April - Garden Treasure

The botanical art print of Peony (Paeonia) “Garden Treasure” painting is now available for sale! In addition to peony paintings and fine art, in our “Peony of the Month” project we discuss horticulture, peony garden design and floral arrangement!

We chose “Garden Treasure” because of her beautiful, lively, sunny colour - the  yellow definitely brings spring to mind! Our April peony is big and blousy, and can flower for a very long time - up to three weeks! We were excited about using this sunshine-like peony in a floral arrangement, just in time for Easter. We also share some ideas about garden design with "Garden Treasure"!

Join us in our "Peony of the Month Chat Show" to find out all you can do with it.

The Story of “Garden Treasure”

"Garden Treasure" is a big, blousy peony, full of buttery-yellow petals. She's an intersectional peony - combining features of both a tree peony and a herbaceous peony.

The plant itself is rather short and grows wider than tall. She has semi-double yellow flowers that tend to be a rich, deep colour. They are composed of petals that have a neater habit - which means that they grow in a uniform, neat way. 

"Garden Treasure" is one of the longest flowering peonies, up to three weeks on mature plants. She's also quite strong. And, in addition to being a real beauty, she has a sweet, lemon-like fragrance. She's a real shot of happiness! 

We thought she would be perfect for April - a month that is so lively and bustling with spring cheerfulness! Easter is upon us, grass turning luscious green, yellow daffodils and other flowers blossoming everywhere, birds chirping! Yellow is the most cheerful of spring colours, and bright, yellow petals of the "Garden Treasure" are like warm spring sunshine that we've been waiting for. 

This month, Binny Plants recommends two perennials that you can plant together with our peony to achieve an exciting visual effect. They will create a beautiful, contrasting colour composition with "Garden Treasure".

Their first is: Iris sibirica 'Silver Edge' or 'Harpswell Velvet' - in the photo below, you can see 'Harpswell Velvet'. It gives a beautiful upright structure against the large bold leaves of "Garden Treasure". Big blue iris flowers are held aloft on strong stems and bloom in May/June. They are around 80-100cm tall, and their deep colour reminds you of a clear spring sky. Lovely pairing against the buttery yellow of the peony! 

Their second choice is Alchemilla 'Goldstrike'. Alchemilla is a well-know, round-leaved perennial. The more common Alchemilla mollis can spread around a bit, but Goldstrike is a bit better behaved and has usual round glaucous blue leaves that look stunning with rain on them. It produces masses of sulphur-yellow, fluffy flower heads that will soften and frame the peony, picking up the tones of "Garden Treasure" but not competing with her. 

These two perennials planted together with the buttery, vivid yellow of our April peony will create an attractive yellow-blue-purple pattern in your garden. We are sure that it will be original and attractive! 

Sunny, yellow flowers of "Garden Treasure" will brighten your interior up and bring in the spring cheer! This time, Jens created a potted arrangement with our "Garden Treasure". It's elegant, yet full of vitality and new life brought by the spring season! 

In his arrangement, Jens decided to put spotlight on peonies by framing them by simple elements - he used dry, old thyme. Brown and green colours will not take the attention away from our star - "Garden Treasure". That way, yellow flowers surrounded by grass-like thyme will resemble a lawn covered with beautiful, spring flowers. Please note that roses are used instead of peonies which are not in season yet.