Though preservation is our mission, bulbs drop out of our catalog every year.
Sometimes it’s because the harvest was too small. Sometimes it’s because they’re widely available elsewhere and don’t need our help. And sometimes it’s because we’ve lost our only known source due to severe weather (cold, drought, etc.), health problems (a debilitating stroke), or economic woes (small farmers are always at risk).
The good news is that, in time, we’re often able to return these bulbs to our catalog. So here’s a list of many we’ve offered in the past. For an alert the moment they’re available again, subscribe to our free email newsletter. Or to find a similar bulb, try our easy Advanced Bulb Search.
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“Loaded with flowers” is a phrase you’ll often see in descriptions of this lush Victorian beauty. Its dark, garnet-red flowers are highlighted by a satiny gloss and a scattering of golden stamens. By Mechin and Dessert (breeders of ‘Mons. Martin Cahuzac’), strong stems, 38-42”, early-mid, zones 3a-7b(8bWC), 3-5 eyes, from Oregon.
Last offered in 2020. We offer a rotating selection of peonies. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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“One of the best peonies in the world, both for the landscape and for cut blooms” – so said peony expert Lee Bonnewitz in 1928, and after decades of growing it in my own garden, I wholeheartedly agree. Its bountiful, snow-white flowers (blushed pink at first) are held upright on unusually strong stems. They’re famously long-lasting, both outside and in bouquets, and their rose-like fragrance is an added treat. By Kelway, 32-36”, late-mid season, zones 3a-7b(8bWC), 3-5 eyes, from North Carolina.
Last offered in 2016. We offer a rotating selection of peonies. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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This richly fragrant, “tri-colored” peony is decidedly different – and lovely. Its soft pink outer petals frame a flurry of creamy white inner petals that open to reveal a central tuft of pink flecked with crimson. It’s free-flowering, too, with strong stems for garden and bouquets. 28-32”, mid-season, zones 3a-7b(8bWC), 3-5 eyes, from Iowa.
Last offered in 2018. We offer a rotating selection of peonies. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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This hard-to-find French beauty produces masses of blush-to-white flowers highlighted by bits of crimson and a ring of yellow stamens that inspired its name, Gold Crown. “What ‘Festiva Maxima’ is to the early” season, connoisseur William Upjohn wrote in the 1920s, ‘Couronne d’Or’ is to the late” — high praise indeed! Fragrant, strong stems, 28-32”, zones 3a-7b(8bWC), 3-5 eyes, from Iowa.
Last offered in 2022. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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Pure white illuminated by a champagne glow from deep inside, ‘Dr. F.G. Brethour’ looks like a 1930s version of the immortal ‘Duchesse de Nemours’. It’s lightly fragrant, with beautiful dark green foliage, and fine enough to be one of the 194 peonies included in Adelman and Michener’s 2018 Peonies: The Best Varieties for Your Garden. By H.P. Sass, 34”, mid-late season, zones 3a-7b(8bWC), 3-5 eyes, from Iowa.
Last offered in 2023. We offer a rotating selection of peonies. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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Lacy-leafed, just two feet tall, very early blooming, and winner of both the APS Gold Medal and Award of Landscape Merit, this is a very special peony. Its striking foliage and early bloom — 2-3 weeks before most peonies — come from P. tenuifolia, the fern-leaf peony. It never needs staking, increases vigorously, and blooms profusely. 3-5 eye roots, 20-24”, zones 3a-7b(8bWC), from Illinois.
Last offered in 2013. We offer a rotating selection of peonies. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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Winner of the APS Gold Medal — the peony world’s highest honor — this Nebraska-bred classic offers armloads of BIG, rose-like blooms of palest pink (especially in cool weather) maturing to white. Its sturdy stems and compact form make it an excellent garden plant, and its late bloom and gentle fragrance make it a favorite for weddings. 26-30”, zones 3a-7b(8bWC), 3-5 eyes, from Iowa.
Last offered in 2023. We offer a rotating selection of peonies. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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In Victorian days, the world’s finest new peonies were coming from France, and passionnant ‘Felix’ is still one of the best. With neat, abundant flowers of vivid, juicy raspberry, it combines especially well with pink peonies and the blues of larkspur and baptisia. 3-5 eye roots, 30-32”, zones 3a-7b(8bWC), from Iowa.
Last offered in 2009. We offer a rotating selection of peonies. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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This exquisite jewel, brought into gardens from the wilds of Ukraine, holds its small, bright red flowers above mounds of finely cut foliage. Less than two feet tall and blooming weeks before most peonies, it was listed by Philadelphia nurseryman Bernard McMahon in 1806, carried west by the pioneers, and blooms today in abandoned cemeteries throughout the Great Plains. Recommended for experienced gardeners, 14-22”, zones 3a-7a(8aWC), 3-5 eyes, from Manitoba.
