Peony, the dazzling star of Spring

Each bloom stands out as an absolutely ravishing solitary round ball, sometimes fragrant, on a perennial that may be herbaceous or shrubby. Peonies earn their place in flower beds, along hedges and in the vase, where they hold for a very long time — give them a well-lit spot that isn’t too hot and the blooming is generous.

Peony at a glance

Name	Paeonia
Family	Paeoniaceae
Type	perennial
Height	1 ½ to 6 ½ ft (50 to 200 cm)
Exposure	full sun, part sun
Soil	rich and moist
Foliage	deciduous
Flowering	spring → summer

The blooming depends heavily on how well it is cared for. From spring to winter and from planting to the removing of wilted flowers, here is all the advice needed to grow them.

• Health: health benefits of peony

Planting peony

It is recommended to plant your peonies in fall spacing them 30 to 40 inches (80 to 100 cm) apart.

• Planting in the fall lets you savor their bloom in the subsequent spring.

If you have purchased your peonies in containers, you can wait until spring to plant them, once freezing is over and before the heat sets in. Provide for regular watering over the first year.

To enhance flower-bearing, add organic soil conditioner such as manure and seaweed.

• Choose a well-lit area that isn’t too hot. Part shade is fine, too, but you’ll have slightly less flowers.
• Peonies like well-drained soil and usually tolerate ordinary soil.
• Follow our guidance on planting peonies.

Propagating peony

Peony propagation is best done through root division in fall or at the beginning of spring.

• This is recommended every 3 to 5 years to give your plant renewed vigor.

• To divide a peony, lift the whole clump, rinse the soil off the crown so the pink growth buds are visible, then cut it with a clean sharp knife so that each piece keeps at least three buds and a good share of roots.
• When dividing herbaceous peonies, replant each division with its buds no more than about two inches (5 cm) deep, since crowns buried deeper often grow abundant foliage but few flowers.
• Tree peonies are usually sold grafted and do not take kindly to division, so increase them by layering a low branch or by grafting instead.
• Peonies can be raised from seed, but named cultivars will not come true and seedlings are very slow to reach flowering size, so division remains the reliable method for keeping a variety.

Pruning and caring for peony

Pruning peonies, in their herbaceous or their tree form is not a necessity, but experts share that it boosts flower-bearing dramatically!

• If you want less but larger flowers, remove side shoots as they form.
• If you want more flowers, even if they might be a bit smaller, remove the main bud to trigger side branching.

To stimulate budding of new flowers, remove wilted flowers regularly (deadheading).

• You may need to stake the peony if it gets windy in your area.

Pruning tree peony

Prune delicately in fall or at the end of winter, removing any dead wood and the more fragile branches.

Pruning herbaceous peonies

Herbaceous peonies die away naturally when the cold spells start, and reappear in the following spring.

Do not remove leaves before they have died off, because peonies need them to stock up on nutrients for the next season’s blooming period.

• At the end of fall or the beginning of winter, you can remove the wilted leaves.
• Add dried leaves on top of the flower bed to mulch and protect the roots from freezing. This will also serve as fertilizer as it decomposes.

Peony watering

Peonies love having lots of water!

• As long as the soil doesn’t stay soggy all the time, you can go ahead and water as much as you want.

This will lead to lush growth and abundant blooming.

It’s best to use rainwater if you can collect it, and to water in the evening or early morning to limit losses due to evaporation.

Try not to get the foliage or flowers wet, because in hot weather the plant will get covered in powdery mildew if you do so.

As a cut flower in a vase, your peony will last quite a long time, but remember to top up the vase every day – it will drink it empty in no time!

The peony year: what to do and when

Peony blooming depends heavily on doing the right job at the right moment. Here is how the main tasks fall across the seasons.

Keep to this rhythm and the blooming will be generous, since it depends heavily on how well the plant is cared for.

Diseases and parasites that attack peony

– Verticillium wilt – peonies wilt and die.

– Thrips (tiny winged insects) and nematodes (worms) are aggressive pests.

• Grey mould, or botrytis blight, is the commonest peony disease: buds blacken and fail to open and stems collapse with a fuzzy grey coating near the soil line in damp weather.
• Cut any botrytis-affected stems right back to the base and bin or burn them rather than composting, and clear every scrap of fallen peony debris, since the fungus overwinters on it.
• There is no cure for verticillium wilt, which lives in the soil, so dig out and destroy affected clumps and avoid replanting a peony in the same spot.
• Ants crawling over peony buds do no harm at all; they are simply feeding on the sweet sap the buds exude, so there is no reason to spray them.

Several peony cultivars

– ‘Alba Plena’ – white, double flowers.

– ‘Rosea Plena’ – pink, double flowers.

– ‘Crimson Globe’ – red flowers.

– ‘James Crawford Weguelin’ – large, carmine red flowers.

• Buy bare-root peony divisions carrying three to five eyes, and set those eyes no deeper than about two inches below the soil surface, as burying the crown too deeply is the commonest reason a healthy-looking plant never flowers.
• Combining early-, mid- and late-flowering cultivars in the same bed stretches the display over several weeks instead of concentrating every bloom into one short burst.
• Fully double Paeonia officinalis cultivars such as ‘Alba Plena’ and ‘Rosea Plena’ carry heavy heads that flop after rain, so slip a grow-through support ring over them while the shoots are still short.
• For the vase, cut double peonies while the bud is still firm but gives slightly under gentle pressure, like a marshmallow, because fully open blooms drop their petals within a few days.

Choosing a peony variety

Peonies differ far more than their catalogue photos suggest, chiefly in habit, flower form and fragrance. The selection below gathers widely sold cultivars, several of them holding the RHS Award of Garden Merit, to help you match a plant to your bed or your vase.

All there is to know about peony

This perennial is herbaceous or shrubby, and its blooming period is generous and lasts for all of spring.

• Tree peony has the disadvantage of growing more slowly than herbaceous peonies.
• Herbaceous peony dies off completely in winter, and grows back in spring. Tree peonies keep their branches over the winter. They don’t grow much higher than than 6 ½ feet (2 meters) tall.

Their flowers may be fragrant, and stand out forming an absolutely ravishing solitary round ball.

Peonies are most commonly planted in perennial flower and shrub beds, along hedges or in secluded parts of the garden.

You can cut a peony flower and put it in a vase, it will hold for a very long time!

• Provide it with a lot of water, though. A couple flowers can go through a bottle of water in one day!

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