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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—they require a cold period for bud formation—a 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’re 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—some plants, such as ‘Festiva Maxima’ and ‘Duchesse de Nemours’, 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’s 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’ large blooms can make them top-heavy. (Use stakes to hold them up, if necessary.) Don’t plant too close to trees or shrubs, as peonies don’t 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—specifically, when the plant has gone dormant.
- Peonies should be settled into place about six weeks before the ground freezes.
- Although it’s certainly possible to plant peonies in the spring, spring-planted peonies don’t 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’t 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’t 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’re 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’t worry! They are just eating the peony’s 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’re helping you by keeping your peonies safe!
Catherine Boeckmann
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My peonies are appearing and the forecast is predicting snow and unseasonable cold temps ... do I need to do anything to protect my plants? I also have beautiful tree peonies that are budding .... do I need to do anything to protect the trees?
Thank you!
The plant is approximately 30 years old. I do not think it has ever been cut back. It is about 5.5 feet tall with leaves at the top and another group of leaves half way up the plant. It blooms well. Is it too old to be cut back to the ground this fall?
We will presume, because you asked this question on this page, that the plant is a peony. (If it’s not, disregard the following.) Peonies are perennials but they grow from their root annually. Peony leaves would naturally die back and the stems would naturally shrivel and collapse in the fall, and they would possibly even decay over the winter. So whether you cut it back or not, it dies back. If it is a peony, you can cut it back in the fall.
I received a peony in a as a gift for my new house last spring and it is still in a pot awaiting the landscaping to be installed. Will it survive if I have to leave it in the pot until fall?
If you have maintained the plant as if it were in the ground, giving it sunlight and water during the year/growing season, and it appears to be surviving, continued care should get it to the fall. If you have not been caring for it and it has shriveled over the course of time, the results of planting it can not be certain.
I've done a terrible mistake last spring. As novice gardener, I've planted a small bare root of a herbaceous peony upside down. When I've realized what I've done a sprout was already growth. I guess the crown is now about 4/5 inches below the pot soil and this spring I'm still waiting for the sprouts. What I can do? Should I wait this autumn and try to rotate the root of 90 degrees or I should just leave the peony this way hoping that nature could manage the situation?
Most plants will overcome manmade errors such as you describe. And planting a peony root upside down is not that unusual. However, planting it 4 to 5 inches below ground is. See above; the root should be in a big hole filled with dirt…but only about 2 inches below the surface or ground level. (The big hole is for the long, tangled roots it will send out.) You could gently remove soil from on top of and around the root and see how it looks. If it has not set long roots and it looks like it’s straining to find the light, you could lift it and replant it properly. However, it is not likely that it will flower this year because it will be readjusting to the move. (There is no guarantee it will flower anyway, if this is its first full season in the ground.) If you do not check it now, you could check and move it in the fall. HOWEVER, before you do anything, read everything above. Know what you should do before you start.
I am sort of confused as to why if it is best to plant in fall, that my local Costco is selling the bulbs now at the beginning of the year? I'm in south-eastern Washington state. (the evergreen state's desert) :)
Peonies can be planted in both spring and fall—planting in the fall just gives them more of a head start for when spring weather comes around!
Peony tree can bee plant in south of Florida I love to have them.
thank!
Isora
