04702

Paeonia 'Sparkling Star'

type: [herbaceous peony] – [species cultivar] – [lactiflora]





origination:

Bigger

SPARKLING STAR (Bigger, 1953) - Single - Pink - Early. About 30" tall. Bright dark pink. Parentage Mary Brand x unknown. Seedling No. 15-37. The flower is medium to large and has a lot of life. The color carries better than most pinks. It has strong stems and good, bright green foliage. Bulletin 130.

Sparkling Star (Bigger 1953) E.  Single; bright dark pink, color carries well.  Many medium to large flowers on a medium height, attractive bush, stands well.  APS Gold Medal Award 1995.

Sparkling Star (Bigger, 1953) Bright dark pink, single, early, 30" tall, lactiflora. Many large bright flowers on a medium height attractive bush. Singles stand up well to rain. This one has many sidebuds for a prolonged bloom.

Elizabeth Babb on webshots 2007:

discussion

on (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/peony) to this plant (2001 dec 27)

Jakubowski (2001):

From Clarence Lienau's writings, APS Bulletin 229, page 16. March, 1979. "Sparkling Star is also a fine early pink single and has a beautiful color having the same cup form as Sea Shell, only darker, and it holds its bloom for a long time."

Jakubowski (2001):

Clarence Lienau (APS Bulletin 242, pg. 10, 1982) listed Sea Shell and Sparkling Star as the only two singles in a list of 25 "best" pink lactifloras. His description of Sparkling Star "Fine, early, dark pink, large, tall, holds color well and dark green foliage. A wonderful dark pink single."

Myron Bigger (APS Bulletin 247, pg. 31, 1983) included Sparkling Star in his list of 25 best performers for 1983. This list also included other hybridizer's work.

Carroll Spangler (APS Bulletin 268, pg. 22, 1988) lists Sparkling Star among his favorite 25 peonies. Sea Shell is not listed by him. His description of Sparkling Star "one of the finest varieties in the garden. Early lactiflora, single, pink color holds till last petals fall. Blooms over long period. 30 inches tall; a delight to my heart!"

Tom Richards (APS Bulletin 268, pg. 30, 1988) lists Pink Princess, Sea Shell, and Sparkling Star, as the single pink lactifloras in his list of 25 favorite pink peonies. His description of Sparkling Star "an early blooming variety with long petals, dark pink single blossoms. The foliage is a particularly attractive dark green color."

Dr. James Waddick (2001):

'Sparkling Star' is a peony that I grow. In fact I bought it from Myron Bigger at his suggestions that it was one of his favorites. Bigger hybridized and grew peonies about 50 miles from me so naturally this variety does well in my climate too. Personally, although it is a fine peony and grows well, I prefer 'Sea Shell'. 'Sparkling Star' is early and I enjoy it, but would not pick it out especially.

Hollingsworth (2001):

I was present when Sparkling Star was selected for the Gold Medal Award. The one APS by-laws requirement for the selection is that it be the unanimous choice of the directors present. In the press for time and with the 30 years of no committee work between annual meetings, some choices turn out to be more fortunate than others! When Sparkling Star was proposed there had been no pre-meeting development, there was the nomination and initial advocacy, followed by essentially no dissent and and the unanimous vote resulted quickly. One of the problems in this scenario, of course, is that to dissent one needs to be either very negative on the proposed and/or be firmly prepared for an alternate nomination. Personally, I had never seen the subject except as a cut stem on the show table and my biases on flower color had mitigated previously against it being allowed to take space in the garden. Since then I have it and do agree that it is a fine performer. Same with Seashell, in my view, although the color is more to my liking. Having started out with notions arising from by breeding ideas, I much prefer Pink Princess and maybe Dawn Pink. Don

Linda Kofstad (2001)

My first post to the peony list! I only have about 20 peony cultivars...certainly not an expert, but they have done well for me and I really love them all (almost all). I got 'Sparkling Star' in 1997, didn't let it bloom in 1998, but in 1999 I saw it bloom for the first time and thought it was beautiful although still a small plant with only a few blooms. But this past spring it attained "full glory" and I mean FULL GLORY! It was absolutely gorgeous. I am thinking about leaving it alone for a couple more years, then dividing it and either start a row of it elsewhere or take a couple of pieces and put in more prominent places. At any rate you probably get my message...I am very impressed by 'Sparkling Star' and I think my other peonies are mainly the well-known popular cultivars so I am comparing it to other good ones. I have only one that I'm thinking of discarding, 'Angelo Cobb Freeborn' which I also got in 1997 and it bloomed the first time in 2001, very mediocre flowers. I only bought it because of its name (I live in Freeborn County, MN), but maybe I should give it another chance. Linda Kofstad zone 4






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