The peony has the fattest, most delicious petals and rich green foliage, making it outrageously attractive when it is in bloom. From spring to summer, savor stunning floral displays. Learn how to care for, grow, and plant peony.
About Peonies
Peonies are a perennial that will steal your breath away every year. The plants may even outlive you—some have been reported to survive for at least a century.
When Is Peony Season? When Do Peonies Bloom?
Depending on your location and the kind you are planting, peonies bloom from late spring to early summer.
You may extend the peony season across several weeks and take use of those magnificent blossoms for as long as possible thanks to the abundance of nurseries that provide early, midseason, and late blooming types.
Peonies may thrive as far south as Zones 7 and 8, and they are hardy to Zone 3. The key to success in the majority of the United States is to provide full light and well-drained soil. Peonies even enjoy the winter’s coldness because it helps their buds grow.
Types of Peony Flowers
You can pick from six different varieties of peony flowers: anemone, single, Japanese, semi-double, double, and bomb. The odors of different plants also differ; some, like “Festiva Maxima” and “Duchesse de Nemours,” have seductive rose-like aromas, while others have a lemony scent or none at all.
Where to Plant Peonies
When planted as a low hedge or along sidewalks, peonies make excellent sentinels. As majestic and dignified as any flowering shrub, the peony’s bushy cluster of attractive glossy green leaves lasts all summer before turning purplish-red or gold in the fall.
Peonies work nicely with irises and roses in mixed borders and blossom alongside columbines, baptisias, and veronicas. Plant pink peonies with blue Nepeta or violets, then surround white peonies with yellow irises and a froth of forget-me-nots.
Peonies are not overly picky, but you should pick your place carefully because they dislike disruption and do not transplant well.
Although they can survive in partial shade, peonies like full sun, and they flower at their best in an area that receives 6 to 8 hours of sunlight per day.
Because of its huge flowers, peonies can become top-heavy in severe winds. Therefore, provide shelter. (If necessary, stakes can be used to hold them up.) Planting too close to trees or bushes will cause peony to compete with them for nutrients, sunlight, and moisture.
Grow peony in rich, wet, humus-rich soil that is deep, fertile, and well-draining. pH in the soil should be neutral.
When to Plant Peonies
As long as they are planted correctly and become established, peony plants require minimal upkeep. However, keep in mind that they do not adapt well to transplanting, so you should consider this when choosing your planting location.
- Plant peony in the fall: in the majority of the United States, in late September or early October, and even later in the fall in Zones 7 and 8. Your planting zone can be found here.
- If you need to move an established plant, the fall is the ideal season because the plant will be dormant.
- About six weeks before the ground freezes, peonies should be planted.
- While planting peonies in the spring is absolutely a possibility, the results aren’t always favorable. They often trail behind plants planted in the fall by roughly a year, according to experts.
How to Plant Peonies
- Peonies are typically offered as divisions of a 3- or 4-year-old plant, bare-root tubers with 3 to 5 eyes (buds).
- Peonies should be placed 3 to 4 feet apart to allow for enough air circulation. The development of disease can be facilitated by stagnant, damp air.
- In a sunny area, dig a generously sized hole that is about 2 feet deep and 2 feet wide. The inclusion of organic matter in the planting hole will improve the soil. Add additional compost to the soil to improve it if it’s sandy or heavy. Add about a cup of bonemeal to the ground. Find out more about soil improvements and getting the soil ready for planting.
- The roots should be positioned in the hole just 2 inches below the soil’s surface, with the root’s eyes facing upward on top of a mound of soil. Avoid planting too deeply! Choose early-blooming species, put them approximately 1 inch deep, and provide some shade in southern states.
- Backfill the hole after that, being careful to prevent soil settlement and a 2-inch root burying. Gently tamp the ground.
- Plant a container-grown peony no deeper than it was when it was in the pot.
- When planting, give everything plenty of water.
How to Care for Peonies
Young peony take time to develop, just like children. In order to establish themselves, blossom, and flourish, they typically require a few years. They eventually leave home on their own, fully grown and adjusted… No, that’s just kids, I suppose.
Peonies benefit from gentle neglect. They don’t require digging and dividing every few years like the majority of perennials do.
