How to Choose Peonies to Suit Your Garden & Experience

Not Sure Which Peony is Right For You?

I'm frequently asked which are my favourite peonies of all the many hundred that we grow.

I'm also asked to suggest the most suitable peonies for a beginner, an exposed garden, a shady border, or a selection of peonies to give the longest possible period of interest. Even Mr Titchmarsh himself, called me over for a chat at Chelsea this year to discuss his peonies!

Here is a selection of my recommendations.

Dave Root's Most Favourite Peonies

This is my current top 10 peonies. Chosen for various reasons, but all of them are sensational and garden worthy.

Bowl of Beauty
Really reliable and rewarding, a feel-good peony.
Buckeye Belle
Stunning colour, robust habit, great personality.
Claire de Lune
Unique colour, long lasting blooms.
Coral Sunset
Huge flowers that perform a spectacular colour transformation.
Kelways Glorious
Perhaps the best ever peony, huge white double flowers.
Kansas
Marvellous colour, you can spot this one a mile off. Really spectacular and robust.
Krinkled White
Beautiful foliage, topped by the butterfly wing like flowers.
Late Windflower
Sublime elegance, beautiful white blooms with feathery foliage.
Peter Brand
Such a rich colour, dark foliage and a rich spicy scent.
Shirley Temple
Blowsy and over the top, but incredibly robust and sturdy weather resistent blooms.

Beginner's Top 10 Peonies

This is selection, of easily grown, reliable and rewarding peonies, that are perfect for a first foray into these wonderful garden plants.

Bowl of Beauty
So easy to grow and very free flowering
Buckeye Belle
Robust, long lasting flowers. Used in many chelsea gardens, so must be good!
Coral Charm
Amazing colouring transforming peony, yet easily grown and free flowering
Dr Alexander Fleming
Wonderful blooms for cutting, yet not too tall growing
Inspecteur Lavergne
Lovely deep colour, blooms freely as a young plant
Kansas
Free flowering, easy to grow, large blooms for cutting
Mother's Choice
Incredibly beautiful flowers, with a robust weather resistant habit
Reine Hortense
Apple blossom pink, gorgeous, sturdy habit
Shirley Temple
Impressive in every way, big fragrant flowers, beautiful shades of blush pink and white
White Wings
Sophisticated elegance, white single flowers, compliments anything

Peonies to Extend the Flowering Season

This selection chooses those peonies which flower particularly early, or particulary late, which are ideal for extending the season of peony flowering. By carefully choosing, it is easy to have peonies in flower from the middle of April until the end of June, especially if your selection includes some of the glamorous and sophisticated Tree Peonies, and the exciting Intersectional Hybrids.

Claire de Lune
Deep yellow flowers and one of the first to bloom
Dinner Plate
Huge double pink, and a very late flowering cultivar
Duchesse de Nemours
A historic early double scented white
General MacMahon
Rich deep colour, and one of the latest
Karl Rosenfeld
Late blooming and long lasting
Late Windflower
Funnily its very early flowering!
Mons Jules Elie
One of the last pinks to flower
Mr G F Hemerik
Perhaps the latest Japanese style peony to flower, worth waiting for
Officinalis Rubra Plena
The classic cottage garden peony, one of the earliest of all to flower
Peregrina Fire King
Wonderful bright green foliage, with searing irridescent single blooms, often in April
Sarah Bernhardt
The classic Diva, one of the last to flower, and best staked....but oh the scent!

Peonies for an Exposed Garden

This is a selection of great garden peonies which are either shorter growing, or have particularly robust habits and stems that would not normally need staking, even in an exposed garden. I am making no promises if you live on the top of the Pennines, or beside the sea!, but these are generally the best

Angel Cheeks
Large blooms but short in height
Buckeye Belle
Really robust habit, and spectacular flowers
Duchesse de Nemours
Short flowering, and the classic white peony
Honey Gold
Quite tall, but very robust. A stunning flower great for cutting
Jan van Leeuwen
Simple white flowers, and a really robust constitution, and so beautiful
Krinkled White
Shorter flowering, the delightful flowers withstand the rain so well
Marie Lemoine
Shorter, lemon white with lovely scent
Noemi Demay
A little gem with gorgeous pale pink flowers
Nymphe
Delightfully pink! Robust shorter habit
Shirley Temple
Ticks all the boxes!, big blowsy flowers, yet such a robust and sturdy habit

The Peony Connoisseurs Selection

Some of the most awesome and spectacular of all the classic peonies. Some are quite tall and will need staking, and others may take a few years to show their largest flowers, but these are plants to treasure.

Bowl of Cream
Exceptional quality of flower
Crimson Velvet
Very tall straight habit, with the most majestic of exotic flowers
Edith Cavell
Of great historic value, yet innocently beautiful
Globe of Light
A great pomp and circumstance peony of marevellous constitution
Instituteur Dorait
One of the tallest, yet very strong, remarkable flowers of a rare tint
James Kelway
Unique shape, form, habit, can be a bit of a handful to manage, but wow!
Jeanne D'Arc
One of the the most dreamy wonderful classic peonies ever
Le Cynge
A classic french white, of stunning habit and form
Monsieur Martin Cahuzac
Dark and enticing with a rich scent
Moonrise
A new breed of hybrids of the most beautiful yellow