Lena’s Legacy

(Formerly #651)

DESCRIPTION:

Lena’s Legacy produces large full blooms on a compact plant. Flowers are semi-double to double, with doubles becoming more common as the plant matures.

The flowers are fragrant and held upright on the tree. Petals have a crinkled almost crepe paper-like in appearance. The tree produces a medium amount of flowers and is very disease resistant.

This variety readily produces pollen. We suspect it will also produce seed but need to observe further.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE NAME

“Lena’s Legacy” is named after my indomitable Lena Lyndaker Yancey. - my aunt and the oldest of 11 siblings in my mom’s family

Aunt Lena was an avid and skilled plantswoman - who always loved peonies - particularly those in this vivid shade of pink. When she and her husband, Gerald, ran their large dairy farm in Lewis County, NY, Aunt Lena made sure to line the driveway with peonies. Her children and former neighbors still talk about those peonies.

My cousin, Paula, once told me that, after Aunt Lena moved into a new home and there were still moving boxes everywhere - Aunt Lena immediately set about ignoring the boxes and focusing instead on putting in a garden. Once the garden was taking shape, even though not much had changed with regard to the boxes, Aunt Lena told Paula that “the house is coming together now”

Aunt Lena, it seems, had the right priorities.

In June of 2019, Aunt Lena passed away at the age of 94. The same month this seedling gave it’s first double flower, in her favorite shade of pink. It’s as if the plant remembers….

PLAN FOR INTRODUCTION

We want to evaluate Lena’s Legacy for one more year. If the plant has another strong year, we plan to propagate and offer to the market in 2022 or 2023.