Portland's Passion for Peonies

Portland boasts a long and fruitful growing season. Our wet, mild winters and warm summers create the perfect climate for a huge variety of plants and flowers, but few inspire as much passion as the beautiful and fragrant Peony.  Peonies are one of the oldest cultivated flowers in the world, and Portlanders have embraced its form and fragrance in their gardens, in print, for consumption, and even on their skin. Here is a look at this magnificent flower, and how it is celebrated in the City of Roses.

Passion for Peonies Celebration at Lan Su Classical Chinese Garden

“If you’re writing about peonies, this is a fitting place to start,” said Glin Varco, horticultural manager at the Lan Su Classical Chinese Garden in Old Town-Chinatown. The garden pays homage to this historically significant plant through the entire month of May during their Passion for Peonies event. There are opportunities to see specimens of both tree and herbaceous peonies from two of the most respected growers in the country—Adelman Peony Garden (herbaceous peonies) and Brother's Herbs and Peonies (tree peonies)—a display of the Northwest Peony Society’s finest peony flowers, and a chance to show off your own peony-growing prowess on their “Bring Three Get in Free” event on May 27^th, where peony growers from around Portland will bring in their own brag-worthy blooms in exchange for free admission into the garden.

Photos courtesy of Lan Su Classical Chinese Garden

Varco explains that peonies are the national flower of China, and have been long associated with prosperity there.

“Chinese is a language full of homonyms,” she explains. “The Chinese word for ‘peony’ also translates to ‘wealth.’” She says that the Chinese were cultivating peonies twelve hundred years before they even reached Europe. Their cultivation coincided with a period of prosperity for a region in China in the Yangtze River Valley, an area with a climate very similar to ours in Portland.

Varco explains that, in Chinese culture, a beautiful garden is a way of showing not only one’s prosperity, but also one’s education level. Intricate carvings, poetry, and strategically chosen plants were woven together to tell a story of a well-cultured person. Peonies have been an integral part of that story since the 7^th century in China. Here in Portland, peonies are celebrated in a variety of other ways.

Peonies in Letterpress

Photo courtesy of Studio Olivine

Julie Dutton, owner of Studio Olivine in the Pearl District, says that peonies show up in her letterpress designs quite often. She herself loves the flower, but finds that they are a popular choice for personal stationery and especially wedding stationery. She says she finds inspiration right next door, at Quince Flowers and Events.

 “They just got peonies in, and the smell is amazing!” she says. She finds that peonies are a perfect flower for letterpress design.

“There is so much texture in a peony,” she explains. “The petals, the lines—they lend themselves well to letterpress.”

Peony Tattoos

Peony tattoos on Alena Chun of Icon Tattoo (left) and  St. Johns neighbor Leigh Oviatt (right) sporting work from Atomic Art Tattoo Studio in Overlook.

The Japanese began cultivating peonies sometime after the Chinese, but they introduced the world to a new way to show reverence for it—tattooing. And, unless you’re really new to the area, you know that Portland loves its tattoos. Melanie Nead, owner of the beautiful Icon Tattoo Studio in Eliot, says that peonies are one of her personal favorite flowers.

“I associate peonies with Portland,” says Nead, who explains that she couldn’t grow peonies in her native California. “Portland is full of transplants from somewhere else, people who fall in love with the plants here, like I did. [The variety of plants] are a big, distinctive part of Portland.

She says that some people who get tattoos of peonies are looking for a traditional Japanese-style rendering, but that others really just love the plant, and go for a more realistic look.

 “It really varies from person to person. Some people just love them, have a personal connection to them.”

Peonies in Medical Elixirs

Red peony root (foreground) and white peony root (background)

But peonies are more than just a pretty flower. Acupuncturist and Chinese Herbalist Beth Yohalem Ilsley, of Mississippi Health Center in Humboldt, says that the root of peonies are frequently used in Chinese herbal formulas. In conjunction with other herbs, bai shao (peony’s Chinese phonetic name) is used to nourish blood.

Overall, the peony root promotes liver function, blood circulation, and is used to alleviate some menstrual symptoms. It has mild anti-inflammatory, sedative, diuretic and analgesic properties.

Peony Teas

I wanted to find out if it also tasted good, so I headed over to Townshend’s Tea in Vernon to taste the White Peony tea, and the White Rose Kombucha with white peony. That is where I learned that these elixirs were another homage to the peony by the Chinese, but not actually made from peonies at all. Matt Thomas, owner of Townshend’s explains that white peony tea  is just a grade of white tea (though there are teas made from actual peony root, used in Chinese herbal medicine). The top-grade white tea is referred to as silver needle, the next grade tea is the white peony. Though it has a slight fragrance reminiscent of the scent of a peony, it is made of young tea leaves (“white”) only, and contains no actual part of the peony.

Jeanne Quan, of Tao of Tea in Sunnyside, explains the same goes for the black peony tea that they serve. It is so named for the shape the black tea takes on, when hand-tied in a circle. Beautiful dry, she assures me that it is even more attractive once it is in water, the tiny leaves unfurling as though a flower in mid bloom.

She says that although there are some flower essences or dried petals added to certain teas, the black peony, in addition to the white peony, aren’t made that way.

“The black peony is more about the theatre and not so much the taste of a peony,” Quan explains.