Meet Lorē Sampson and “think PEONIES!” (a 2024 PlantFest speaker)

The current resurgence in peonies is no accident. After being overlooked for nearly half a century, peonies have been rediscovered as a perfect perennial for today’s modern gardens. Available in a broad spectrum of vibrant colors, many newer cultivars feature strong stems on compact plants. Variations in foliage color and texture offer multiple seasons of interest, while exceptional drought tolerance and deer resistance make them an excellent choice for low maintenance gardening. Lorē Sampson is one of three speakers who will be presenting on 09/21/2024 at HPSO's fall event -- PlantFest -- to be held at Clackamas Community College (a new location). Read a little about her experiences with the genus Paeonia. Do you have your tickets yet to this speaker event? Get them now here!

What is your favorite plant or genus?

Definitely PEONIES!  I became interested in the genus Paeonia many years ago and have grown my personal collection to more than 850 different species and cultivars.

How did you become interested in gardening?  And who was an influential person in your decision to garden?

I’m a nurseryman’s daughter.  My father was an extraordinary plantsman who specialized in rare and unusual woody trees and shrubs for Midwest gardens.  From early childhood, I have fond memories of visiting arboreta (we lived close to the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois), botanical and private gardens.  I learned to propagate everything, beginning with cuttings and advancing to various grafting techniques. After falling in love with an Oregonian, we settled in the Hood River Valley and started Rarity Gardens, a small perennial nursery.  (The family joke is that I had to move a couple thousand miles away to switch from woody plants to perennials!) Over the years, most other perennial varieties have given way to our ever expanding collection of peonies!

So what is a genus or group of plants that you are newly excited about?

My new favorite group of peonies are the Itoh or intersectional peonies.  These are the result of crossing an herbaceous peony with a tree peony. These exciting new cultivars offer gardeners the best of both parents!  The plants themselves are extremely hardy and have beautiful foliage.  Their flowers offer unique colors that aren’t typically seen in herbaceous peonies including brilliant yellows, lavenders, mauves and blended pastels.

Let's think back in time, who's an historical gardening figure you would most like to have met?

I would love to have met Professor A. P. Saunders who was a chemistry professor at Hamilton College in upstate New York.  He was one of the pioneering peony hybridizers in the U.S. in the early 1900s and was the first to systematically cross wild peonies with common garden peonies (Paeonia lactiflora).  His resulting plants offered new colors including corals, fiery reds and flowers with distinctly colored flares.  His breakthrough work is still unrivaled, and his cultivars are still sought after by both hybridizers and serious collectors.

Do you have a favorite PNW native? And a favorite pollinator plant?

One of the most interesting native Pacific Northwest plants is Oregon’s Paeonia brownii, which is one of only two wild peonies found in North America.  Unlike garden peonies, P. brownii grows on the dry eastern side of the Oregon Cascades as an understory plant in Ponderosa pine forests.  It blooms very early in the spring and is an important early pollinator for bees and wasps.  Its unusual flowers are chocolate brown with chartreuse edges and typically nod toward the ground. It’s curious to consider how this peony came to grow in such different conditions than its domesticated relatives.

Lorē Sampson is the owner of Rarity Gardens in the Hood River Valley of Oregon. She is a well-known member of the gardening community in the Pacific Northwest.  She and her husband Jim own and operate Rarity Gardens, a small perennial nursery specializing in peonies. A nurseyman’s daughter, Lorē has been growing and propagating a wide variety of plants since childhood. She currently grows more than 850 different peony cultivars. Lorē is Past-President of the American Peony Society where she was instrumental in establishing evaluation criteria and judges’ training for the Society’s Award of Landscape Merit. Her mission is to introduce gardeners to modern peonies as the perfect choice for both the landscape and vase.