- Don’t use any fertilizer. Before planting, till the soil thoroughly while adding compost and a small amount of fertilizer.
- Early summer, after the peonies have flowered and you have deadheaded the blooms, is the ideal time to apply fertilizer (such as bonemeal, compost, or well-rotted manure) to a soil that is deficient in nutrients. Keep fertilizing to a few years at most.
- assist the stems Peonies’ stems, which occasionally are not strong enough to hold their enormous blossoms, are the only part of their structure that may be considered weak. Think of structures that allow the plant to grow through the middle of the support, like three-legged metal peony rings or wire tomato cages.
- Peony blossoms should be deadheaded as soon as they start to fade, cutting to a sturdy leaf so that the stem doesn’t protrude through the foliage. To prevent any infections from overwintering, trim the foliage to the ground in the fall.
- Avoid covering peonies with mulch. For the first winter following planting, you can VERY LOOSELY mulch with pine needles or shredded bark when the winters are bitterly cold. In the spring, get rid of the mulch.
Peonies bloom between late spring and early summer, but by planting a variety of cultivars, you may arrange your garden for a succession of blooms from mid-May to late June. Here are a few options:
- ‘Early Scout’ has red solitary flowers that open incredibly early.
- “Firelight”: very early-blooming, single, pale-pink flowers
- ‘Karl Rosenfield’: double, midseason bloomer with substantial crimson blooms
How deep should bare root peony be planted?
Do you intend to plant peonies this fall? Perhaps you’ve planted peonies before, but if not (or it’s been a while), here are a few things to consider before planting bare root peonies. In most places, the best months to grow bare root peonies are September, October, and November.
What location do you want to plant them in? In the front yard, a side garden, or beside the fence in the backyard? Perhaps you want to prepare a completely different location for your peony. Per peony plant, allot a footprint of around 30″ diameter (about 22″ for the compact varieties).
- Choose a location that will receive at least one half day of sunshine; full sun is ideal. Look for spots that aren’t shaded for the majority of the day. While some shade can give peony flowers richer colors, too much shade results in fewer flowers per shrub. Think about the sun when thinking of peony.
- Peonies prefer well-drained soils. For peonies, you frequently don’t need to adjust the soil, despite the fact that many gardeners do. Aeration, drainage, and rooting depth can all be enhanced by soil additives. By all means, add some of your well-rotted compost or potting soil to your soil if you believe it needs more nutrients, especially if you’ve had wonderful success with previous plants. Our peonies are grown in clay soil at Brooks Gardens, which drains nicely and becomes rock-hard in the summer if it isn’t watered. The peony thrive beautifully without the use of compost or other amendments.
- A good potting soil can improve sandy soil’s ability to store water and nutrients.
- Dig a hole that is about 1 foot wide and 1 foot deep when planting peony roots or transplanting peonies from containers (or a bit deeper). I like to use spaded soil to fill the bottom half.
- The eyes (buds) of the peony root should be near the top of the hole, close to the surface. The root’s bottom will descend into the hole (or sideways). Spaded dirt should be used to slowly fill the hole and encircle the root. In USDA zones 2 to 8, the idea is to cover the top eyes of the root with just two inches of soil. In USDA zone 9, which has warm winters, cover extremely sparingly—possibly with less than one inch of soil.
- Prepare your holes as described above, but fill them with enough dirt to raise the eyes of the roots so they are at or above ground level when you plant them. This will increase drainage. Soil should be applied to the root’s top. The top of your peony root will eventually be surrounded by a small mound or hill. Only two inches of dirt should be present above the tops of the eyes.
- Your new plants need water.
- See if the root has sunk too far in a day or two. If necessary, reset the peony root such that the top of the eyes are only a few inches underground. Too deep: less blooming, slower growth. Till the fall rains take over, keep mildly damp (not soaked).
- No requirement to cover or mulch for the winter (perhaps only in sub-freezing areas). In the spring, REMOVE the mulch or bark if you choose to cover for the winter. If not, your peony is now too deeply planted. It is ideal to keep ground coverings like bark dust at least a foot away from the centers of peony plants.
- Early in the spring, keep an eye out for growth. Perennial peonies take three years to completely establish. The first spring, the plants were small; the second, they grew larger; in the third, they reached their peak. Peonies typically don’t need to be divided and can live a lifetime.
