Peony Sarah Bernhardt

If you want to add tenderness and sophistication to the atmosphere of your garden, plant a peony in it. And let it be a specific variety of such a wonderful ornamental plant, namely the Sarah Bernhardt variety. Its appearance matches the refined name: it is simply impossible not to fall in love with such a handsome man!

History of appearance

The hybrid belongs to the authorship of the French breeder Pierre Louis Victor Lemoine. The name of this specialist is quite famous among professional flower growers, since he created many varieties of not only peonies, but also lilacs, which have long become classic. The breeder was a holder of the Legion of Honor, the highest award in France. The appearance of the Sarah Bernhardt variety is 1906. Why did Lemoine name his brainchild after the great French actress? There is no answer to this question. However, there are suggestions that Pierre was a fan of the diva's talent, and therefore decided to immortalize her name in his creation.

Today, the Sarah Bernhardt variety is rightfully considered a kind of model, a standard among decorative and flowering crops. At one time, he received the AGM RHS Award from the British Royal Horticultural Society (stands for "Award of Garden Merit the Royal Horticultural Society", which means "Garden Merit Award of the Royal Horticultural Society").

Description of appearance

Sarah Bernhardt is a herbaceous late cultivar belonging to the milky-flowered group. The peony is an impressive size bush (up to 90 cm in height) with strong, powerful and very strong stems, devoid of the tendency to lodge under the weight of inflorescences. The decorative culture is decorated with openwork dissected leaves of dark green color. With the arrival of autumn, they acquire a crimson color.

The plant blooms profusely, allowing you to fully enjoy the divine beauty of single large double pink-shaped flowers up to 20 cm in diameter. Rounded petals with wavy edges are tightly packed in them. Their shade is characterized as milky white, light pearl pink or pale lilac with a silvery border. However, this is not the only option: today you can also purchase varietal plants with buds of a different color. The most popular modern flower subspecies:

• Sarah Bernard Red - differs from the main variety of peony in that it has smaller buds, about 15 cm in diameter, which are painted in a bright crimson-red color.
• Sarah Bernard White is a shrub strewn with fragrant snow-white inflorescences of a pink or spherical shape. The size of the flower is from 15 to 17 cm. Each peduncle of a perennial is decorated with several lush buds.

In addition, the noble plant can delight the eye with flowers aged in dark red, cream or yellow tones.

The culture blooms for 1-1.5 months. If you care for a peony correctly, it will delight you with lush buds for several decades. It is a frost-resistant variety that can withstand temperatures as low as -40 ° C. And Sarah Bernhardt also has good immunity against common diseases and pests.

Growing and care

The cultivated perennial feels great in a well-lit area, where, nevertheless, on a hot summer afternoon, it is reliably protected from direct sunlight, being in partial shade. It is better not to place Sarah Bernhardt in shady places, because in this case you will not wait for the buds from the French handsome man. Drafts cannot harm a plant - this is the merit of the strength of the shoots, which was already mentioned above.

The ideal soil for this flower is loamy soil with a slightly acidic reaction. The peony is planted in a hole 60 cm deep, which is filled with a soil mixture composed of the following components: one part each of leafy earth, peat, humus and sand. In addition, woody earth and superphosphate are introduced into the soil. The plant is planted in prepared soil so that the buds are 5 cm below ground level. A distance of 1 meter is maintained between the crops.

Sarah Bernhardt needs abundant watering. However, too often it is not necessary to moisten the soil under the bush: it is enough to do it once every 10 days. A perennial should receive up to 30 liters of soft water at a time. Watering is recommended in the evenings. In hot weather, you can additionally spray the plant with water from a spray bottle. A day after watering, it is advisable to loosen the soil under the flower. Then mulching is carried out. For better flowering, the peony is shown regular feeding, only they need to start in the fourth year of the perennial's life.

Despite the resistance of the ornamental shrub to diseases, it is still sometimes affected by gray rot and rust. The first occurs mainly on young specimens. They get rid of it by processing a perennial with a Bordeaux mixture. The second attack, in addition to the leaves, also affects the buds. In order to prevent the appearance of rust, the seedlings should be placed at a distance sounded from each other and refrain from watering the plants during the rainy period.

Sarah Bernhardt needs no shelter for the winter. But if you live in a region where winters are usually harsh and with little snow, you can spud the peony with compost. You will first need pruning shoots.

Use cases

The magnificent old variety Sarah Bernhardt is used to create a variety of landscape compositions. It looks equally good on flower beds, alpine slides, in group and mono-plantings, in ensembles with coniferous and perennial shrubs. Irises, lilies, bells, poppies, as well as thujas, barberry bushes, hellebore, honeysuckle, ornamental onions will make a worthy company for the chic plant. Sarah Bernhardt will attract the attention of guests, neighbors and passers-by, being planted at the porch of a country house. It is quite possible to use the flowers of a wonderful perennial in cut, since they look very impressive in bouquets.