The festival is quite long when visiting flowers, and the tranquil spring breeze makes people happy and busy. Every evening when I go home drunk, my clothes are fragrant with peonies.
——"Three Poems on Promoting the Flower Envoy" Part 3 (Tang Weng Chengzan)
One day in late autumn many years ago, I don't remember why I sent my second child to do something. , in short, we arrived in a strange town. I had nothing to do while waiting for her, so I drove the car out for a walk and accidentally ran into a flower house.
The weather had turned cold at that time, and all the greenhouses were cleaning up the plants in preparation for closing for the winter. Except for the chrysanthemums that are blooming to the end and the large pumpkins that are leftover from the sales, it is deserted and there is almost nothing to see. I turned to the back and saw a man carrying some wilted plants pot by pot onto a trolley.
"Where are you going?" I asked him.
"Oh, it's all useless. Take it to the compost pile over there," he pointed to the woodland at the end of the greenhouse.
"Compost?!" I pointed to one of the pots. "This one is still alive!"
It was a dwarf peony whose leaves had fallen off and only its branches were left.
"It spends the winter in a pot. It may not survive until next spring. I am too lazy to take care of it." He smiled and asked: "You want it? Take it for fifteen yuan!"
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I took this peony home and planted it in the front yard. The following spring the flowers bloomed, pure yellow, semi-double, lemon-scented, and I realized it was "sea yellow". American horticulturist A. P. Saunders hybridized the American native yellow peony and the Japanese peony "Noon" in 1952. In 1989, it won the gold medal in the annual competition of the American "Peony Association" and is one of the best yellow varieties.
In the past, when talking about yellow peonies, one must mention "Yao Huang", a famous Chinese strain that existed in the Song Dynasty. But the petals of Yao Huang are actually a little greenish, and turn white at the edges. They are not really yellow when viewed from a distance. Yellow peonies have always been valued for their rarity. Although the peonies now cultivated by crossing peonies and peonies come in a variety of colors and flower types, generally speaking, there are fewer yellow ones than other colors.
Among the common famous varieties, the Japanese strain hybrid includes "Crown", a true yellow double rose type, which is said to be very fragrant, but I have never seen it before. The "Bartzella" commonly seen in the local market today was developed by American horticulturist Roger F. Anderson in 1986. The flowers are large, with a circle of orange scattered near the center. In recent years, American horticulturists seem to be particularly interested in cultivating yellow peonies. After 2002, new types of yellow peonies appear almost every year, including yellow and orange peonies. It’s just that before the breeder’s patent expires, it cannot enter the market and is rarely seen.
My goldenrod was in full bloom last year. An old friend who is a nymphomaniac saw the picture in the circle of friends and salivated, wanting one. In autumn, I cut off a branch from the root, intending to feed it to her, but unfortunately it didn't work out, and it actually hurt the mother plant. The flowers that bloomed this year are very small and not very fragrant.
But I'm not particularly worried. Peonies have always been strong and will surely flourish next spring.