Last offered in 2023. We offer a rotating selection of peonies. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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The most famous peony of all, ‘Festiva Maxima’ has been a standard of excellence since Hovey’s of Boston first offered it in America in 1852. Its big, sparkling white flowers are highlighted by a few dribbles of crimson, its stems are strong, and it blooms reliably even in the South. 3-5 eye roots, 34-36”, early-mid season, zones 3a-8a(8bWC), from Holland.
Last offered in 2023. We offer a rotating selection of peonies. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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Although rarely offered today, this is one of the best of the Brand family’s many great peonies. Experts throughout the 1900s praised its “perfectly formed” flower (Bonnewitz), its “very floriferous” habit (Boyd), and the “pearliness of its delicate cream-and-blush coloring” (Harding). Its name honors the Chicago reformer who urged women to “Do everything.” Lightly fragrant, strong stems, 30-34”, mid-season, zones 3a-7b(8bWC), 3-5 eyes, from Iowa.
Last offered in 2020. We offer a rotating selection of peonies. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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“Showy enough to be kicking up her legs at the Folies Bergère,” as Sonia Day writes in The Untamed Garden, this cheery flower combines brilliant rose outer petals with a center of pink and cream that soon matures to snowy white. It’s also fragrant and so strong-standing that it’s won the APS Award of Landscape Merit. By Auten, 32-34”, mid, zones 3a-7b(8bWC), 3-5 eyes, from Oregon.
Last offered in 2022. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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Increasingly hard to find, this distinctive peony looks like a sunrise when it first opens, with cloud-like outer petals and a froth of glowing, butter-yellow inner petals that mature to white. It was bred by Walter Gumm of tiny Remington, Indiana, whose peony collection included a staggering 1100 varieties. 3-5 eye roots, 32”, zones 3a-7b(8bWC), from Iowa.
Last offered in 2011. We offer a rotating selection of peonies. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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The huge, luxurious blossoms of this Nebraska-bred beauty are a rich, rosy pink that’s not too light and not too dark but just right. Strong-growing and profuse blooming with a mild, spicy fragrance, it’s one of the scores of beloved peonies, daylilies, and iris bred by the extraordinary Sass brothers. 36-38”, mid-late season, zones 3a-7b(8bWC), 3-5 eyes, from Iowa.
Last offered in 2023. We offer a rotating selection of peonies. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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One of the most fragrant peonies of all, this hard-to-find beauty by the great Hans Sass of Nebraska is a lovely, soft, apple-blossom pink. Cut when the buds are in the “soft marshmallow” stage — just before they start to open — and your house will be filled with fragrance for a week or more. 3-5 eye roots, 36-38”, mid-late season, zones 3a-7b(8bWC), from Iowa.
Last offered in 2023. We offer a rotating selection of peonies. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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America’s love affair with peonies started here. Over the past 200 years, thousands of varieties of Paeonia lactiflora have graced our gardens, but in 1810 there were only three, freshly arrived from China. Today ‘Humei’ is still ruggedly handsome, watermelon-pink, cinnamon-scented, and — for gardeners like us — a thrill. 3-5 eye roots, 30-32”, late, zones 3a-7b(8bWC), from Iowa.
Last offered in 2011. We offer a rotating selection of peonies. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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The new APS Award of Landscape Merit honors peonies that are especially fine garden plants, such as this glorious single that blooms abundantly and never needs staking. It’s superb in bouquets, too, where you can enjoy its dazzling center and crinkly, undulating petals up close. 3-5 eye roots, 30-32” mid-season, zones 3a-7b(8bWC).
Last offered in 2010. We offer a rotating selection of peonies. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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Like an apple orchard in full bloom, this fabulous old peony combines pink buds and outer petals with mostly white inner petals for an exuberant and ineffably beautiful display. Its multiple side buds make each stem a complete bouquet and the bloom season last and last. It’s fragrant, too, and one of Scott’s all-time favorites. 36”, semi-double, mid-late, zones 3a-7b(8bWC), 3-5 eyes, from Holland.
Last offered in 2021. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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Great name, great peony. Bred near the shores of Hiawatha’s Gitche Gumee (aka Lake Superior), this vivid crimson peony was a popular favorite for many, many decades. Its stems are strong and its pure, happy color all but shouts “summer is here!” 3-5 eye roots, 28-30” mid-season, zones 3a-7b(8bWC), from Iowa.
