Peony

You can search this perfume note in combination with other notes if you use Search by notes

Not so long ago at the Moscow Botanical Garden there was an exposition of peonies with dozens of cultivars including garden hybrids and itoh-hybrids. I visited this exposition and today I want to share with you my photos of these beautiful flowers and to talk a bit about the story of the cultivation and development of peonies and their aromas. I also will mention the difference of the smell from cultivar to cultivar.

Peony (lat. Paeónia) — is a genus of perennial herbaceous and deciduous shrubs. Peony is the only Genus of the Family Paeoniaceae. The most typical species is Paeonia officinalis L..

Cultivated, these flowers are interesting first of all due to their decorative properties. According to certain Chinese sources of the time of Qin and Han rule, interest in peonies as decorative plants has been documented since 200 BC.

Goldmine cultivar, China, near 1100

Genus Paeonia counts more than 30 species. The most popular and widespread in cultivation is Paeonia lactiflora, also known as Paeonia albiflora, that was the first white peony brought to Europe. First introduced in England in the mid 1700s, this species became the ancestor for most garden peonies.

Venus cultivar, Great Britain, 1888

According to The American Peony Society, there are 6455 peony cultivars registered today.

Paeonia lactiflora unlike Paeonia officinalis is more persistent for weather change and for illnesses; it became the ancestor for a huge amount of cultivars that were firstly mainly famous in France.

Duchesse de Nemours cultivar, France, 1856

Marie Lemoine cultivar, France, 1869

La Perle cultivar, France, 1886

Albert Crousse cultivar, France, 1893

Sarah Bernhardt cultivar, France, 1906

Selectionists in the USA (peonies became known there in 1771) crossbred Paeonia lactiflora with wild species in order to obtain new cultivars. Considering the flower became more and more popular, the American Peony Society was founded in 1903.

Myrtle Gentry cultivar, USA, 1925

Krinkled White cultivar, USA, 1928

Considering the structure of a flower, peonies are divided into flat/single, Japanese type, anemone type, semi-double and double (polypetalous) that in their turn can be (considering the form of a flower) coronate, semi-spherical, spherical, semi-rose type and rose type.

Single/flat flowers are all wild peonies and their hybrids. The blossom consists of five or more large zonated petals with numerous stamens in the center.

The Japanese type flowers are characterized with one or two rows of petals and numerous stamens without pollen. Parastemons (staminodiums) are more often colored more brightly than petals. The Anemone type flowers are often compared to the Japanese group. Their flowers have one or two rows of petals, many stamens without pollen, but colored the same tint as the petals.

Ursa Major cultivar, USA, 2000

Gold Standard cultivar, USA, 1934

Nellie Saylor cultivar, USA, 1967

Yellow Charm cultivar, USA

Neon cultivar, USA, 1941

White Sands cultivar, USA, 1968

Bouquet Perfect cultivar, USA, 1987

Semi-double peonies have flowers with many petals in several rows; stamens are located annulately, rarely mixing with petals and stamens are grouped in the center of a flower.

Green Halo cultivar, USA, 1999

Coral Charm cultivar, USA, 1964

Double or polypetalous flowers with numerous petals are the most aromatic (having this very "classical" scent that we are used to calling peony: light and transparent, floral, slightly powdery) and most recognizable as a typical "peony".

Big Ben cultuvar, USA, 1943

Chiffon Parfait cultivar, USA, 1981

Chinook cultivar, USA, 1981

Fringed Ivory cultivar, USA, 1989

Jacorma cultivar, Netherlands, 1969

Jadwiga cultivar, Romania

Joker cultivar, USA, 2004

Junior Miss cultivar, USA, 1989

Moon River cultivar, USA

Victorian Blush cultivar, USA, 1999

Pink Parfait cultivar, USA, 1975

Princess Margareth cultivar, USA, 1960

Diana Parks cultivar, USA, 1942

The most aromatic peonies I sniffed at the exposition were: rather simple Festiva Powder Puff, that had the brightest among "classical" peony scents — subtle and soft-powdery; Steve's Choice — a flowery scent with shades of lemonade and caramel; Venus — a thick, rich flowery scent. A rather interesting fragrance was the Myrtle Gentry cultivar, its smell included the balmy hints of myrtle.

Festiva Powder Puff cultivar, USA, 1986

Steve's Choice cultuvar, USA

Besides habitual flowers about 10 centimeters in diameter, there were hybrids with flowers of more than 20 centimeters.

