Kathy Hewett started worrying last summer about the fate of the beautiful peony plants that lined the front of Hildreth House, once renovation to the building began. She knew that construction workers would trample the garden around the porch of the senior center, and that the peonies, whose roots grow close to the surface, could not survive. So she embarked on a mission to save the old plants, which could well date back to soon after the building of the house in 1905. In so doing, she learned a lot about peonies in general and the Hildreth peonies in particular.
The peonies before they were removed for deck repair. (Courtesy photo)
HH-peonies1_700w
With the help of fellow Garden Club members Kathy Jackson and Mary Anne Jordy, Hewett dug up the four large plants at the front of Hildreth House and took them to her home on Elm Street. There she untangled and divided roots and tubers, some so old they were bigger around than her fist, and cut away some hollow sections. She put the separated tubers into burlap-lined pots, topped them with an inch or so of soil, and folded over the burlap. Then she buried most of the pots up to their rims in the mound of soil that had been saved from the discarded raised beds at Hildreth House, watered them, and left them over the winter. She kept a few pots at her house so she could keep a closer eye on them. She worried how long they could live out of the ground. In the early spring, she dug out the pots, and her efforts were rewarded in June when some of the plants bloomed on their new stems. Kathy credits her husband, Billy Salter, with doing a huge amount of the work.
Hewett said peonies are the national flower of China and were found there as early as 1000 B.C. They are mentioned by Pliny the Elder as having medicinal uses in ancient Greece. This helps explain why they were named after the Greek physician Paeon. Peonies are also native to western North America, and colonists brought some varieties with them from Europe.
Festiva maxima
Having identified the Hildreth peonies as being all the same, Festiva maxima, Hewett learned that this variety was introduced by a French hybridizer, Auguste Miellez, in 1851 and offered for sale in Boston in 1852. Further, she learned that this showy plant, with large white blooms and occasional tinges of crimson at the base of center petals, was very popular around the turn of the last century. Since peonies are known to live for 100 years, these plants could, conceivably, be part of Stanley Hildreth’s original garden.
Eager to get the plants back into the ground, Hewett was disheartened to learn that work continues on the porch area at Hildreth House, with new gutters and replacement of the rotted fascia boards behind them. And when that work is finished, the soil will need to be readied. Landscaper Denis Wagner advised Hewett not to rototill but to dig up the packed earth and then dig in compost. Landscaper and Garden Club member Jessie Panek suggested that when the time comes, they put in six plants across the front of the border so that the garden looks lush right away.
The peony rescue is not Hewett’s first gardening project at Hildreth House. Three years ago she spearheaded the creation of raised beds, which provided salad for lunches at Hildreth House and vegetables for seniors to take home.
