Dense small double red, Twisty dwarf officinalis.

Award of Landscape Merit (ALM) description: ‘Eliza Lundy’ (Krekler, 1975) Hybrid, Red Bomb, Early-Mid-season, 22” tall, Lightly scented. — A clear, semi-glossy, deep red, smaller than medium sized bomb with self same, deep red guard petals. Blooms are similar to ‘Red Grace’ in form (though much reduced in size) and in opening habit, with partially unsheathed buds exposing a hard, dark red mass of tightly held bomb petals days before truly opening. Opened blooms are ruffled, quasi-globular, and durable, holding their color well even in hot areas in full sun. Carpels are pale green and tipped pink and become visible deep within the bloom as it matures and its bomb petals spread. The blooming period begins a few days after ‘Red Charm’ opens. Stems are thin but strong with some arching of the outer stems while in flower. Blooms are held one per stem a couple inches above the foliage. The overall floral presentation is one of evenly spaced flowers that are well proportioned to a densely foliated, symmetrical, low growing bush. In the spring ‘Eliza Lundy’ emerges from the ground along with the early hybrids, its leaflets unfurling quickly into a full bushy mass and its dark grayish green foliage unevenly washed a tawny red. It is a unique peony presence in the very early season garden. By bloom time foliage has matured to an undifferentiated medium-light green. With foliage to the ground and its shorter stature, ‘Eliza Lundy’ is useful as a specimen plant in the front border or if planted en masse, as a low early summer hedge. In the south, by late summer ‘Eliza Lundy’ goes dormant, its stems and foliage brown and desiccated. A healthy standard three to five eye division increases rapidly to a viable many stemmed plant within three years, to 22” x 22” in five years and reputedly to a bush two foot high and three foot wide at maturity, its width attributed to the branching habit of its crown. It’s easy to divide with excellent increase. Not adventitious.

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