Peony 'Madame Furtado'

Paeonia lactiflora 'Madame Furtado'. Vivid pink guard petals enclose a proud dome of soft pink petaloids. A vigorous variety, good for cutting and with a lovely fragrance to boot.

This variety has been around for 167 years. It is still as bright and cheerful as when Modeste Guérin in Paris saw a seedling grow into a beautiful, vigorous and healthy flowering peony.  He named it in honour of Madame Cécile Furtado-Heine.

She was a French philanthropist, (1821- 1896 Paris). Her charitable activities and generosity earned her 'L’Ordre National de la Légion d’honneur” in 1896. At the time, it was very rare for a woman to receive such an honour.  She gave generously to those who could least ask for it: children, the sick, the blind, for whom she founded a vocational school. Madame Furtado-Heine gave with the greatest discretion. She contributed in large part to the establishment of the Pasteur Institute, where her bust is placed in the gallery of the subscribers who founded the house. In her private life Madame Furtado-Heine lived among the flowers she loved so passionately.

Registered in 1856.