Also receive the 蜜桃恋人 Daily newsletter including gardening tips, weather, astronomical events, and more.
Planting, Growing, and Caring for Peony Flowers
Peonies are perennials that return yearly to take your breath away with the fattest, most scrumptious flowers and lush green foliage. Learn how to care for peonies, how to keep them blooming, and more tips about growing peonies.
About Peonies
In the 1930s and 1940s, plant catalogs listed only three peony choices: white, crimson, and rose pink. Today, thousands of varieties are available.
Peonies are flowering perennials best planted in autumn for those outrageously beautiful flowers that bloom from spring to summer. They make magnificent cut flowers and also bear lovely foliage that stays green.
They are cold hardy, so any place you need an overcoat makes them happiest鈥攖hey require a cold period for bud formation鈥攁 frustration to some southern gardeners.
Once settled in the garden, peony plants can be content for generations. Some have been known to thrive for a century!
When Is Peony Season? When Do Peonies Bloom?
Peonies bloom from late spring through early summer, depending on your location and the variety of peonies you鈥檙e growing.
Many nurseries offer early, midseason, and late-blooming varieties, allowing you to extend the peony season over many weeks and enjoy those lovely blooms for as long as possible!
Peonies are hardy to Zone 3 and grow well as far south as Zones 7 and 8. In most of the U.S., the rules for success are simple: provide full sun and well-draining soil. Peonies even relish cold winters because they need chilling for bud formation.
Types of Peony Flowers
There are six peony flower types: anemone, single, Japanese, semidouble, double, and bomb. Fragrances vary as well鈥攕ome plants, such as 鈥楩estiva Maxima鈥 and 鈥楧uchesse de Nemours鈥, have intoxicating rose-like scents, while others are lemony or have no scent at all.
Where to Plant Peonies
Peonies make fine sentinels lining walkways or a lovely low hedge. After its stunning bloom, the peony鈥檚 bushy clump of handsome, glossy green leaves lasts all summer and then turns purplish-red or gold in the fall, as stately and dignified as any flowering shrub.
In mixed borders, peonies bloom with columbines, baptisias, and veronicas and combine well with irises and roses. Plant white peonies with yellow irises and a froth of forget-me-nots; set off pink peonies with blue nepeta or violets.
Planting
Peonies are not too fussy, but choose your location wisely as they resent disturbance and do not transplant well.
Peonies like full sun, and though they can manage with half a day, they bloom best in a sunny spot that gets 6 to 8 hours of sunlight each day. In southern states, provide some shade.
Provide shelter from strong winds, as peonies鈥 large blooms can make them top-heavy. (Use stakes to hold them up, if necessary.) Don鈥檛 plant too close to trees or shrubs, as peonies don鈥檛 like to compete for food, light, and moisture.
Grow peonies in deep, fertile, humus-rich, moist soil that drains well. Soil pH should be neutral.
When to Plant Peonies
Peony plants require little maintenance as long as they are planted properly and establish themselves. Note, however, that they do not respond well to transplanting, so you should plan your planting site accordingly.
- Plant peonies in the fall: in late September and October in most of the U.S., and even later in the fall in Zones 7 and 8 (Find your planting zone here).
- If you must move a mature plant, fall is the time to do it鈥攕pecifically, when the plant has gone dormant.
- Peonies should be settled into place about six weeks before the ground freezes.
- Although it鈥檚 certainly possible to plant peonies in the spring, spring-planted peonies don鈥檛 do as well. Experts agree: they generally lag about a year behind those planted in the fall.
How to Plant Peonies
- Peonies are usually sold as bare-root tubers with 3 to 5 eyes (buds), divisions of a 3- or 4-year-old plant.
- Space peonies 3 to 4 feet apart to allow for good air circulation between the plants. Stagnant, humid air can be a recipe for disease to develop.
