Paeonia lactiflora Avalanche

The Avalanche Peony (Paeonia x lactiflora) is an old French variety of Chinese Peony or hybrid herbaceous Peony that is particularly floriferous, elegant, and fragrant. This plant produces a large number of large double flowers, pure white, slightly ruffled, enclosing a heart where white petaloids sometimes bordered blend together with red and golden yellow stamens. Dominating intense green foliage, the flowers rise on rigid stems, giving a graceful appearance and offering beautiful cut flowers for a bouquet.  

Chinese herbaceous peonies mainly come from Paeonia lactiflora, a perennial herbaceous plant native to central and eastern Asia (from eastern Tibet, northern China, to eastern Siberia), where it naturally grows in woods and meadows. This plant belongs to the Ranunculaceae or Paeoniaceae family. Herbaceous peonies, perennial by virtue of their roots, form a clump of foliage that disappears completely in winter.

The Avalanche Chinese Peony was obtained by François Félix Crousse (1840-1925), a horticulturist from Nancy (France), in 1886. The plant forms a compact and bushy herbaceous clump from spring onwards, reaching 90 cm (35in) in all directions. Its large double flowers, 16 to 18 cm (6 to 7in) in diameter, appear rather late, in June, depending on the climate, and last for about three weeks. They bloom at the end of the stems, but also from a few secondary buds. They emerge as a large cream-white bud, then open into a large double pompom 14 cm (6in) wide, with pure white ruffled petals, enclosing a heart where white petaloids sometimes bordered with red blend together with golden yellow stamens. The vegetation of this variety is good and it has remarkable longevity. The young purple and shiny foliage unfolds into large, dark green, highly dissected leaves. They are borne on a petiole that divides into 3, with lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate segments. The leaflets are entire or occasionally lobed. The vegetation disappears in winter, while the buds persist at ground level and will develop in spring. This long-lived perennial plant grows from a large fleshy root that does not appreciate being moved.

Peonies are among those plants that form the foundations of a garden. With great class and fragrance, the Avalanche Chinese Peony happily establishes itself in a flowwerbed or alongside a path, associated with timeless unassuming perennials such as Bearded Iris, columbines, aquilegias, bellflowers, perennial geraniums, carnations, or Christmas roses.  It can also be grown in the vegetable garden to supply cut flowers for the house. Pot cultivation is not recommended, as its needs will not be met. Over time, the peony becomes majestic and blooms more and more abundantly, producing up to 60 flowers. By combining different varieties with staggered flowering times, it is possible to have flowers for 6 weeks from spring to early summer.