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