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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
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Correct. Peonies are extremely hardy and easily withstand the winter conditions where we live in New Hampshire. Peonies prefer to be planted in the ground. Container-grown peonies can be bought in the spring but are generally planted in the ground in spring or fall. If the planting is done in the fall, it would be a good idea to mulch the plants with some organic material, such as straw, coarse sphagnum peat moss, shredded bark, wood chips, or something similar. Apply 2 to 3 inches of material.
My prized heirloom is part of a peony that was growing on my great-grandparents鈥 farm in Nebraska when my grandmother was born in 1894. When they sold the farm, Grandma dug it up and planted it in town. She split it and my dad took it to Chicago and split it into three plants. Mom later gave me one and my sister another. Mine is in Pennsylvania and has been split once and needs to be again, as does the one from my first split. I call them my muscle plants because they just shove everything else out of the way. My sister鈥檚 is in Wisconsin. When my mom was worried about the split my dad did about 40 years ago, Grandma said, 鈥渄on鈥檛 worry, you can鈥檛 kill it.鈥 So far, she鈥檚 been right.
I planted peonies 20 years ago that have been glorious all this time, until this year. Nearby trees have grown up and now shade the peonies and the peonies themselves have self-sown and are too crowded. All of the peonies got powdery mildew during this wet spring that we had in Colorado. Should I transplant all of the plants, just some, or none? Thank you!
Hi Karen,
To combat the powdery mildew, transplant your peonies 4 feet apart from each other to provide good air circulation. Plant them in the sun: Sun mitigates the effects of powdery mildew. Next summer, use a fungicide spray every 7 to 14 days. This will help to keep the mildew at bay, but not to prevent it entirely.
I was giving peonie seeds what is the best way to grow them? How long before they will show growth? My area code is 49646 some say zone 4 others say zone 5
Hi Mary,
You can either grow the seeds in pots indoors or outside in the ground. It will take a couple of years for them to establish before they bloom for the first time, but peonies thrive on neglect. You don’t have to dig them up to divide and spread them, and they don’t require much in the way of fertilizer. Don’t lay mulch at their base, except for a very thin layer of light pine needles. We hope this helps!
I live in Iowa if I dig peonies up know but can't plant them till Spring how can I keep them thru the winter
Here’s some advice given to another commenter with a similar question. She had her peonies planted in pots, so we would suggest that you plant yours (temporarily) in a pot with soil as well.
鈥淎dd a thick layer of mulch to the pots and put them in the garage. The peonies need to harden off and go dormant so as long as your garage isn鈥檛 heated, they will be okay. If it is, they should stay outside tucked up against the house for wind protection. Don鈥檛 worry 鈥 they need the cold!鈥
I am having my house resided next week and wanted to prune my peonies back to make the job easier. If I prune them in early September will it ruin them? I live in zone 4b and the weather is going to be in the 60's and 70's for the next 10 days....
Your peonies should be fine if you prune them now/in early September.
