Our Peonies

Our Peonies

Our Peonies

Alec White and his team of nurserymen and women have worked hard over the last 15 years to curate one of the largest collections of peonies for sale in the UK. At Primrose Hall Peonies we want to be able to offer our fellow peony enthusiasts and peony beginners alike, a wide range of peonies that they may have never seen before as well as the classics that so many gardeners love and have grown for hundreds of years in Britain.

With over 300 varieties in production, if you cannot see what you are looking for on our website please email us, we may just have it growing already and we can add you to our waiting list for peonies in production, we are also able to source peonies from all over the world if you are adding to your own collection and are after a very specific peony variety.

Alec is proud to be the Plant Heritage National Collection Holder for the rare and unsual intersectional or Itoh hybrid peony varieties. Our Intersectional peony garden will be ready to open in 2021. To arrange a visit to the nursery please get in touch with our team.

When searching through our available peonies you will find many unusual varieties of peonies not seen for sale before, all the peonies we sell are named varieties including our tree peonies. We have listed below the different types of peonies you will find growing at our nursery and available to buy in our web shop with their differences for those still choosing which peony may be best for their garden. For our full catalogue of current growing peonies please download your PDF copy here. Keep reading to find out why our peonies are so special.

The Types of Peonies We Grow

 

Herbaceous

Herbaceous peonies are a timeless classic perennial plant for the garden. Their flowers can be single, semi-double or fully double and many are beautifully scented. There are a range of colours from deep purple to pure white and they are definitely one of the most showy flowers in the garden with large blooms. Peonies can be early, mid or late flowering which means you can enjoy their blooms from May to July. Peonies are long-lived, lasting for decades; they will die down in the winter and re-emerge the following spring to produce an even better display than the previous year.

Intersectional

Intersectional peonies (or Itoh peonies) are unusual, relatively rare and very interesting, they are a cross between an herbaceous peony and a tree peony. Intersectional peonies, like all peonies, are highly collectable. They are the most beautiful peonies, sometimes lightly fragrant, with large (dinner-plate) sized flowers in a diverse range of colours and flowers, from single to double. Intersectional peonies often flower for a slightly longer period (4 - 5 weeks) than herbaceous peonies and enjoy masses of flowers. They are reasonably compact, growing to about 75cm tall on average and they require little or no support at all (because of their tree peony framework). Intersectional peonies will die down in the winter and return in the Spring and in the Autumn and Spring they usually have striking finely cut foliage that is green and red in colour.

Tree

Tree peonies are long-lived, deciduous shrubs. Tree Peonies have large, sometimes dinner plate size, flamboyant flowers, very often gorgeously scented, in various colours. Colours range from white through pink to dark red and purple; yellows are also available, along with the more unusual apricot shades. Tree peonies make a real statement in the garden. Tree peonies can grow up to 8 feet tall which makes them a fantastic addition to a sunny garden border, they do however respond well to pruning so if you wish to keep them smaller, prune back to woody stems in the Autumn.

Patio

Patio peonies are the best choice for gardeners who would prefer their peonies to grow in containers. They are specially selected because of their compact growth habit and its ease of flowering in a pot, making them the perfect peonies for the patio, balcony or roof gardens. The peony plants themselves feature strong stems and upright flowers. They are also able to be planted in borders as they do well in any sunny position. The Patio varieties have various types of bloom shapes fully double, double and single flowers.

What Makes Our Peonies So Special?

 

In 2019 our peonies were awarded a gold medal by the Royal Horticultural Society at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. This was the first gold medal to be awarded for peonies at the show for 8 years.

We nurture all of our plants until they are at least 5 years old ensuring they are well established mature flowering Paeonia plants when they are sent off to their new home. Once settled in your garden your peony plant should give you decades of flowers from its first flowering season.

Because of our passion for peonies, Alec White, owner and nurseryman has curated the largest collection of peonies in the UK, meaning you as our customer have access to many rare and unusual varieties of peonies, some to never have been sold in the UK before. If you are in search for any particular varieties our team will also be happy to try and source these for you.
We grow all our peony plants in peat reduced compost. We are committed to doing all we can for the environment and making sure our nursery is sustainable as possible. Read about our full environmental policy to understand what practices we are employing to help the environment.

We eat, sleep, love peonies! Our team are committed to growing the best peonies possible. Every peony receives special, love, care and attention to make sure it is of the best quality.

We offer a 5-year guarantee on all of our peonies. We are so confident you will be happy with your peony we are offering all our customers the ability to register their peony plant once bought and will happily replace any failed crops within that period. For more info and terms and conditions follow this link.

Why choose to grow a Primrose Hall Peony in your garden?

 

• Primrose Hall Peonies are well-established and mature plants with a huge range of colours and flower shapes to choose from

• Primrose Hall Peonies are EASY to grow and are LOW MAINTENANCE and don’t generally get troubled by slugs, snails, rabbits or deer

• A Primrose Hall Peony will last for decades in the garden, producing more and more blooms each year. Primrose Hall Peonies can flower from April until July – look at the flowering times of each variety to ensure you have a continuous flower in the garden!

• Intersectional or Itoh peonies will often flower for twice as long as a tree peony

• Many Primrose Hall Peonies peonies are FRAGRANT and lots of varieties produce great cut flowers