Last offered in 2010. We offer a rotating selection of peonies. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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One of our all-time favorite peonies, baby-pink ‘Madame Ducel’ is a couple of inches shorter than most peonies. What really sets it apart, though, is its exquisitely composed flowers, each looking like a scoop of strawberry ice cream set on a tiny pink plate. Grown exclusively for us from stock we rescued from Iowa’s Sherman Nursery which closed in 2012 after 128 years in business. 3-5 eye roots, 28-30”, mid-season, zones 3a-7b(8bWC), from Iowa.
Last offered in 2023. We offer a rotating selection of peonies. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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Just in time for its 150th birthday, here’s a raspberry-red treasure from Jacques Calot, the master who gave the world such enduring favorites as ‘Philomele’ and ‘Duchesse de Nemours’. Its stems are strong, its foliage dark and glossy, and its sumptuous, jewel-toned flowers just the right size for bouquets. Aka ‘General MacMahon’ and ‘Augustin d’Hour’, 30-32”, late mid-season, zones 3a-7b(8bWC), 3-5 eyes, from Canada.
Last offered in 2016. We offer a rotating selection of peonies. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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With glossy, ruffled petals of deep claret-red, this Minnesota-bred beauty is great in the garden, where it blooms profusely on strong stems, and in bouquets, where it lasts and lasts. It’s also “a rich source of nectar,” says expert Martin Page, “and very attractive to bees.” 3-5 eye roots, 28-32”, mid, zones 3a-7b(8bWC), from Iowa.
Last offered in 2011. We offer a rotating selection of peonies. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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Japanese-style peonies were unknown in America till ‘Mikado’ caused a sensation when it bloomed en masse at the Japanese exhibit at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Its dark, raspberry-red petals surround a tuft of golden staminodes — elegant and unforgettable! Strong stems, 3-5 eye roots, 36-38”, zones 3a-7b(8bWC), from Iowa.
Last offered in 2009. We offer a rotating selection of peonies. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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So good that it’s won the APS Gold Medal twice, ‘Miss America’ is the standard by which all other semi-double peonies are judged. It’s bee-friendly and highly fragrant, with loads of flowers and plenty of side buds that will extend the radiant display – even in the South. 36”, early mid-season, zones 3a-8a(9aWC), 3-5 eyes, from Iowa.
Last offered in 2023. We offer a rotating selection of peonies. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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Deliciously fragrant, ‘Myrtle’ opens pale pink with hints of cream and apricot before maturing to a creamy almost-white. It was bred in Minnesota (so you know it’s tough) by America’s first family of peonies, the Brands. Strong stems. 3-5 eye roots, 34-36”, zones 3a-7b(8bWC), from Iowa.
Last offered in 2016. We offer a rotating selection of peonies. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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“The near perfect peony,” write our friends Carol Adelman and David Michener in Peony: The Best Varieties for Your Garden, and our Iowa grower agrees, calling it “truly one of the best!” Its large, lush flowers open a soft blush pink that – unless it’s cloudy or you pick them to enjoy indoors – quickly matures to creamy white. 34-36”, mid-late season, zones 3a-7b(8bWC), 3-5 eyes, from Iowa.
Last offered in 2022. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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One of the most fragrant peonies of all, 154-year-old ‘Philomele’ opens its broad pink guard petals to reveal a frothy heart of amber which gradually matures to pink, often with a tuft of broader petals emerging from the center. The transformation is fascinating – and the fragrance is heavenly! By Calot, free-blooming, strong stems, 30-32”, early-mid season, zones 3a-7b(8bWC), 3-5 eyes, from Iowa.
Last offered in 2023. We offer a rotating selection of peonies. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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Unbowed by wind or rain and as graceful as a wildflower, this rarely offered Japanese peony was bred by the great Hans Sass of Nebraska. Its lacy petals surround an exuberantly sunny center that charms both people and bees. 3-5 eye roots, 32-36”, mid-season, zones 3a-7b(8bWC), from Iowa.
Last offered in 2018. We offer a rotating selection of peonies. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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This strikingly different, anemone-flowered peony opens its broad outer petals to reveal a mass of narrow, flickering, flame-like petals in deep rose, pink, and yellow. Graceful enough to be embroidered on an Arts-and-Crafts table-runner, it’s another enduring classic from the Brands of Minnesota. 32-36”, late mid-season, zones 3a-7b(8bWC), 3-5 eyes, from Iowa.
Last offered in 2017. We offer a rotating selection of peonies. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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Although rarely offered today, this fragrant peony makes such an excellent, long-lasting cut-flower that it’s now being grown by farmers in Alaska for sales to the lower 48 – in July and August! But don’t worry, yours will bloom at the usual time, with bold, informal, waterlily-like flowers laced throughout with golden stamens. Named for Theodore Roosevelt, long before there was any other President Roosevelt. Strong stems, 34-36”, mid-season, zones 3a-7b(8bWC), 3-5 eyes, from Iowa.
