Paeonia 'RED CHARM' common peony

There is not too much competition among pure red peonies. Many varieties show deep rosy pink or purple red, but rich red colour that contains a little bit of yellow pigment to pronounce a warm shade is not very easy to find. Red Charm is an old variety that is truly red. It produces large, fragrant, fully double blooms on 80-90 cm tall stems in June. The colour is so deep that makes it almost impossible to take a photo of. Leaves are deeply lobed, divided, rich green, and deciduous. Awarded a gold medal by American Peony Society in 1956.

These peonies are great plants not only for perennial beds and borders, they also look very elegant combined with shrubs and trees to soften their woody structures. They also make beautiful cut flowers, though, they never last more than a week. They are one of the easiest perennials to grow – just make sure you don’t put them too deep and you won’t have a trouble with them - they can take almost any kind of weather caprice and full neglect. Peonies are long-lived plants, there can be found some 100 years old specimens in royal gardens and arboretums.

Peonies need fertile, well-drained, preferably moist soil. If you want to be really nice to them water them freely on hot and dry days and feed them annually after they roll up foliage completely for profusion of flowers and healthy appearance. Still, this extra care is not required, once established they will grow without help. They don’t like transplanting. If you need to reduce the clump size, remove the unwanted part leaving the rest of the rhizomes in soil, untouched. Fully hardy to about -34°C (USDA zone 4).

Last update 14-05-2013