, according to the variety, the peonies can be warmed up about 50 days in advance, with temperature control at around 10-25℃, averaging about 15℃ per day.
In the early stage, keep the plant moist, ventilate and let light in after buds appear, control the temperature according to the flowering period after buds develop. Apply foliar fertilizer regularly and ensure sufficient water supply. In this way, flowers can be seen at any time in winter and spring.
Viewing: The natural flowering period of a single peony plant is about 10-15 days, and it shortens as the temperature rises. It can last for a month at 3-8℃.
Field planting can use temporary sheds to block wind and avoid light, extending the viewing time; when potting, move to a place where the sun cannot directly shine, a temperature of 5-10℃, a ventilated and lighted environment, water appropriately according to the appearance and the wetness of the pot soil, do not water the flowers, this way the flowering period is the longest; when cutting flowers, the wound should be cut or scorched in water.
The water for flower arrangement should have preservatives or a little sugar added to extend the blooming time of the flowers.
The specific method of division propagation involves taking a flourishing peony plant, digging up the whole plant, and separating it at the root system junction.
The number of offshoots depends on the size of the original plant; larger plants can be divided more, smaller ones less so. Generally, every 3-4 branches form one offshoot with a complete root system.
The roots are then dusted with a little sulfur powder and mud, the wounds on the roots are applied and spread evenly, and the plant can be subsequently replanted. Division propagation is best carried out from the autumnal equinox to frost fall each year.
At this time, the air and ground temperature are higher, the peony is in a semi-dormant state, but there is still a considerable period of nutrient growth time. If the division is planted too late, the root growth is weak or no new roots occur.
The plant will be weaker in the following spring, and if the roots are weak, they will not be drought-tolerant and may die. If the division is too early, the air and ground temperatures are high, rapid growth can occur, which can lead to fall sprouting.
The mother plant of the peony division is usually a robust cluster. The mother plant used for division propagation should retain as much root tuber as possible, all roots on the new shoots should be retained, and after growing for 5 years, more new shoots can be divided.
Such plant seedlings are easy to survive and grow vigorously. The more roots retained, the more vigorous the growth.
Peony grafting propagation, depending on the rootstock used, can be divided into two types: wild peonies and peony roots. The commonly used peony grafting methods mainly include inlaying, belly grafting, and bud grafting.
Inlaying: Peony roots are used as rootstock because they are soft and easy to graft, thick and short, with sufficient nutrients, and grow vigorously after grafting. If a peony root is used for grafting, the wood is harder and grafting is more difficult, but the lifespan is longer.
The best time for grafting is usually from late September to early October each year. The rootstock is a thick and disease-free peony root with a diameter of 2-3 cm and a length of 10-15 cm.
Belly grafting: This is a method of improving varieties by high grafting and head changing. It uses numerous branches on inferior peony plants or 8-10 year old medicinal peony plants to graft into different colors of superior varieties.
The grafting time is from early July to mid-August. First, select a good variety, plump plant, and disease-free peony plant, cut off the ground sprouts, or the short skills of the year are 5-7 cm long, it is best to have 2-3 strong buds on the short branches as scions.
Leave a petiole on the scion. After selecting a good scion, cut a diagonal cut on the back of the bud at the bottom of the scion to form a horse ear shape, then cut the other side of the horse ear shape into a wedge shape, so that after grafting, both sides can be grafted to the wood and the cambium between the phloem.
It is easy to survive. Except for not watering during the rainy season before and after the peony belly grafting, the appropriate humidity for normal plant growth should be maintained.
Bud grafting is an effective method for propagating and cultivating multiple varieties and colors on one peony plant.
Bud grafting: This is done between May and July. It is best to graft on a sunny day. There are two methods: patching and bud changing.
Patching involves cutting a rectangular or shield-shaped cut on the current year’s branch of the rootstock along with the wood, and then cutting a bud piece of the same size and shape as the rootstock from the axillary bud of the scion along with the wood.
Then quickly attach the bud piece to the cut on the rootstock and tie it tightly with a plastic rope.
The bud changing method involves removing the axillary bud at the grafting site of the rootstock together with the cambium, leaving a complete bud embryo on the wood, and then peeling off the axillary bud of the scion in the same way, quickly fitting it on the bud embryo of the rootstock, ensuring they fit together, and finally tying it tightly with a plastic rope.
The grafted plants should be watered, loosened, and fertilized in time to promote healing.
Cutting propagation is a method of propagating new plants by taking advantage of the fact that peony branches are easy to produce adventitious roots. It is one of the asexual propagation methods.
The method involves cutting off the branches for cutting first, separating them from the mother plant, and then inserting them into the soil or other substrates to root and form new plants.
The branches for peony cutting propagation should be chosen from the current year’s ground sprouts that are emitted from the base of the peony, or from branches that are solid, with full terminal buds and free of pests and diseases during the peony’s formative pruning.
The length should be 10-18 cm. The roots of peonies are fleshy roots, they like high and dry conditions, dislike humidity, and are drought-tolerant.
Therefore, the nursery bed should be chosen in a well-ventilated and sunny place, and a high bed nursery should be built. When inserting, water one ridge after inserting one ridge, and water it thoroughly at once.
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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