What makes a Roger Anderson Intersectional Peony Special?

Starting in 1980's, Roger Anderson began his pursuit of hybridizing between different peony species. After many years of growing parent plants and hand pollinating his crosses, he got his first inter-species seed. These crosses made between two different species are now known as INTERSECTIONAL peonies.

After the first year of growth, an Intersectional peony needs to be grown 4 to 5 years to get its first blooms. It then needs to be grown for an additional 3 to 5 years (undivided) to achieve a true evaluation. From the date of pollination, knowing whether a particular plant has improved characteristics and would be worth bringing to market could be as long as 10 years!! Understanding this process, one can understand the value of these plants.

Over the course of his 24 plus years of hybridizing, Roger Anderson has had several hundred crosses grow for him. He chooses his parent plants carefully for their desired qualities he wishes to combine.

Traits he would look for are:

• strong stems to hold the flowers up
• healthy foliage
• bright new colors
• fragrance

Roger Anderson has been RUTHLESS in his plant selections. He has culled many crosses that were similar and or sub-par in their performance, saving only the best varieties to introduce to the public. As of 2005, over 400 varieties were grown and evaluated by Roger Anderson. Only about 30 DISTINCTIVE varieties have been introduced-the MOST by any one hybridizer in the world!

Roger Anderson takes great pride in the plants that have his name. Roger does not believe in “flooding” the market with “analogous” varieties and inferior plants.