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khurtekant posted in the group Species Peonies International Network (SPIN)
If I don’t forget it (which I quite often do) I always take some images of the roots of my species plants whenever I move or divide them. Given that I often loose them afterwards you might say it’s for ‘nostalgic’ reasons mostly. The roots are an important determination characteristic when trying to classify species plants, but you don’t often see images of it. I’ve previously posted images of roots from P. sterniana, P. wittmanniana, P. mascula ssp bodurii, P. velebitensis and P. morisii. Here now are some images of P. archibaldii (first image), P. peregrina (second one) and P. anomala. The main difference is between ‘carrot shaped’ roots on the one hand and ‘tuberous’ ones on the other. P. peregrina has those tuberous roots, they are attached to the crown by a rather thin root connection. In my experience the tuberous roots are the most difficult ones to divide, carrot shaped ones are always more productive in this respect. On the other hand the species with tuberous roots are also the ones that tend to give adventitious shoots, so that can be some consolation ;-)
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4 Comments
I have some seedling species peonies that I will need to move this fall and next fall. Do you have advice on transplanting to avoid shock/ death?
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@rmulhero Transplanting species peonies is more difficult than transplanting usual cultivirs with a higher fail rate. But it goes best when they are young, thus small seedlings. From what I read, it seems your plants are just that. Absolute key to success is clearly the location where you plant them. Most species need some shade, unlike most common peony cultivars. The soil needs to be very well draining. I’m currently running a trial with different substrates and I’ll probably post the results later this year in Fall, but comparable plants have both succeeded and died in the same climatic conditions but different substrates so far. A few posts ago I have written about my best mix, here’s copy/paste: My best mix consists of this (in volume, not weight): 5,5 parts peat soil; 0,5 coarse sand; 5 perlite (3-5 mm sized particles); 1 grit (5-8 mm); 1 lava (coarse: 3-8 mm); 1 heated clay granules (5-15 mm); 1 dolomite chalk (0-5 mm); 0,3 magnesium chalk; 0,5 water with beneficial fungi (serenade (bacillus amyloliquefaciens), triaphos (trichoderma harzianum), rhizoforce (bacillus amyloliquefaciens, another strain)). So the proportion of true ‘soil’ (the peat) is only about 1/3 and the rest simply drains the water away.
Koen , do you have a picture of the roots of a P. macrophylla ? – and a good hand for the P. sterniana .