Peony of the Year

Elected Peony of the Year 2026, ‘OSIRIS Mariette Pelland’ is a herbaceous peony (Paeonia lactiflora) distinguished by its double blooms with a truly unique character and an uncommon floral development. Very late flowering and delightfully fragrant, it reaches about 85 cm (34 inches) in height and typically produces a single large flower per stem. 

Soft Salmon Saucer, voted by the membership as the 2025 Peony of the Year, is a beloved variety celebrated for its delicate, saucer-shaped blooms. Its soft salmon-pink petals, accented with a golden center that deepens toward the base and vibrant yellow stamens, create a striking and elegant display. Blooming early and abundantly, the flowers feature a subtle fragrance making them as delightful to the senses as they are to the eyes.

Our selection for Peony of the Year 2024 goes to Prosperity Maud, an F2 hybrid registered by Ménard/D’Aoust in 2003. The hybrid, whose exact parentage is unknown but is related to Monsieur Jules Elie, bears single-petaled flowers of an unusual apricot hue that hold their colour well.

The first CPS president, John Simkins, set the bar high when he and his volunteers organized our society, which turned 25 years strong in 2023. How fitting that his peony John’s Dream was chosen as the CPS choice for the 2023 Peony of the Year.

Le Cratère, peony of the year in 2022, is a single peony with petal formation giving a soup bowl effect which is accentuated by the well-defined color distribution in the petals, the basal half being pale saffron yellow (forming the bowl) and the terminal half in pink reflexing back to form a wide rim for the bowl.

Etched Salmon’, bred by Canadian hybridizer Lyman Cousins and registered by Cousins and Roy G. Klehm in 1981, was chosen by the Canadian Peony Society’s members as the 2021 Peony of the Year. This herbaceous hybrid produces fully double, rose-shaped flowers in warm salmon-coral tones. Its distinctive centre features delicate golden-edged petaloids that give the blooms their etched appearance.

Bred by Canadian hybridizers G. Maltais and D. Maltais, ‘Beatnik’ was registered in 2010 and selected by the Canadian Peony Society’s members as the 2020 Peony of the Year. This distinctive double-flowered peony stands out for its vivid purplish-red petals, which vary in width and have irregular, notched and frilled edges. The unusual, somewhat rebellious flower form inspired its name, a reference to the Beatnik movement of the 1950s.