- Dig a generous-sized hole, about 2 feet deep and 2 feet across in well-draining soil in a sunny spot. The soil will benefit from the addition of organic material in the planting hole. If the soil is heavy or very sandy, enrich it with extra compost. Incorporate about one cup of bonemeal into the soil. Learn more about soil amendments and preparing soil for planting.
- Set the root so the eyes face upward on top of a mound of soil in the hole, placing the roots just 2 inches below the soil surface. Don鈥檛 plant too deep! (In southern states, choose early-blooming varieties, plant them about 1 inch deep, and provide some shade.)
- Then, backfill the hole, taking care that the soil doesn鈥檛 settle, and bury the root deeper than 2 inches. Tamp the soil gently.
- When planting a container-grown peony, cover it no deeper than it grew in the pot.
- Water thoroughly at the time of planting.
Harvesting
Keeping Peony Flowers in a Vase
Peonies make wonderful cut flowers, lasting more than a week in a vase. For best results, cut long stems in the morning when the buds are still fairly tight.
You can wrap freshly cut peony stems in a damp paper towel and put them in a plastic bag in the refrigerator until you鈥檙e ready to use them. When removing the peonies from the refrigerator, give the stems a fresh cut and place them in lukewarm water to wake them up.
Pests/Diseases
Peonies are generally very hardy. Plus, peonies are also one of many deer-resistant plants you can grow in your garden.
However, they are susceptible to:
- Verticillium wilt
- Ringspot virus
- Tip blight
- Stem rot
- Botrytis blight
- Leaf blotch
- Japanese beetles
- Nematodes
- Aphids
Why Are There Ants on My Peonies?
Many gardeners wonder why so many ants crawl on the peony buds. Don鈥檛 worry! They are just eating the peony鈥檚 nectar in exchange for attacking bud-eating pests. They are attracted to the sugary droplets on the outside of flower buds or to the honeydew produced by scale insects and aphids. Never spray the ants; they鈥檙e helping you by keeping your peonies safe!
Catherine Boeckmann
ADVERTISEMENT
Last spring I planted a bare root peony, did not know I should have planted in the fall, it barely grew, now this year it is a good height but not very full and no flowers... will it take a while for it to actually produce?
I planted one variety that took 3 years to grow, but the rest of my bare roots were 2 years to flower. Hopefully it will come into it and you will see beautiful blooms soon!!
Peonies rarely flower in the first year. Or, often, the second. It is often not until the third year that flowers appear鈥攁ssuming all of the other factors (above: sun, pH, zone, etc.) are suitable.
I have a lovely, established hedge of five peonies bushes that are at least 30 years old. Last year, I spotted a 鈥渧olunteer鈥 peony about 40 feet east of the original planting鈥檚, and this year there is a second one. How common is that?
We have no explanation for this; it is kind of amazing. Perhaps someone at The American Peony Society can answer this one: http://www.americanpeonysociety.org/
For some reason, I do not have ants around my peonies. Is there anything I can do to attract them, or, is there anything I can purchase to help my peonies? Thank you.
The ants are simply there to eat pests. Rest assured, they aren’t needed to open the buds. This is a misconception. See more about 鈥淎nts and Peonies鈥 here: /blog/almanac/musings/ants-peonies
Question- I am new at gardening. I鈥檇 like to fix up my front flower beds and I would like to know if peonies would do okay where I live in southeast Texas and if it is too late to plant them this year?
I have three well established Peonies plants that have never been cut back and when they are in full bloom they are so big the stem can't hold them and they droop down. They're just beginning to pop up now and I want to know if thinning them would make a difference in their growth size.
I may need to cut my Peony plant down to allow for access to my backyard for hardscape work. The only access I have is by taking part of a fence down and driving over the plants. My intent is to use 4x4s and plywood etc to lessen the impact and bridge over the bedding. I will need to do this around the time they bloom or just before. I have had peonies for years and recall that they can take a lot of abuse. Does anyone see any drastic impact to my plants if I do this.
