first year bloomed 1981. Parentage, Reath F-3 (Burma Ruby x Moonrise) x Reath E-78. Ruffled brilliant orange red hybrid with three or four rows of guard petals, all ruffled. Very fertile as a pod and pollen parent. Fragrant. Seedling # 81-16.
Award of Landscape Merit (ALM) description: ‘The Mackinac Grand’ (Reath, D.L., 1992) Herbaceous Hybrid; Early Midseason; 36″ — A medium-sized, color fast, brilliant warm red, semi-double composed of three to four rows of heavily ruffled and folded, lustrous guard petals. Upon opening, a mound of densely packed stamens is revealed, gently shaped by the natural forces of the unfurling guard petals. Three to six light green, pink tipped carpels sit amidst the pollen laden anthers. The innermost guard petals are erect and fluted, while the outermost guard petals are longer, more tailored and closer to horizontal. In some blooms a few extra, upright, red flag petals, slightly smaller but more ruffled than the guard petals, project through the center of the stamen mound. As the blooms develop, all the petals begin to flare apart, each to its own tendency; thus blooms are variable, every one a unique vehicle for catching, reflecting, and obscuring sunlight. On sunny days blooms exhibit a gamut of modulated red, from deep shades in the shadows to fiery red highlights and the sparkle of sunlight from the petal’s gloss. From afar, the color has great carrying power and always attracts attention. The bush itself has an open, somewhat spreading habit, with strong, rigid, stalks of slightly unequal heights tending to lean, but not bend, away from the center of the plant. Each stalk is densely foliated. Without heat and water stress, foliage should persist and remain clean until fall. A strong grower and reliable bloomer; performance improves with age and stem increase.
The Machinac Grand (Reath 1992) – Hybrid (Burma Ruby x Moonrise)x Reath E-78 – Semi-Double – Red – Early Midseason – 36” – A medium-sized, color fast, brilliant warm red, semi-double composed of 3 to 4 rows of heavily ruffled and folded, lustrous guard petals. Upon opening, a mound of densely packed stamens is revealed, gently shaped by the natural forces of the unfurling guard petals. Three to six light green, pink tipped carpels sit amidst the pollen laden anthers. The innermost guard petals are erect and fluted, while the outermost guard petals are longer, more tailored and closer to horizontal. In some blooms a few extra, upright, red flag petals, slightly smaller but more ruffled than the guard petals, project through the center of the stamen mound. As the blooms develop, all the petals begin to flare apart, each seemingly to its own tendency; blooms are thus variable, every one a unique vehicle for catching, reflecting, and obscuring sunlight.
On sunny days blooms exhibit a gamut of modulated red, from deep shades in the shadows to fiery red highlights and the glint of sunlight from the petal’s gloss. From afar, The Machinac Grand’s color has great carrying power and always attracts attention. Immediate post-bloom petal drop can be messy, and if one is of a mind here in the USA, reminiscent of July 5th’s as yet unattended to fireworks detritus.
The bush itself has an open, somewhat spreading habit, with strong, rigid stalks of slightly unequal heights tending to lean, but not bend, away from the center of the plant. Each stalk is densely foliated; the lowest two or three stemlets on each stalk are very long with large, shiny, ovate leaflets, while the upper stemlets become progressively shorter and their leaflets smaller and stiffer. Without heat and water stress, foliage should persist and remain clean until fall.
The Machinac Grand is a strong grower and reliable bloomer and Its performance improves with age and its attendant stem increase. Fertile pod and pollen parent. Increase by division. ALM 2012.
Bill Seidl related a story sometime back that I can’t find searching my emails. I’ll try not to gin it up too much: David Reath was vacationing on Mackinac Island, a resort unto itself, with no motorized modes of transport and a motif heavily dominated by the color red. Upon checking out of The Mackinac Grand Hotel, palatial in both grandeur and price of accommodations Reath, taken aback by the bill, made a deal with the proprietor that in lieu of payment, he would name a peony after the place. A great deal or so he thought so at the time, Reath later had misgivings about this verbal contract, but true to his word, applied the appellation to one of his great selections.