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Riitta Juonala
Prairie Peonies
- 2024 APS Grand ChampionAnd the Queen of the Show is... One of my favourite images (and stories) arising from the 2024 American Peony Society Convention in...
- Hello, 2024; Pantone & Peachy PeoniesWhen it comes to peonies, peach hues have always held an irresistible allure for me. Perhaps this is because...
- APS 2023 Convention Garden Tours: Day 1 - The Garden of Frances MillardAs the days started to lengthen and warm up after the calendar flipped to 2023, a sense of excitement and anticipation was exponentially...
- 2020 Canadian Peony Society Floral Design Demonstration, by yours truly.I'm beyond excited to say that I've been asked to contribute to the Canadian Peony Society's Virtual 2020 Peony Festival.
- WelcomeI was left wondering: if I was to start a project up, how would I approach it? What would I bring to the table that is different and unique?
HortAlaska Peonies
- Flower morphology, flower color, flower timing and floral fragrance in Paeonia L. 2025, January 7thFan, Y., X Jin, M Wang, H Liu, W. Tian, Y. Xue, K. Wang, H. Li, Y. Wu. 2024. Frontiers in Plant Science. 15:1467596. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2024.1467596/full A great review article attempting to classify the thousands of peony cultivars by color, floral type, flower morphology and fragrance. In China, herbaceous peonies have 9 color types: white, yellow, pink, red, […]
- The potential post-harvest treatments to delay flower senescence and improve Botrytis resistance in cut peony flowers. 2025, January 7thNguyen, T. and S. Ha. 2024. Horticulturae. 10, 1352. https://www.mdpi.com/2311-7524/10/12/1352 A great review article attempting to classify the thousands of peony cultivars by color, floral type, flower morphology and fragrance. In China, herbaceous peonies have 9 color types: white, yellow, pink, red, purple, ink, green, orange and multicolor. Scientist have tried to un-muddy the waters by […]
- Co-Infection of Tobacco Rattle and Cycas Necrotic Stunt Viruses in Paeonia lactiflora: Detection Strategies, Potential Origins of Infection, and Implications for Paeonia Germplasm Conservation 2024, June 7thNastassia B. Vlasava , David C. Michener, Siarhei Kharytonchyk, and Liliana Cortés-Ortiz Viruses 2024, 16, 893. https://doi.org/10.3390/v16060893 Alaska peony growers and many others around the world know about TRV. Since work completed by Dr. Nancy Robertson (USDA ARS Palmer, AK) and others in 2009, we have seen the yellow chevrons, spots and stripes that appear usually […]
- Nutritional Evaluation of Herbaceous Peony (Paeonia lactiflora Pall.) petals 2023, April 18thLi, W., S. Yang, H. Cui, Y. Hua, J. Tao, C. Zhou.2017. Emerates Journal of Food and Agriculture. 29(7):518-531. This article examines the chemical composition of peony petals especially an analysis of soluble sugars, organic acids, protein, vitamin C, total phenolics, flavonoids, and minerals. They analyzed 46 cultivars. In Chinese literature, petals used in tea […]
- Peony Aroma – Only The Nose Knows Study on smellscape perception and landscape application of fragrant plants. 2023, April 18thSong, Xiuhua and Q. Wu. 2021. Urban Forestry and Urban Greening. 67: 127429. 8p. Plant smell is a combination of low molecular weight volatile compounds released by stems, roots, leaves, flowers, fruits and/or other organs. They can have a positive or negative effect on humans. I think of roseroot, Rhodiola, whose roots have an incredible […]
- Analyzing the red (pink) color of herbaceous peonies 2022, April 24thAnthocyanin accumulation and differential expression of the biosynthetic genes result in a discrepancy in the red color of herbaceous peony (Paeonia lactiflora Pall.) flowers. by Y. Wu, Z. Has, Y. Tang and D. Zhao. 2022. Horticulturae. Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/horticulturae The scientists were interested in learning the differences in the pigment, anthocyanin, between a pink and […]
- Melatonin and Peony Stem Strength 2022, April 23rdMelatonin enhances stem strength by increasing the lignin content and secondary cell wall thickness in herbaceous peony. by D. Zhao, Y. Luan, W. She, Y. Tang, X Huang, and J. Tao. 2022. Journal of Experimental Botany. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erac165 This research paper was just reported as a PDF of a research paper that has yet to be […]
- Drying Flowers 2021, March 20thKumar, S., A. Malik and V. Hooda. 2021. Drying of flowers: a money-spinning aspect of floriculture industry. Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry. Spring 10(1): 27-31. This article from India, summarizes methods used to dry/preserve cut flowers to expand options for businesses already selling fresh cut flowers. Dried flower products have been exported from India for […]
- Jealousy, Greek Myths and Peonies! Why Not? 2021, March 13thIllieva, I. 2021. Names of botanical genera inspired by mythology. GSC Biological and Pharmaceutical Sciences Online press. 14(3)8-18. Author, Iliana Illeva, University of Forestry, Sofia, Bulgaria, explored the scientific names of plants and traced those that originated in Greek Mythology. Peonies are there, of course. The origin refers to the centuries-old use of peony roots […]
- Peony Pollen and Carp! 2021, February 22ndFlower growers are always looking for other products or marketing methods to add value to their main product- fresh cut peonies. I see a lot of ads and information about peony artwork, medicinals, tea, cosmetics, calendars, photography, and so much more. However, these researchers show that connections might occur in areas one would never expect. […]
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