Botanical Gardens at University of Michigan

A Long History of Peonies: Botanical Gardens are not a new thing. They have existed for centuries and in many different countries. As you have seen, the goals of these gardens are to bring plants together to be studied by scientists and enjoyed by people. 

The University of Michigan's Peony Garden dates back to 1922 and was a place for university scientists to study peonies closeby. Some of the species in the garden have been repeatedly planted and studied there since the 1920s! 

This photograph was taken within the first few decades of the garden's life. If you look closely, you can see that the peonies are planted in grids to keep the varieties, also called cultivars, separate (Source).

The Peony Garden, Today: Even though botanical gardens are created with scientists in mind, they are also a place for people to come and enjoy plants and nature.

Today, the Peony Garden at Nichols Arboretum is one of the University's main attractions. From Spring through Summer, people flock to the garden to see the colors and massive blooms on the peonies (Source).

Picturesque Postcard: Even ten years after its founding, the Peony Garden was already an attraction to people in the area. This is why the Ivory Photo firm who created documents of significant sites in the area created a postcard of the Peony Garden around 1930. As you can see, the peonies are in full bloom. (Source)

There are thousands of species that have been cultivated at the Peony Garden. The individual plant species are known as "cultivars".

The Augustin d'Hour (also called General MacMahon) originated in France and has been cultivated in the United States since 1867! The Peony Garden also has a long history with this cultivar. Botanists at the University of Michigan introduced Augustin d'Hour to the Peony Garden in 1924! This means scientists have been able to learn from this cultivar for nearly a century. (Source)

Question: What kind of things can scientists learn from plants and different species?

Beautiful Outside and In: The Duchess of Portland is another historic bloom owned by the Peony Garden since 1924.

While these flowers are nice to look at, botanists and scientists can learn a great deal from the inner workings of the flowers. In this picture, the photographer took special care to take a picture of the inner parts of the flower. These parts of the flower can reveal a lot of information about how the flowers grow and reproduce to create even more beautiful blooms.

Activity: What is your favorite flower? Draw a picture of the inside of your favorite flower. How do the parts of your favorite flower compare to the Duchess of Portland Peony?