Can I plant peony roots without first soaking them?
The peony’s lengthy life is one of its greatest draws, in my opinion. Herbaceous peonies have been known to bloom consistently for more than 50 years, occasionally outliving the gardeners who first planted them! But the care you take in setting them up is the secret to their durability.
In my experience, the first few leaves turning color in the fall are the best time to sow bare root peony tubers. After a plant is described as being “bare root,” it signifies that when it was dug up from the ground, all of the soil surrounding the tuber was removed. Since bare root peonies are less expensive than container-grown plants and may be planted in the autumn, they have more time to establish a strong root system and will be better prepared for robust growth the following spring.
The first thing you should do when you open the package of bare root peony, whether you bought them from a neighborhood garden center or via mail order, is to make sure the plant is healthy. The tubers have to be solid, meaty, and mold-free.
In order to rehydrate bare root plants before planting, it is a good idea to soak them in a pail of water for two to four hours.
If the tubers can’t be planted straight away, keep them in their packaging in a cold, dry location, such a garage or basement. Check on the tubers occasionally to make sure they aren’t turning soft or moldy because warmth and moisture will encourage them to begin developing. They can be stored in this manner for about five days.
Planting Location for Peonies
Select a location with well-drained, slightly acidic soil that receives direct sunlight. Additionally, keep in mind that once established, peonies do not respond well to transplanting, so choose a location where they can be left alone.
Planting Peonies
Peonies should be planted with their eyes facing upward and close to the soil’s surface. Now, this is a crucial point to remember. Too-deeply planted peonies won’t produce flowers. Plant the tubers no deeper than 2 inches in northern gardens. They are buried approximately a half-inch deep in my garden in the middle of the South. This enables the mulch I apply over the planting bed to discourage weed growth and aid in moisture preservation.
After planting, give the area plenty of water and keep it continually moist until the ground freezes.
What to Expect After Planting Peonies
Your peony will develop foliage in the spring of next year, but it can take a few seasons before it blooms profusely. But you’ll be rewarded for your patience. Peonies are plants that are designed for lengthy lives, and as they become older, their blossoms get better.
Many of the traditional cultivars, including “Sarah Bernhardt” and “Festiva Maxima,” have big, heavy blossoms that have a propensity to topple over. Caging them in the early spring, right after the stems appear above ground, is one of the best strategies to prevent this. To support them, use a straightforward metal ring with legs, or simply enclose the plant in a section of wire fencing.
Caring for Peonies After they Bloom
Peonies also have a wonderful smell, but in order to ensure that there will be a lot of bloom the following year, it’s crucial to remove the seedpods and fertilize each plant in late spring or early summer after deadheading the faded petals. You might sprinkle a 5-10-5 mixture around the base. Per plant, about a handful is sufficient. You only need to feed plants at this time because fertilizer overuse can produce burn, fewer blooms, and lanky growth.
planting peonies
Unless the ground is frozen or flooded, bare-root peonies should be planted between autumn and early spring. If you can’t plant them right away, pot them up in a big container so you can move them when the weather is right.
Before planting, don’t forget to soak the root for around 30 minutes. Peonies prefer richer soils that are either sunny or lightly shaded and are not wet. I usually dig a hole that is at least 1.5 times as deep and 5 times the breadth of the crown. When planting in exceptionally heavy soils, add grit and a lot of organic matter to the planting hole.
We advise sprinkling Rootgrow into the bottom of the planting hole to help with establishing. Avoid planting too deeply. Peony roots’ eyes should be no deeper than 3 to 5 cm below the soil’s surface. They might not bloom well if they are even deeper. For the same reason, try to limit your mulching to prevent gradually burying the crown.
Peonies are a long-term investment for your garden; they might not bloom in their first year, but have patience; as the plants grow, the amount of flowers they produce will rise. Plant them a metre apart, preferably in groups of three to produce an abundance of blossoms for cutting. They can grow up to a metre tall and spread out by the same amount.
growing peonies in a pot
Herbaceous peony can survive a few years in a pot, but eventually their extensive root system will overrun it. Use a soil-based compost with extra grit and lime, and cover yourself from the sun.