Last year I bought my first itoh peony. At the time, I mentioned how great they are due to their large and continuous flowers, wonderful smell, cool leaves and disease resistance. I was so entranced by the beautiful flowers on my 'Kopper Kettle' peony that I went out and got another kind and color this year: the magnificent 'Misaka' peony. Instead of pink and copper colored, this one is peach, fading to yellow with a red center. It it truly beautiful and I do not regret my purchase for one second.
However, I have learned an unfortunate truth about this type of peony. Everyone exclaims the disease resistance of this plant from the rooftops. Everything you see about them mention it at some point. In my garden bed however, I have not found it to be true. While my brand new Misaka is currently disease free, last year's Kopper Kettle has absolutely struggled this year. I started noticing spots on the leaves (a sure sign of botrytis blight) as early as February. Another peony in this same bed actually had the disease as well while three other peonies in the bed were fine (oddly enough). I removed all leaves that had the fungus spots and sprayed a nasty smelling disease control spray to halt the spread (it seriously smelled as though I had put road tar on the flower bed). Usually I hate to use such products, but I've seen this disease before and if you don't get control early, it can wipe out an entire bed.
Anyway, the chemical application worked and I didn't see any more signs of botrytis. Unfortunately, it was too late for the Kopper Kettle. Even though I stopped the disease pretty early, it still damaged the plant to the point where I only got one flower bud this year (to compare, last year there were at least 20). I was excited nontheless that I got at least one bud and waited and waited for this bud to open. It finally did this past weekend, when the temps soared into the high 70s. Before it even had a chance to fully open, the intense sun completely roasted this poor, single flower. I went out to look at it, and it was a wilted mess. It never did recover and fell off the next day. I couldn't believe it! Of all the days to open, it had to pick that one. I am so disappointed. I guess my lesson for next year will be to practice better sanitation in the fall by removing the stalks all the way down, and proactively spraying early next spring.
Although the Kopper Kettle was a huge disappointment this year, the Misaka (planted in a different bed) is outstandingly beautiful. I will definitely take the lessons learned this year and apply it to this plant as well to ensure many years of prolific blooms. The flowers on both of theses plants are equally beautiful in many ways, but I have really loved how the yellow Misaka flowers seem to glow in the early morning and twilight hours. It truly brightens up the corner of the bed where it is planted and even without flowers, the leaves are very attractive. So far, I give the itohs a B+, but I hope that in subsequent years my opinion of them improves.
[Note: the last two photos are of the ill-fated Kopper Kettle]
However, I have learned an unfortunate truth about this type of peony. Everyone exclaims the disease resistance of this plant from the rooftops. Everything you see about them mention it at some point. In my garden bed however, I have not found it to be true. While my brand new Misaka is currently disease free, last year's Kopper Kettle has absolutely struggled this year. I started noticing spots on the leaves (a sure sign of botrytis blight) as early as February. Another peony in this same bed actually had the disease as well while three other peonies in the bed were fine (oddly enough). I removed all leaves that had the fungus spots and sprayed a nasty smelling disease control spray to halt the spread (it seriously smelled as though I had put road tar on the flower bed). Usually I hate to use such products, but I've seen this disease before and if you don't get control early, it can wipe out an entire bed.
Anyway, the chemical application worked and I didn't see any more signs of botrytis. Unfortunately, it was too late for the Kopper Kettle. Even though I stopped the disease pretty early, it still damaged the plant to the point where I only got one flower bud this year (to compare, last year there were at least 20). I was excited nontheless that I got at least one bud and waited and waited for this bud to open. It finally did this past weekend, when the temps soared into the high 70s. Before it even had a chance to fully open, the intense sun completely roasted this poor, single flower. I went out to look at it, and it was a wilted mess. It never did recover and fell off the next day. I couldn't believe it! Of all the days to open, it had to pick that one. I am so disappointed. I guess my lesson for next year will be to practice better sanitation in the fall by removing the stalks all the way down, and proactively spraying early next spring.
Although the Kopper Kettle was a huge disappointment this year, the Misaka (planted in a different bed) is outstandingly beautiful. I will definitely take the lessons learned this year and apply it to this plant as well to ensure many years of prolific blooms. The flowers on both of theses plants are equally beautiful in many ways, but I have really loved how the yellow Misaka flowers seem to glow in the early morning and twilight hours. It truly brightens up the corner of the bed where it is planted and even without flowers, the leaves are very attractive. So far, I give the itohs a B+, but I hope that in subsequent years my opinion of them improves.
[Note: the last two photos are of the ill-fated Kopper Kettle]
Comments
Post a Comment