Ella’s Dream

(Formerly #650)

DESCRIPTION:

In person, Ella’s Dream is breathtaking - easily one of my current top 5 seedlings. However, I’ve not been able to adequately capture its beauty in pictures. Hopefully, my description can do it more justice.

Ella’s Dream sports loads of blousy semi-double to double blooms that open a delicate lavender, fading through to a clean white as flowers mature. Blooms have a sweet, pleasing fragrance and the flowers readily attract pollinator activity, despite having a fuller form.

As shown in the last picture below, the flowers are unusually large - larger even than 10” dinner plate pictured below it! Petals form a “vortex” around the center of the bloom, causing a friend to suggest “The Tornado” as the name for this variety

Not only are the flowers large and well formed, Ella’s Dream produces loads of them. If I remember correctly we had nearly 20 flowers (or more?) in 2019. The large flower size combined with sheer numbers of blooms makes the plant come alive

The plant itself is exceptionally large/vigorous, getting about 4+ ft tall here in Zone 4. Further, Ella’s Dream has foliage trimmed in burgundy and accented by attractive burgundy stems. Even without the beautiful flowers, the plant merits a place in the garden for these characteristics alone.

The plant shows no signs of disease - even in 2019, an excessively wet year. Seedling #650 is easily fertile both ways.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE NAME

We’ve named this seedling after Ella, the dear sister of one of our readers.

In 2015, Ella passed away at age 42 after a struggle with cancer.

Ella’s favorite flower was the peony. In her work as an accomplished architect, Ella always included peonies in her designs whenever climate allowed.

Naming Seedling #650 after Ella allows us to collectively remember and honor her beautiful life.

PLAN FOR INTRODUCTION

We intend to offer own-root divisions of Ella’s Dream in the July 2021 catalog.

Divisions will be 1-year old and will not have nurse roots.