Paeonies

The Botanical Garden has been cultivating a large number of herbaceous and shrub peonies (paeonies) for many years. The paeonies are the only area in which many cultivated varieties are shown alongside wild species. A speciality among them are some intersectional Itoh hybrids, which are the result of crossing a shrub and a perennial paeonia.

Friedrich Hertle's collection of shrub paeonias:

In autumn 2005, the Würzburg Botanical Garden received Friedrich Hertle's very extensive collection of shrub peonies as a bequest. Mr Hertle, presiding judge at the Higher Regional Court, was intensively involved in the cultivation of shrub peonies for over 40 years, especially the Paeonia lutea hybrids from America. In his garden in Fürth, he kept the most important private collection of shrub peonies in Germany.

It is a great honour for the Würzburg Botanical Garden to have been entrusted with this valuable collection. The largest part of this collection is cultivated on two terraces, one above the other.