Home gardeners have loved herbaceous, or garden, peonies for centuries. Peonies produce a dramatic display of flowers in late spring. Their lush, dark green foliage makes a handsome low hedge the rest of the growing season. Peonies are available for sale as dormant roots in the fall and spring. More recently, nurseries have been offering them throughout the growing season in containers as green plants. Best results will come from fall-planted dormant tubers. The plants will have a much better start at establishing strong roots that can withstand summer heat and drought.
Careful soil preparation before planting helps ensure healthy free-blooming plants for ten or fifteen years before the plants will need dividing. Choose a well-drained sunny site and amend the soil with 2 to 3 inches of organic matter such as peat moss or compost. Fresh manure is not a good choice of organic matter for peonies. The planting bed should be 18-24" deep and 12" across for each plant. The tubers should be firm and free of apparent damage. If you have a choice, pick that have three to five eyes, or buds, on the surface. That way you should get flowers within three years. Less well-developed tubers will take more time to build up the strength they need in order to bloom.
Plant the tuber with the eyes 2" below soil level. Mulch generously around the planting with shredded bark or compost. New plantings will bloom (if at all) sparsely for the first season or two. Each successive year will bring larger and more numerous flowers as the tubers build up strength. Regular watering, especially during bud formation, good soil fertility, and full sun exposure will contribute to successful peony beds.
Sprinkle a handful of 10-6-4 fertilizer around each plant in the early spring just as the red sprouts emerge from the ground. Don't wait too late because the fertilizer will burn tender foliage. Remove dead foliage in the fall and mulch the crown lightly with straw. Remove the straw in the early spring before the sprouts emerge.
Peonies suffer few pest or disease problems. Ants are attracted to the waxy coating on the flower buds and enjoy licking it off, but otherwise do no harm. In wet springs such as the one we had this year, botrytis blight may cause infected buds to shrivel and fall off when they are small, or prevent large buds from opening. If the spring is wet, use a labeled fungicide to reduce botrytis infection. also remove any infected buds or foliage to remove a source of additional infection to other buds.
For more information on home lawns, gardens, and pests, phone the Garden Line at 302-831-8862 or email garden-line@udel.edu
—Jo Mercer
Originally published in
“Newark Outlook,”
The Newark Post
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