Rare heirloom peony has been with Bloomington family for four generations

A family heirloom could be an antique teapot or a prized piece of furniture passed down through generations. Becky Miller-Sigvertsen and her husband, Jay, have a garden variety heirloom.

Becky, a keen gardener and manager of a landscape company, treasures her family's heirloom tree peony, which grows in her Bloomington front yard. She estimates that the plant, which just saw its annual blooms a few weeks ago, is at least 60 years old.

"It was my grandmother's peony originally. She passed away in 1980, then the plant went to my mother, who has also passed away," Becky said. "Then it was passed down to me."

Unlike a first-edition book or a signed watercolor, passing down an heirloom plant can be a delicate yet rewarding process, Becky has learned. It has been a long and winding journey for the venerable plant, marked by many moves and a mishap or two.

In loving memory

Becky remembers the peony when it was growing in the garden of her grandmother, Anna Carpenter, in New Hampton, Iowa. When her grandmother died, Becky's mother, Marlys Baldwin, moved the peony to her garden in Charles City, Iowa, where it thrived for the next 32 years — even after a friend volunteered to mow her yard and accidentally cut it to the ground.

In Charles City, it frequently stopped traffic with its bright yellow blooms the color of sunshine. Passersby would often stop their cars, get out and take pictures of it. Sometimes, they even knocked on Marlys' door to ask about the unusual blooms.

"When people drove by and saw these yellow flowers almost as big as a dinner plate, they just wanted to know what they could be," Becky said.

There was a reason for all the attention: Yellow peonies were very rare at the time.

What's more, the plant known in the family simply as "mom's yellow peony," is likely a prizewinning cultivar — one of the first large-blossomed, yellow hybrid peonies bred by noted plantsman Victor Lemoine at his celebrated nursery in Lorraine, France. Around 1935. Lemoine crossed the wild species Paeonia lutea and a Japanese cultivar, 'Yaso-okina,' to get the stunning bloomer he named 'Alice Harding.'

How it ended up in Iowa, no one knows.

About 10 years ago, around the time of Marlys' death, Becky divided it and transplanted part of it to the front yard of her home, which was in Minnetonka at the time.

Becky considers herself a self-taught gardener, one spurred by her mother and grandmother's love of flowers and through her current job in operations, production and administrative work for the landscape business Keenan and Sveiven.

"I'd say I have average gardening skills, but excel more in the enthusiasm department," Becky said.

Still, she was able to successfully divide a tree peony — an intricate process, one that can only be done on plants that aren't grafted. The entire plant must be dug up and the roots carefully washed and painstakingly untangled. Natural splitting points have to be identified so the plant can be cut apart and the resulting shoots can be replanted.

The next generation

In 2012 upon Marlys' death, family members split up the remaining mother plant. But unfortunately, none of those made it, leaving Becky with the only surviving piece of this living family history.

When Becky made a temporary move to a rental home in 2014, her friend and colleague Scott Lindberg, a former manager of sales and marketing for Bachman's Wholesale Nursery, fostered the plant at his home, where he tended it with lots of TLC for a year and a half.

Blooms from the peony graced the weddings of Becky's brother and daughter. In a stroke of serendipity, the plant bloomed right on schedule for the weddings, held a few years apart, even though one wedding was held in the beginning of June, the other at the end.

At both events, blooms were floated in a bowl of water to honor Marlys.

"My mother always floated a single yellow peony in a really large brandy snifter on the kitchen table, as they last longest floating versus in a vase — no gravity pull," Becky said.

Loving care

The peony arrived at its current location in 2015, when Becky and her husband bought their house in Bloomington. The peripatetic peony seems content in its latest home, yet almost a little shy.

The shrub is smaller than most tree peony varieties. And when compared with other tree peonies, with their big, showy, look-at-me blossoms, this one holds its buds tight within the foliage, almost curving inward. Becky remembers the mother plant displaying its flowers more prominently. Here she cradles them in her hands to expose the bashful bloom to visitors.

Its enormous flowers truly shine when cut and displayed in a shallow container. The ruffled petals are like crushed tissue in a bright lemony yellow, a faint hint of orange at the center. The fragrance is light and pleasing. Becky likes to share them, giving them to neighbors, friends and family, so others can enjoy their fleeting beauty.

"They are such short-lived flowers on the plant in full sun that, one, they last longer when picked and, two, I usually have nine to 14 blooming in a little over a week so can only have so many around my house," Becky said. "I want others to enjoy them while they can."

An heirloom for the ages

Becky has cared for the beloved plant well, planting it in an elevated terrace bed near the front steps where it can be easily seen. She also regularly tends to it.

"Deadheading annuals in the evening after work during our 'happy hour' is my happy place," Becky said.

Before winter she piles leaves around it for protection and waters it well before the first freeze.

Recently her grown daughters, Callie and Erin, started growing shoots from the heirloom peony in their own gardens. It brings solace to Becky, who now knows that grandma and mom's yellow peony will live on not only in their hearts, but also in their gardens.

"It's very special to me if we can keep this plant going for future generations. It's like a little piece of my mom that can be seen in our gardens every year," Becky said. "I think of her every year when mine blooms."

Rhonda Hayes is a Twin Cities-based Extension Master Gardener, writer and author of "Pollinator Friendly Gardening."