THE SAUNDERS LOBATA OF PERRY HYBRIDS: A DOCUMENTATION

By Don Hollingsworth

"Thus from 25 crosses on KELWAY'S GLORIOUS, I have 7 in propagation, 3 of them named. Moral: Use only the best for crossing on...." A. P. Saunders, quoted by E. L. (Roy) .Pehrson in December 1975 Paeonia.

Professor A. P. Saunders, Ph.D., recorded this insight in one of his notebooks perhaps 40 years ago. It appears among some notations referring to the production of a most distinguished family of peonies, the Saunders Lobata of Perry Hybrids.

According to published accounts, crosses were made in 1929 and 1931 between a plant which was received as Paeonia lobata from Amos Perry of England and plants of the Chinese peonies (P. lactiflora). A large number of pollinations were made and seed production was unexpectedly good. Eventually 1,609 progeny of these crosses were given numbers in the Saunders notebooks. Of these, 36 are known to have been named and introduced into the plant trade by the Saunders nursery. Dr. Earle B. White also made the cross, of which one was introduced by the Gilbert Wild and Son nursery. The plants are distinguished among herbaceous peonies for horticultural purposes because of their unusual flower colors, but offer much more value than this in their potential for breeding additional new cultivars. This fact is made especially so because there are so many of them for which the identity of their P. lactiflora parent and other selection criteria are known.

Professor Saunders kent meticulous records of his breeding trials and results, preserving a great deal of pediegree information. During his lifetime his work was extensively reported in published accounts which are available to us in libraries and private collections. He also left his private records in such condition and circumstances that certain important parts of them have been made available for our use even now. For this we are especially indebted to his daughter, Silvia Saunders. and to E. L. (Roy) Pehrson, who has been Mentor to most of us who have recently become involved in peony breeding.

In the above quoted passage Professor Saunders echoed a tradition which has long guided breeders. That is. "breed the best to the best." which derives from the companion saving, "like begets like." Along with advent of the practical application of genetic science principles in plant and animal breeding came the expanded realization that "like begets like and that of previous ancestry." Thus the rise in recognition of the importance of knowing something of ancestry when selecting breeding plants. [p. 37:]

The chief purpose of this article is to have published what is now available to us about the original Saunders Lobata of Perry Hybrids. For convenience, I will sometimes use the abbreviations SLP or SLP Hybrids.

Experience to date suggests that the SLP Hybrids contain a large, untapped potential for producing fine progeny. For example, PRAIRIE MOON (pictured on the cover of APS Bulletin 212, December 1974) has been attributed by Orville Fay to a mating of LAURA MAGNUSON X the Marco Hybrid ARCHANGEL. BRAVURA is reported by Mr. Fay to be the pod parent of both PAULA FAY and BLAZE. Roy Pehrson's LULLABY, pictured here, is from MOON OF NIPPON X LAURA MAGNUSON. In addition, two second generation plants for which pedigrees were not retained have been introduced by the Saunders nursery. These are the well-known MOONRISE and the rather rare RED LACQUER. While these tend to establish the breeding potential of the family, it is seen that the actual possibilities are largely untested.

In the tabulation which appears below, I have meant to retain the information not previously published which may be especially helpful to hybridists. Since the historical account of how this peony family originated already appears in several published sources, such information has been given a lower priority here. Data has been drawn primarily from three basic sources. Except as otherwise noted, the pedigree information comes from Professor Saunders' own records, by way of one of his notebooks that is in the custody of Roy Pehrson. Mr. Pehrson originally tabulated the basic list of sibling groups and it has been published in the hybridists newsletter Paeonia. Since that time he has kindly prepared photocopies of the relevant pages of the Saunders' notebook for my use.

Descriptive detail on the hybrids has been partly drawn from a checklist of introduced hybrid peonies published with the byline of George W. Peyton in the APS Bulletin 129, June 1953, as augmented by direct observation and comparison of descriptions in recent lists of plants offered for sale. The Peyton list is attributed to work' which was done in preparation for publication of Handbook of the Peony (G. W. Peyton, ed.,1953). Descriptive information on the named P. lactiflora cultivars has come from Peonies: The Manual of [p.38:]the American Peony Society (James Boyd, ed., 1928).

