Profile Info
First name or nickname
Simon
Country
Experience
Interests
Some info about yourself and your interest in peonies.
My wife, Charmaine and I have just started a cut flower farm in the Scottish Borders.
Prairie Peonies
- Seed SurpriseMuch to my surprise...
- 2024 APS Grand ChampionAnd the Queen of the Show is...
- 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
- Peony by Gail Harland 2025, August 9thSummertime in Alaska is not great for book reading – the nearly 24-hour days and very short frost-free season has most gardeners scrambling to complete a long list of outdoor projects before the snow settles in. Me, included. Nevertheless, I did purchase a deceptively thin book by UK author Gail Harlan titled simply, Peony (2025 Reaktion Books, […]
- Identification and comparison of 101 floral aroma components in 19 herbaceous peony (Paeonia lactiflora) cultivars 2025, June 7thBasem Ibrahim Abbas Salem, Xueping Liao, Ayman Mohamed Ahmed Abduallah, Theint Thinzar Aung, Rana Adel Elsayed Mahmoud Kobtan, Xiuxia Ren, Jingqi Xue, Xiuxin Zhang (authors from China, Egypt, Myanmar) Scientia Horticulturae 2025, 347: Available online: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304423825002493#sec0013a In my research with fruit and berries, it was common to find that hundreds of compounds contribute to the aroma of a particular fruit. Nagoonberry, Rubus arcticus, for instance has revealed more than 80 compounds […]
- Comprehensive Application of Different Methods of Observation Provides New Insight into Flower Bud Differentiation of Double-flowered Paeonia lactiflora ‘Dafugui’ 2025, February 27thZhang, J., W. Zhu, J. A. Teixeira da Silva, Y. Fan and X. Yu HORTSCIENCE 54(1):28–37. 2019. https://journals.ashs.org/hortsci/view/journals/hortsci/54/1/article-p28.xml Some time during late summer, buds begin to form in the crown of peonies. They start as vegetative buds, but given enough time and good growing conditions, many will transition into flower buds. In some plants this […]
- Assessment of Programmed Cell Death in Aging Paeonia lactiflora Petals 2025, February 27thXu, L. M. Sun, J. A. Teixeira da Silva, L.Chen, Y. Xu, and X. Yu. 2023 Cytologia 88(2):: 151-159 https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/cytologia/88/2/88_D-23-00012/_html/-char/en The authors used a variety of microscopy techniques to study changes in flower petal cells from the first show of color to senescence or death. They classified the flowers into 5 stages: S1 through S5. They analyzed several images […]
- Advances in Cultivation Techniques of Herbaceous Peony (Paeonia lactiflora)’Hang Baishao’ and Their Impact on Yield and Quality 2025, February 4thYi Jin, Yongqiang Li, Bowei He. Medicinal Plant Research 2024, Vol.14, No.6, 308-319http://hortherbpublisher.com/index.php/mpr This article is not only about peonies as cut flowers but also as medicinal roots. ‘Hang Baishao’ is well known in China as a high-quality root for medicines. Despite its use in medicines, the article explores optimum growing conditions for plant growth. The […]
- Pest Management for Utah Cut Flower Production: Insects and their Relatives 2025, February 4thNick Volesky, Marion Murray, and Melanie Stock . 2024. Utah State University Extension. Horticulture/01 Fact Sheet Dec 2024. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/extension_curall/2475/ This fact sheet is about many types of cut flowers, not just peonies. However, it is a great overview of ID (great pics)and methods of management of insects and other critters that impact cut flower production. For […]
- 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 […]
2026, The Peony Society