Alias: Jiangli, Yurong, Liuyi

Family Name: Paeoniaceae

1. Morphological Character       

The stalk is caespitose. The trunk is between 60 to 150 centimeters in height, with thick and long fleshy root. The leaves at the bottom are compound leaves, while those at the top are simple leaves, with white bony thin teeth at the edge. The top of the stalk ramifies, with a flower on top of each branch, which is between 5.5 to 10 centimeters in diameter. Some gardening species have flowers with a diameter of 15 to 20 centimeters. The flowers are white, pink, red, purple, dark purple, lilac, yellow, etc. The follicle fruit matures in August.

2. Main Points for Planting

The main method of reproduction is offshooting and seeding. Offshooting should be performed from the last ten days of August to that of September. Offshooting in spring would cause the maladjustment of moisture and nutrition in the plant, resulting in debility and death of the plant. To offshoot, the root should be dug out, dried in the shade for one or two days and finally broken off along the aperture. Offshooting should be performed once every 6 to 10 years. In reproduction of seeding, root starts rhizogenesis in the same fall of seeding and the seed will germinate in the spring of the next year. The young plant grows slowly. Very few plants will blossom in the following third year. The common blossom time is in the following 4 or 5 years. Basic fertilizer should be plenteous before inseminating, with deep furrowing and flatting once and again. The best time to inseminating is between the last ten days of August and that of September. The row space between plants should be 85cm×85cm. Fertilizer should be applied together with freezing water before ice-out in spring, and it should be fertilized 3 times a year. The soil should be wet with a little dry. The plant should be watered thoroughly before blossom. Water it completely with fertilization before the germination in early spring. Water it with freezing water in the last twenty days of November.