Playmate
I obtained my plant from a long time Saunders peony collector who had purchased it from the former Caprice Farms. I have now shared it with a few others including Hamilton College. Its flowers are rather small and sparse and its foliage declines early, reflecting its tenuifolia heritage. Its main claim to fame is as the parent of ‘Nosegay’, a highly regarded early cultivar.
Cultivar: | Playmate |
Year Registered: | 1950 (maybe 1938) |
Seedling No: | 6938 (original) also 6905, 6911, & 1941. Page 97 of Saunders’ Notebook III |
Parentage: | 18: mlokosewitschii 2786 X tenuifolia |
Flower: | Color: | cherry pink |
Form: | single, 8 petals, small flowers | |
Blooms: | Week 1 or 2 | |
Carpals: | 3, light, woolly | |
Stigmas: | cherry pink | |
Disc: | rosy (Silvia Saunders’ notes) | |
Stamens: | filaments light yellow | |
Plant: | Habit: | spreading |
Foliage color: | medium green | |
Foliage form: | finely divided | |
Height: | 20″ (reported), 27″ in 2022 | |
Recommendation: | Collectors’ plant |
Availability: | No commercial sources known |