The Peony Flower - Isle of Man

Posted by ShrikantModh | 10:04 PM | Isle of Man | 0 comments »

Name: The Peony Flower
Date of Issue: 10 April 2009
Denominations: 10p x 8
Today Luoyang is still recognised as a centre for peony culture. Each spring a thirty day festival is held to display varieties of peonies from overseas as well as some six-hundred varieties developed in Luoyang itself.Peonies were extremely popular in Victorian and Edwardian Britain, but they fell out of popularity between the two World Wars.

Most British gardeners are unaware of how diverse the peonies are. The flowers of herbaceous peonies can be red, pink or white and every shade in between. There are also hybrid peonies with yellow, lavender and orange flowers.

There are approximately fifty species, more than 5,000 herbaceous cultivars and hybrids and in the region of six-hundred or more tree peonies. To this can be added thousands of other plants that have never been marketed or registered.Interest in peonies started to increase at the end of the 20th century and several new books have been published during the past few years. This increased interest has led to a peony garden being established at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and in 2000 a Peony Society was set up in the UK.