Creating a Database of Peonies and Its Use for Teaching IT Courses

The aim of this paper is to describe one of the possible ways of making IT courses more interesting through collecting practical field data and a subsequent creation of databases. Since the establishment of a specialized peony garden near Prague in 2008, details of the origin of acquired plants and of their cultivation under local conditions have been continuously recorded. The data resulting from the peony research are used as support for our IT courses. They are used in practical modelling of a relational database and in creating student projects focused on responsive web designs. The peonies data make the IT courses more attractive and stimulating for students. Literature survey of the peony research publications and our own data obtained from the peony garden revealed some of the main problems in cultivating and identification of peonies. Herbaceous peonies are widespread perennials. Mostly "historical" varieties of Paeonia lactiflora are cultivated. However, these plants have long and weak stems, which are bent down by heavy flowers and must therefore be mechanically held up by stakes or support rings. By contrast, the new cultivars have solid stems, such as the hybrid herbaceous peonies and intersectional hybrids (Itoh hybrids) and do not require as much labour but are not commonly cultivated. Our research has discovered that most peony cultivars in home gardens have not been properly identified. Great emphasis has, therefore, been placed on the correct identification of peony cultivars.