Organic Farming Outperforms Conventional Practices in 30-Year Study

Peonies rank among the best-loved garden plants for good reason. Their exquisite flowers dazzle in June borders and provide great pleasure indoors as cut flowers. Many Peonies boast unforgettable fragrance. Plants are long-lived and their glossy foliage remains handsome all season. ‘Festiva Maxima’, our best-selling Peony for years, has been gracing gardens for 160 years. Its Rose-scented blossoms, luminous white with painterly splotches of crimson, are legendary in the world of Peonies.

In the late-spring and early-summer garden, you won’t find a more reliable or popular perennial than the Herbaceous Peony. Exceptionally long-lived, Peonies can perform year after year, often for more than five decades.

Peony flowers range from elegant singles to generously sized doubles in shades to suit every color scheme–from snow whites, delicate pinks, and deep magentas to comparatively new beauties like the peachy ‘Coral Charm’. Many varieties, such as ‘Vivid Rose’, ‘Festiva Maxima’, ‘Eden’s Perfume’, and ‘Duchesse de Nemours’, offer sweetly intoxicating fragrance as well.

Peonies make superior cut flowers, lasting more than a week if cut in full bud. After Peonies finish flowering, a handsome mound of glossy, deep green foliage will stalwartly anchor subsequent sequences of neighboring blooms. Plants remain attractive into autumn.

Plants in the genus Paeonia generally like full sun and they shrug off cold. Southerners should seek out our early bloomers and provide afternoon shade. Peonies prefer neutral to slightly sweet well-drained soil, rich in organic matter. If your soil is extremely acid, add a few handfuls of lime at planting time.

Plant the roots of Herbaceous Peonies with the eyes (the pink or white buds at the top of the roots) pointing upward and cover with one to two inches of soil in the North and no more than one inch in the South. (If the eyes are set deeper than recommended, plants may not bloom. For this reason, do not mulch over the crowns.)

Don’t be surprised if few or no flowers appear the first spring after planting; plants generally take a few years to settle in and bloom heavily. Peonies respond well to an annual sidedressing of about an inch of compost or aged manure; no other fertilization is necessary.

Many Peonies, certainly the double-flowered varieties, must be staked to prevent a thunderstorm from arching their ample blooms. Set supports in place as new growth emerges in early spring.

Few insect pests bother Herbaceous Peonies, but a fungal disease called botrytis may be a problem, especially when plants are young and during very wet seasons. A quick and easy solution is to spray plants 2 or 3 times with a copper-based fungicide before the buds show color.

Also, ensure that plants have good air circulation and drainage.

Ants often appear on the buds of Herbaceous Peonies. They are attracted to the slightly sweet sap the buds and blossoms exude, and they do no harm. Contrary to popular belief, ants are not necessary for the buds to open.

About Tree Peonies
Tree Peonies need some time to settle in before they bloom; it’s not unusual for a plant to wait until its third spring before it flowers. In addition, Tree Peonies are often slow to break dormancy the first spring after planting. Your plant may look dead while its neighbors are springing to life, but it will awaken soon enough.

Light shade from hot afternoon sun is needed to protect the flowers. Plant Tree Peonies where they will be shielded from drying winds in summer and winter.

Tree Peonies are very drought tolerant once established. Do not overwater and do not plant them near an automatic irrigation system. Wait until the soil has dried down to four inches before watering deeply. Watering too much will kill the roots and is a common reason for failure. Topdress plants in spring with an inch of compost or aged manure. Tree Peonies also benefit from a foliar feeding with fish emulsion during the growing season.

~  From White Flower Farm