This blooms very early for a lactiflora. The small flowers surrounding the terminal make for a single stemmed bouquet. It is absolutely charming and unique and should be more widely grown. Saunders’ notes indicate it likely originated in 1905 or 1906 so it is really his earliest introduction.
It is one of the few Saunders varieties grown by W.E. Upjohn and still found in the historic peony collection of Nichols Arboretum at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Its name had been lost until the collection was toured by a group of knowledgeable APS members including Don Hollingsworth according to Passion for Peonies: Celebrating the Culture and Conservation of Nichols Arboretum’s Beloved Flower (Michener & Grese, 2019).
