I really don't know how to tell, Tracey! They weren't as woody as the ones from Select Plus. I'm not ABSOLUTELY certain Select Plus's are tissue culture either now but the very first ones I purchased from them 7-8 years ago were. Sold them in tiny 4" pots. And I looked around but couldn't find the hybridizer, wasn't on the tag from the nursery either if I remember correctly. What do you think, Karen? Tissue culture or no from Behmerwald Nursery?
I was just curious. It's okay if you don't know. Tissue cultured peonies aren't my favorite to purchase. The peony itself is lovely. An ITOH with that price tag made me wonder.
I think it's probably an end of the season price, probably don't want to overwinter it. The nursery people were very nice and accommodating as well. I wish I'd taken pictures of the roots, they were a good size for the pot they were in at the nursery. Karen kept mine alive and sent it to me bareroot. Thank you, THANK YOU, Karen!
Speaking of Select Plus, I never got but the one reply to my several emails, and they never answered the phone number listed for Select Plus, which was all I had. I have involved my credit card company and will let you know whatever comes of it.
LG - My garden grows with love and a lot of hard work.
That is so sad, LG. I hate to think that they're done for peonies, have such a wonderful inventory. So sorry you didn't get the roots you wanted. I didn't have all of the issues you're having with getting your money back but did have a huge order cancelled the last season Parkland Perennials was selling, still haven't found some that were on that order elsewhere. Hoping the person/company that bought his inventory starts selling again within a few years.
I think Caroline Constabel from Behmerwald is a tissue cultured plant. CC is a new variety that is currently offered only through Planteck. I believe that vendors like Behmerwald get their roots from Planteck or its distributor in early spring and then the nurseries pot them up to be sold during the year. The roots are very small. The new varieties from Planteck are all tissue cultured. Maybe you can get divisions from field grown plants after these tissue cultured plants are grown for 3-4 years. I think all of Don Smith's itoh peonies are initially propagated by tissue culture.
I heard from that Nursery and they will ship all four for $18. LG, I will contact you via Facebook for your address if your interested. Give it a few days until they arrive. Thank you Karen for your offer, it will be easier this way. Not sure how far away you are but road conditions have been deteriorating. Thank you also for the photos, I will forward them to Kristin. She should be happy as well although she did not want to deal with tissue culture plants so I'm waiting to hear back from her.
Craig, I am glad that they are willing to ship them to you. I don't think that I can pick them up this year. They are about 2 hrs from me. And their nursery is really out in the boonies. But I am planning to see their nursery this spring. Their place is really nice.
I agree! That's a decent price for shipping, assume they'll ship bareroot since they should be dormant, otherwise it'd be a very big, awkward and fragile (to the plants) package. The people I talked to there seemed really nice, if they got different varieties that would be amazing!
I don't care whether a root is started as tissue cultured or not; once it's fully established and blooming and being divided for sale is there a difference? Are they less stable? I could see if the culture-er (ha, my new word!) was using inferior materials as their source but I've had no issues with any of the plants from Select Plus....wonder if that's why some of the Monrovia plants have become unstable though....
I haven't had any problems with mine, Annette. There was a string last spring (I think! maybe 2 springs ago) on the GardenWeb peony forum with several people asking "is this normal?" with a much taller stem with a different colored bloom. All of them were Monrovia, don't remember if it was a single variety or not. If yours has been in place and blooming for a few years it's probably not a concern, seem to remember those were 1st or 2nd year in the garden plants.
I am a Hosta collector, too. Without tissue culture the prices for new varieties would be in the hundreds of dollars. The percentage of problems with Hostas is extremely low. So my personal view on TC is that without it, I wouldn't have such a lovely garden.
LG - My garden grows with love and a lot of hard work.
I spoke with Behmerwald Nursery and requested more Itohs for next year. He returned with an interesting list of available Itohs which include Caroline Constabel, Duchesse de Lorraine, Oochigeas, Strawberry Crème Brulee, Simply Red, Joanna Marlene and many more. I requested he try to get these Itohs because they will be in demand plus a few others. Most are #1 size for $45! He said it will depend on availability at the time he places his spring order and some items will sell out quickly before he can get them. So we all know what to do...
Very interesting, Craig. The only negative is that he'll be getting them as potted plants, not easy to ship bareroots. I do wonder who his supplier is and if they sell bareroot at all.
I believe his supplier is Quality Nursery. I don't know if they ship bare roots. I would wait till he updates his list, I know he doesn't do mail orders. You can contact him about a waiting list, not sure how that will go. Let me know if you get more results, I'm waiting to hear back about my wish list.