Introduced Peony Cultivars Produced in the First Generation by the Hybrid Mating: Paeonia lactiflora cvs X Paeonia Species LOBATA (PERRY),

Tabulated by Sibling Group With Description

Legend: The P. lactiflora parent is given on the first line of each entry; it is the pod parent unless the reverse cross is specified. Introduced seedling names are indent listed following. Where the information is available, the name entries are followed by: Breeder/introducer and year; flower type; color description; and, on the parent line, number of seedlings grown of the cross. Flower type abbreviations: D=double; SD=semi-double; S=single. Hybrid progeny bred by A. P. Saunders except as otherwise noted.

SUMMARY

BRED BY A. P. SAUNDERS

LOBATA (PERRY) as pollen parent: 17 matings, 1,052 grown, 34 introduced.

19 matings, 533 grown, none introduced

LOBATA (PERRY) as pod parent: 2 matings, 24 grown, 2 introduced,

TOTALS: 38 matings, 1,609 grown, 36 introduced.

BRED BY EARLE B. WHITE 1 introduced.

Other Saunders Lobata Hybrids. Documentation of the SLP Hybrids will not be sufficient without identifying some other hybrids frequently lumped with them under the general heading "Saunders Lobata Hybrids." Three fine named hybrids are from Saunders 5267 LOBATA, SEEDLING. These are HERTIAGE, MONTEZUMA and YOUR MAJESTY. According to the record, they were selected from 397 numbered seedlings of the cross. JANICE, another fine hybrid, is annotated in the record as follows, "Parentage unknown, but obviously a lobata hybrid."

This completes the record of named hybrids which are identified in Professor Saunders' "Big Notebook" as being of P. lobata parentage, according to Mr. Pehrson. However, other Saunders peonies of these and other P. lobata crosses may very likely be in the plant trade, and may have been introduced under names given to them by other persons. For example, seedlings were recorded in the Saunders notebook from hybrid crosses of several P. lobata other than those covered above, but none are shown as having been named, according to Mr. Pehrson. However, I recently ran across a statement by Mr. Peyton which cited William H. Krekler's introduction, HELEN MATTHEWS, as one of a "large number of hybrid seedlings that Mr. Krekler received from Dr. A. P. Saunders, none under number and none having bloomed, so we do not know its parentage." (APS Bulletin 150, Sept. 1958, p. 57.)

There are other recorded instances of the distribution of unnamed seedlings from the Saunders nursery. According to annual lists I have for the final 5 seasons or so of the Saunders nursery operation, Miss Silvia Saunders regularly offered a collection described thusly: "Unnamed; by color only. Those whose names are lost, or which are unnamed because too similar to named ones."

Also, I have correspondence from Mrs. Peggy Goldsmith of the Goldsmith nursery, Edmunds, Washington, in which she states that in addition to the nursery's listing of named peony hybrids, they offer divisions of "about 100 plants from Professor Saunders' lobata seedlings." However, insofar as I know, the identities of such plants with the Saunders' records are now lost. Therefore, until actually tried as breeders, they present no greater selection opportunity for hybridists than do any other comparable peony cultivars for which information about ancestors is not available.

From the standpoint of breeding capability, the SLP Hybrids listed above are generally more rewarding in the production of progeny than are any other species of hybrids having P. lactiflora as one of the parents. Their pollen typically has a fairly useable level of fertility, making it relatively easy to backcross them to the P. lactiflora parent. When SLP flowers are pollinated with pollen from other members of the same group or that from many of the currently available advanced generation hybrids , an occasional seed is produced. Though few in number, these seeds usually germinate rather well when the pollen parent is of somewhat related origin. If double flowered progeny are desired, I believe that preference should be given to SLP pollen varieties having a full double P. lactiflora parent and which exhibit a semi-double form themselves (SD seems to be the maximum extension of doubling so far observed in either the first or second generation SLP Hybrids.)