07816
Paeonia 'Eclipse'

type: [herbaceous peony] – [herbaceous hybrid]


7757-7762	x	Coriacea	=	7762 'Eclipse'	26

	ECLIPSE (Saunders, 1950) - Single - Black Purple - Hybrid. Officinalis x coriacea. List in Bulletin 129.
	Eclipse (1950) Dwarf plant with handsome grey-green foliage and black-purple flowers of great substance. (Officinalis x coriacea)

Don Hollingsworth 2001:

A caution about Peony Eclipse, it proved to be a very shy grower here. That doesn't mean it cannot be grown--one just needs to be lucky and a careful planter. I expect it is very narrowly adapted as to climate and soil. I had a big piece of it from Roy Pehrson more than twenty years ago (big, I concluded, because it has a poor root structure for dividing). It got smaller every year. Because it is tetraploid and has the same pollen parent as the Lavenders (triploid), I had hoped to use its pollen in attempt to get an advanced generation of the Lavenders. It is very disappointing having acquired something so rare and then lose it.

Eclipse is the sort of plant which needs to be in a very favorable location, perhaps in a container of highly areated growing medium. It doesn't take much experience growing the rarer peonies to realize that what we know from growing Lactiflora peonies doesn't teach us what to do for success with some of the others--Eclipse is one of the extreme "others", in my observation. If Peter Waltz still has his plant of it, I would not be surprised to learn it is the only known, identified plant in existence on the North American continent. I am sure he will take care of it and probably not disturb it, at least not unless it prospers.

If you aspire to having "smutty" colors, consider midseason hybrid Buckeye Belle and others of it's clan. In Lactifloras there is Charm and Matilda Lewis, Cocolate Soldier and Black Swan. While the flower colors among these are at various depths, and I do not propose they equal Eclipse, they are all in that direction. They are more widely adapted in peony growing zones, a necessary consideration for plants to be available (produced for distribution) and are more dependable performers for the end user.

The bottom line is that the novel ornamental traits of the species and hybrids are of fleeting benefit unless we can get those qualities bred into plants which are also survivors under a range of growing conditions. Don

Don and Lavon Hollingsworth hpeonies@asde.net

Carsten Burkhardt's Web Project Paeonia - The Peony Database

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