Carol cultuvar, USA, 1955

There is a separate group called itoh-hybrids (intersectional hybrids) with very big flowers, an original form and color. The story of itoh-hybrids started with a battle among selectionists trying to develop a cultivar with pure yellow petals. The result was obtained when Tree peonies were taken into consideration for crossbreeding. In 1958, resulting from the crossbreeding between Herbaceous and Tree peonies, Japanese selectionist Toichi Itoh created the first herbaceous plants with real yellow flowers.

In 1967 Louis Smirnov, the owner of a peony breeding nursery in New-York, bought the rights for these hybrids and later in 1974 registered with the American Peony Society (in co-operation with Itoh) four cultivars: Yellow Crown, Yellow Emperor, Yellow Dream and Yellow Heaven. The selection of intersectional hybrids that was continued in the USA led to putting them into separate group (Itoh-Hybrids or Intersectional Hybrids).

The most remarkable itoh-hybrids are considered to be Garden Treasure and Bartzella, that is up until today the only double yellow peony in existence. Now the list of itoh-hybrids includes the cultivars not only with yellow petals. There are the ones with pink and even burgundy-red flowers (for example the Old Rose Dandy cultivar with flat beige-yellow pink flowers).

Garden Treasure cultivar, USA, 1984

Bartzella cultivar, USA, 1986

Old Rose Dandy cultuvar, USA, 1993

Anderson Kaleidoscope cultuvar, USA, 2006

Peonies are very popular garden flowers. Different cultivars bloom in different time from May until August offering the possibility to enjoy the beauty and the wonderful bright but subtle and sophisticated smell of these flowers all summer long.

Old Faithful cultivar, USA, 1964

Pillow Talk cultivar, USA, 1973

White Frost cultivar, USA, 1991

Ivory Victory cultivar, USA, 1988

Volatile components that define the smell of the blooming peony, as strange as it may seem, are not thoroughly examined and this theme is still waiting for an attentive researcher. I must admit that the most important work on peonies appeared only last year.

Earlier in the study of peony there were found such components (in rather big amounts) as phenylethyl alcohol, citronellol, geraniol, linalool, nerol (so called «rose alcohols») and their esters. Among ketones and esters it worth to mention methylheptenon with its green apple scent (there is a lot of it in essential oils of verbena and lemongrass) and fruity-balmy methyl cinnamate.

The important components of peony smell are farnesol with a lily of the valley scent, nerolidol with a flowery-green scent, benzaldehyde smelling of bitter almond, the smoky-vanilla scent of guaiacol and dymethyl hydrohinon that smells of hay and fennel. Terpenes and their oxygen-containing derivatives make a substantial contribution to the peony aroma (besides the ones mentioned above there is eucaliptol, caryophyllene, terpineol and others) and rather important components are certain aldehydes, ketones and arenes.

But I have to distress you a bit: any attempt to mix these components, even respecting natural quantities, more likely would not lead to an appropriate result. As it often occurs, the secret of an amazing smell is in the combination of many unique minor components. Maybe this is the reason why there is not so many good and realistic fragrances with a peony note.

But still there are several synthetic ingredients having an aromatic profile characteristic of peony. One of the most important odorants with peony nuances is Peonile, synthesized for the first time in 1976 by Givaudan chemist Jean-Pierre Bachmann. This ingredient came to the market only in 1995, and in 2006 Petalia was created, being the Peonile close analog with hints of rose and litchi. For today this is the Givaudan captive odorant. Phenylethyl analogues 4-phenylbutan-2-ol (phenyl methyl carbinol, PEMC) and о-methylphenyl alcohol (Peony Alcohol, Peomosa) also have a nice rose-waxy scent with the hints of peony and mimosa. Besides, there is a bright peony note in 9-decenylacetate (Rose Petal Acetate, Roseate) and peony aldehyde.

I hope this brief chemistry course in the peony smell will help you to have a look at the fragrances with peony note from another point of view and to admire the work of perfumers. One of my favorite peony soliflores is Yves Rocher's Pur Desir de Pivoine, simple but very nice. What are your favorites?

Mat Yudov

Photo: Jane Wonder

EDITOR'S NOTE: In addition to Mat's recommendation of Pur Desir de Pivoine, and our Fragrantica Peony page, we'd like to suggest the following additional fragrances that include peony notes:

• Yves Rocher Pivoine
• Coach Peony Splash
• Atkinsons White Peony
• L'Occitane en Provence Peony
• Penhaligon's Peoneve
• Bottega Verde Peonia Splendida
• Yardley Peony

By Mat Yudov & Eugeniya Chudakova