My Visit to a Beautiful Garden of Saunders Peonies

 

Greetings! Last weekend my husband, children and I visited my mother in Ames, Iowa, seeing her for the first time in nearly a year and a half. Now that she and most of my family have been fully vaccinated, she was eager to see us again after such a lonely Covid year spent completely by herself. It was so wonderful to finally see her in person again.

While in Ames, I wanted to visit a peony collector there whom I've been corresponding with via email for the past few months, and I thought that my mother, a retired botanist, might also enjoy a visit to a beautiful garden owned by a fellow retired scientist.

Lois Girton is writing a book about the peonies hybridized by A. P. Saunders (1869-1953), a professor of chemistry at Hamilton College in upstate New York. Today he is regarded as the most prolific peony hybridizer of the 20th century and "the father of the modern hybrid peony."

A.P. Saunders

Here's an article about him and his hybridizing efforts:
https://www.peonysociety.eu/saunders-peonies/

And this is Lois' own website in which she has photos and information about each of the hybrids she has either been able to grow in her own garden or has photographed in other gardens:
https://www.saunderspeonies.com/

Lois has collected probably at least 170 Saunders peonies, out of the approximately 270-300 that may exist. (I can't imagine how expensive it must have been to buy some of the rarer cultivars.) And Lois also has many other herbaceous, Itoh and tree peonies -- a collection of 400 peonies in all!

My mother and I (and my husband) were able to enjoy some of the extraordinary beauty of her collection when we visited her gardens last Saturday, as many of the tree peonies were in full bloom. This is certainly a good time to visit a peony garden!

Here's a few photos of her gardens (unfortunately it rained before I was able to take these photos, so most of the peonies are closed -- but still beautiful covered in raindrops):

Here's the front of Lois' beautiful 1940s farmhouse. You can see her lovely peonies and conifers.

Here's a closeup of the peony in the distance in the last photo. Lois told me that this beautiful cultivar is 'Pink Tea Cup' (not a Saunders cultivar, but very pretty nevertheless).

Coming around the house in her large front yard -- her property is more than an acre in size, which is unusual in the middle of a college town. Here's an island bed filled with Saunders peonies.

This is a Saunders peony: 'Montezuma' (1943). It's actually a more red color than this in real life, but reds are often difficult to capture in photos.

I knew that plant was 'Montezuma' because of the professional-grade plant labels Lois has put next to all her Saunders peonies. Very impressive. Lois' garden was one of the gardens toured during the American Peony Society's last convention in 2019, held at the Reiman Gardens in Ames (she gave a talk about Saunders peonies at the convention). 

Turning around to the back yard, this beautiful magnolia frames the view of a formal garden area behind Lois' house.

A white fence encloses the formal area...

...which contains long rectangular peony display beds, with other plants like alliums to set off the beautiful peonies.

Directly behind Lois' house, a path leads to a patio and more garden areas. I honestly don't know how she manages to maintain all these beautiful areas so neatly.

And on the back of her house, you can see the wonderful sunroom that she built to enjoy the views of her gardens in wintertime.

Lois very generously made us a lovely tea, which the four of us enjoyed in her beautiful sunroom while a few rain showers fell outside. We were able to discuss her plans for her book about Saunders peonies, and her hope that she will eventually be able to donate her Saunders peony collection to the Iowa Arboretum (about 15 miles southwest of Ames), for which Lois served as a board member for several decades. 

It was great to meet Lois in person after corresponding by email, and I wish her good luck in finishing and publishing her book, which is certainly an impressive project.

And a big thank you to Lois for such an enjoyable visit to her beautiful gardens! I think my mother really appreciated getting out of her house and seeing so many expertly grown plants in a garden she has driven past many times but never been able to enjoy up close. And I loved being able to spend time with my mom in such a beautiful setting, seeing her again after so long.

Thanks for reading! -Beth

My mother.