Paeonia 'Honey Gold'

Paeonia 'Honey Gold': Cream Petals With a Golden Pompom Heart

'Honey Gold' is creamy white on the outside and a pile of golden fluff in the middle, like a fried egg that went to art school. Lightly sweet-scented. BRUNCH JUST GOT FANCY.

Plant Characteristics:

• Botanical Name: Paeonia lactiflora 'Honey Gold'
• Common Name: Garden Peony
• Height: 75–90 cm (30–35 in)
• Spread: 60 cm (2 ft)
• Flowers: Japanese form: creamy white guard petals around a full centre of golden yellow petaloids, lightly sweet-scented
• Bloom Time: Early summer (June)
• Foliage: Deep green, divided leaves on an upright, bushy clump
• Features: Fragrant, long-lived

Where to Plant: It's lovely in a white or yellow theme garden and works in any sunny mixed border. Its Japanese-form flowers are lighter than full doubles and tend to hold up well in wind and rain. Cut a few for the house.

Companion Plants: Geranium 'Cambridge' carpets the front at 15 to 25 cm with magenta flowers from May to July. Spigelia 'Ragin Cajun' adds red tubular flowers at 50 cm from May to July, a warm contrast to the white and gold peony blooms. Coreopsis lanceolata brings yellow daisies at 30 to 60 cm over the same weeks, echoing the golden centres. All three like full sun or part sun.

Plant Care: Plant in full sun to part sun, in rich, well-drained soil. Set the eyes on the crown no more than 5 cm (2 in) below the soil surface. Planting too deep is the classic reason a peony won't bloom. Water well through the first season. Japanese-form flowers usually stand without much help, though a peony ring doesn't hurt in a wet spring. Deadhead after flowering. Cut the stems to the ground in fall and remove the old leaves. It rarely needs dividing, so let it settle in and build up for years.

History: 'Honey Gold' was introduced by the Klehm family's peony nursery in the 1970s. The Japanese form it shows, with a centre of narrow petal-like stamens, was developed by peony breeders in Japan and became popular in North American gardens in the 1900s.

Final Thoughts: Long-lived, deer resistant and happy through dry spells. Plant it where the morning sun hits. SUNNY SIDE UP, EVERY YEAR.