Last offered in 2014. We offer a rotating selection of peonies. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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Free-flowering ‘Rachel’ has stunning deep rosy-red blossoms that are long-lasting and dependable, even in the wet weather that can cause lesser varieties to droop. Golden stamens peek from between the many petals like shy stars in a crimson sky. Mildly fragrant. Bred by Terry, stout stems, 30-34”, early-mid, zones 3a-7b(8bWC), 3-5 eyes, from Iowa.
Last offered in 2023. We offer a rotating selection of peonies. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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Celebrated for its herbal powers by the Greeks and Romans, Paeonia officinalis was grown in colonial gardens long before the P. lactiflora ancestors of most of today’s peonies arrived here from China in the early 1800s. Its early bloom-time – two weeks ahead of standard peonies – and vibrant color made it the classic Memorial Day “piney” of Civil War graveyards. 28-32”, early, zones 3a-7b(8bWC), 3-5 eyes, from Oregon.
Last offered in 2021. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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Winner of the APS Gold Medal as one of the best peonies ever, ‘Sea Shell’ produces a flurry of big, soft pink, single flowers on sturdy stems, each illuminated by a heart of yellow stamens. 3-5 eye roots, 30-36”, zones 3a-7b(8bWC), from Iowa.
Last offered in 2023. We offer a rotating selection of peonies. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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There’s much more to this classic peony than its exuberant red flowers – which are reason enough to grow it. In spring and fall its foliage glows a beautiful bronze, it’s so tough that its breeder Myron Bigger praised it for cemetery plantings, and – unlike most reds – it’s fragrant. Strong stems, 36”, mid-season, zones 3a-7b(8bWC), 3-5 eyes, from Iowa.
Last offered in 2017. We offer a rotating selection of peonies. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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Renowned for its unusual color, a deep cream tinged with buff and pale pink, this opulent French variety reminds us of the lushest antique roses - and peony-maven Alice Harding raved in 1923 that “This rare coloring, combined with the heavy texture of the petalage, gives the bloom a radiance equaled only by pearls of finest Orient.” Bred by Lemoine, late-blooming, medium height, zones 3a-7b(8bWC), 3-5 eyes, from Iowa.
Last offered in 2023. We offer a rotating selection of peonies. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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One of the rarest peonies we’ve ever offered, this jewel by the immortal Jacques Calot is “large, fragrant, and enduring” (Sedgwick, 1907), with clusters of luscious, rose-pink flowers that glint with silver. Its long, charmingly antique name commemorates the spectacular Paris world’s fair of 1867. Get it while you can! 30-32”, mid-late, zones 3a-7b(8bWC), 3-5 eyes, from zone-4 Alberta, Canada.
Last offered in 2021. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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“A real treasure” and “nothing short of gorgeous,” raved Alice Harding in her 1923 Peonies in the Little Garden. The warm, shell-pink color of rarely-offered “Lwee Bee-GO” makes it a stand-out even today, its ample flowers seem sculpted by an artist, and its stems are strong. 3-5 eye roots, 34-36” late-blooming, zones 3a-7b(8bWC), from Iowa.
Last offered in 2010. We offer a rotating selection of peonies. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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The APS Award of Garden Merit celebrates peonies that are great garden plants, like this sturdy Japanese-style beauty by Midwesterner Edward Auten Jr. With deep red petals cupping a brilliant, chrysanthemum-like ball of red-and-gold staminodes, it’s vigorous, free-blooming, and stands up to rain and high heat with aplomb. 36” mid-late, zones 3a-8a(9aWC), 3-5 eyes, from Iowa.
Last offered in 2022. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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European florists love this peony, thanks to its romantic, cottage-garden look of its relaxed form and bright golden anthers. It’s bee-friendly, too, and hardy enough to be grown commercially in zone-2a Alaska! Bred by the great Auguste Dessert, it’s named in honor of the WWI victory that saved Paris – and his family’s nursery – from destruction. 32-34”, mid, zones 2a-7b(8bWC), 3-5 eyes, from Oregon.
Last offered in 2022. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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Famed for its color, this “pink marvel” is “the most delectable hue” (Harding), with peach undertones and “a luminous intensity” (Boyd) that made experts for decades rate it one of the best. Though its flowers sometimes flag in hot sun, in well-watered sites — and bouquets — it’s superb. Lightly fragrant, 3-5 eye roots, 30-32” , mid, zones 3a-8a(8bWC), from Iowa.
Last offered in 2022. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, click to sign up for an email alert.
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