2 minute read
Special Peony Name
Sunday 2nd October - 7pm
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A stunning new early-flowering white peony has been created by Paul Simmons, a Canterbury peony breeder, after seven years of breeding and propagating. This peony has just been registered with the American Peony Society under the name of Angela Early, Paul and Esther Simmon’s great niece. Angela is a seventeen year old Darfield High School student who has Down Syndrome and Autism. Since Angela was born, Paul and Esther wanted to use her name for one of their specially bred peonies. “It has been a great honour to have such a spectacular peony named after her,” commented Angela’s Mum, Christine Early. Paul and Esther enjoy going to the farm to spend Christmas with Angela and her family every year, along with celebrating other family occasions. Angela loves to spend time in the family’s expansive garden of peonies (kindly donated by her great aunt and uncle). She likes being able to bring joy to others by giving bunches of flowers away to friends and all those who help her. She will be looking forward to giving away flowers of her own namesake! Paul and Esther Simmons have been running a peony nursery since 1986. They are located on the outskirts of Christchurch. Like all good business stories they started small, with a hundred plants imported from Angela Early who has a peony named after her.
Peony, Angela Early.
the USA, and have continued to grow. They propagated all types of peonies, including tree peonies, both for the garden market and commercial cut flower growers. As well as selling locally, for many years they have sold peonies to overseas customers in countries, including the USA, Canada, Eastern and Western Europe. They recently decided to retire from selling most of their peonies and now only sell a few exclusive varieties. “I have been working with peonies since 1986, and in the 80's I fell in love with peonies, they weren't very well known then, and I mostly was introduced to them through English gardening books,” commented Paul. “White peonies are generally only available from about midseason onwards and are always popular as a wedding flower. I deliberately set-out to try and breed new white peonies that flowered earlier than anything available at the time. This is the best one I have achieved so far. It's quite early and is vigorous, healthy, disease resistant, frost resistant and very white. Many so-called white peonies start as a blush colour (very light pink) when they first open from the bud and then change to white with time. “This peony is pure white from the start, and it has a beautiful, elegant bud as it opens. It's allround good! Hence Angela Early is the perfect name, ‘Angela’ because it's angelic, ‘Early’ because it describes its special attribute, and I also really wanted to honour Angela,” Paul concluded.
To find out further informa on about the peony Angela Early visit: americanpeonsociety.org/cul vars/peonyregistry/angelaearly/
