Peonies

'Bowl of Beauty'

I love peonies. I really wanted to have a fresh bouquet of them when I got married, but the florist told me that they couldn't guarantee that the colors I liked would be in bloom and available on the specific date so I went with pink and creamy white roses instead. Still, I love peonies.

I don't even have many peonies. I have one that is the most established that does very well and four others. I don't even know what three of them are because they haven't bloomed yet (peonies can pitch a fit and fail to bloom for one to three years after being moved or when divided too small). One of them is especially valuable - it belonged to Matt's grandmother and my mother-in-law graciously shared a division with me when we moved into our house several years ago.

'Sarah Bernhardt'

I'm definitely not a peony expert, but there are some things I do know about them. Peonies are beautiful. They're reliable when planted properly (fair amount of sun, no more than about 2" deep - including mulch, and with compost mixed in). They're considered heirloom plants because they last for years and years and can be passed down to future generations. They're hardy and easy to grow, a good "beginner plant". The foliage is very pretty (mounding 2-3', generally) and is deciduous. Their only downside is that they only bloom once a year. However, you can pick cultivars based on bloom time so that you can have blooms for an extended period. There are also three types of peonies: herbaceous (die back in winter), tree (foliage dies back in winter but the stems remain), and intersectional (cross between the two, dies back in winter).

Fall is the best time to plant peonies. You can mail-order freshly dug bare-root peonies and plant them now through late October. (This gives them time to settle in before the freezing weather comes.) I've bought potted peonies in the summer and planted them, but they're more likely to take off a year from blooming when you do this. You raise the odds of getting a few blooms the following spring if you plant large roots in the fall.

'Ann Berry Cousins'

Garden Watchdog, my go-to source for mail-order plants, allows customers to rate their good and bad experiences with mail-order companies. Aldeman Gardens is rated at the top of the list.

'Festiva Maxima' - white with specks of crimson.

Tips when planting & growing peonies:
- pick a spot where the peony will stay. They don't like to be moved. It should be sunny and away from encroaching large roots of trees and large shrubs.
- dig a hole 2-3' wide and about 1' deep. Mix in good compost.
- place the roots so that the crown (where the top of the root meets the bottom of the stalks) is no more than 2" deep - peonies need a winter chill to bloom
- the leaves die back in the fall. If they were healthy all year, I generally leave the browned leaves to protect the plant until new shoots emerge in spring.
- if a hard freeze hits after the shoots have emerged in spring, you can cover them with mulch to protect them and future flower buds.
- ants love peonies' blooms, but don't worry, they won't hurt them.
- peonies make great cut flowers and smell very nice too!