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
Where should an Itoh peony be planted?
At my property in Bedford, New York, I’ll have more stunning peonies blooming than ever in the spring.
I simply like peonies and have always been a collector of them. At one area of the farm, I have a lengthy peony border planted beneath the semi-shade of colossal sugar maple trees. Just over the carriage road from my house, I have a huge bed that is exclusively planted with pink and white herbaceous peonies. I’ve also planted tree peonies in the garden that’s buried into the ground behind my summer house. I recently acquired a sizable collection of intersectional Itoh peonies grown by Monrovia, a nationwide wholesale nursery with a focus on well-cared-for shrubs, perennials, annuals, ferns, grasses, and conifers. I made the decision that the formal Summer House garden beds encircled by my boxwood hedges would be the ideal location for these hybrid peonies. I can’t wait to see them blossom in May after my gardeners planted about 50 yellow and salmon Itoh peonies yesterday.
I am a devoted and enthusiastic gardener, and I am constantly seeking for methods to make all of my garden beds more beautiful and interesting. I had already planned where I would put these peonies when they arrived. They all hail from Monrovia, where more than 18 different varieties of these are grown “Peonies from Itoh
This magnificent ‘Bartzella’ Itoh peony is one among the kinds we got. Itoh peonies are crossbreeds between tree peony and herbaceous peonies. In the 1940s, Dr. Toichi Itoh, a Japanese botanist, was the first to successfully mate tree peony pollen with herbaceous peony ovary. This one has extraordinarily big, vivid yellow blooms. The center is a richer yellow than the outer layers, which are initially a lighter shade of lemon meringue. Flares of red are hidden within the puffy flowers. Additionally, “Bartzella” smells a little peppery. (Monrovia photo by Doreen Wynja)
This Itoh peony is known as “Singing in the Rain,” and it has enormous, semi-double, creamy blooms with exquisite apricot-salmon flushes. The flowers are presented on long stalks that are ideal for cutting, and they have a gentle, pleasant aroma. (Monrovia photo by Doreen Wynja)
“Pink Double Dandy” is this. When in bloom, it displays a dense mound of dark green foliage above big, semi-double to double, faintly fragrant blooms on sturdy stalks. When ripe, the blossoms have a deep lavender-pink color. After then, the petals turn a light pink and the center’s collection of yellow stamens is visible. Leading Itoh Peony breeder Don Smith created this variety through hybridization. I’ll include a few of these pink peonies in my tree peony border. (Monrovia photo by Doreen Wynja)
I desired the formal rectangular beds behind my Summer House to be planted with the yellow and apricot peonies. To create way for the peony plants, the hostas were moved to a different location.
One of the beds is shown here, cleared and prepared for planting. Numerous white snowdrop bulbs that blossom in the spring are also present beneath the earth.
All of the peonies are neatly arranged in lines and are color-coded by Ryan in the bedsall.
To give these peony plenty of opportunity to grow, they are spaced about three feet apart. Peonies from Itoh produce lots of blooms. On a strong, mature plant, they can expand furiously to three feet tall and four feet wide, and they can produce up to 60 blooms in a second group.
Brian is shown here as he begins to sow more than 20 seeds in this bed. Itoh peonies, also known as intersectional peonies, have traits in common with both its tree and herbaceous parent plants. They produce huge, long-lasting blooms and sturdy stems that don’t need to be staked, just like tree peonies. Additionally, they have rich, deeply lobed foliage that is dark green and last into autumn. Additionally resistant to peony blight are Itoh peonies.
Even though these plants are currently dormant, notice all the stems. These are mature plants as well, so next year should see stunning blooms that measure up to eight inches wide.
The hole is first dug by Brian, at least twice as big as the plant. The ideal planting conditions for itoh peony include rich, well-drained soil and full sun to part shade.
After the hole is dug, Brian uses the potted plant to gauge its size.
The dirt around the hole and in it is then liberally fertilized by Brian. I typically say, “Your plants should eat if you do. For these plants, we’re using Roots fertilizer with mycorrhizal fungi, which improves water and nutrient absorption while helping transplant survival. Itoh peony are susceptible to high nitrogen levels, so use a fertilizer with a low level of nitrogen when fertilizing in the spring and summer.
These peony are in wonderful shape, and Brian gently removes the plant from its container. Then, in order to promote growth, he gently loosens the roots with his hands.
The tops of the stems on the peony in this picture should be just level with the ground.
This peony is the ideal height and should survive the cold weather with no problems.
Brian then fills the hole with soil, making sure it is tightly packed and that all of the stems are completely encased.
Brian makes sure the peonies are planted in absolutely straight lines down the bed by using the empty upturned pots as markers because the plants are trimmed down and don’t currently have any leaf.
Following the planting of all the peonies in the section, the entire area is top dressed with an additional layer of soil before being raked evenly. Due to the numerous side buds that bloom in succession, these Itoh peonies are late midseason plants and will flower in late spring to early summer for three to four weeks.
Next May, these beds will be awash in color. These Itoh peony are strong and resilient to the cold. These aromatic plants can live for 100 years or even longer if planted and cared for properly.
How late may peony be planted?
The optimum time to plant peonies is in the fall, any time between late September and early December. When purchasing a potted plant in the spring or summer, it is better to wait until fall to transplant the plant. To ensure good drainage, you can temporarily bury the entire pot where it will be planted, covering the soil beneath it with a few inches of gravel.
Follow these planting instructions in the fall:
Make a deep hole that is at least 24″ wide and 18″ deep. Rich, humus-rich soil as well as a lot of compost, composted manure, or peat moss should be used to fill the hole’s bottom.
Remove the plant from its pot with care, being sure to untangle any circling or tangled roots.
Place it there and backfill the hole with the same soil mixture as you go. When planting is finished, make sure the top of the plant’s bud “eyes” is no lower than 2 inches below the top soil level, taking into consideration any additional mulch layer you’ll add.
In January, may I plant peonies?
In the United States, the months of September through November are the finest for planting peony.
However, there are places in the US where gardeners can successfully grow peonies in December, including regions of California, Washington State, Oregon, and the south.
There are even stories of bare-root peonies being planted in January and February, though this is uncommon.
The section Planting Peonies in Different Climates contains a wealth of advice. They typically thrive in colder locations where frost is unimportant. It’s better to plant peonies in the winter in hotter climates.
Peonies can I plant in May?
Peonies are enduring garden favorites that are well-known for their lavish, early-summer blossoms. They are dependable plants that bloom for generations with little care and have an extraordinarily long lifespan. Peonies are unmatched as cut flowers. They are beautiful in their natural beauty and have a soft, enduring perfume, whether they are grown alone or in mixed bouquets.
Start with a Better Bulb
It’s simple to discern quality differences between two peony plants when you compare them side by side. Grade #1 peony, as displayed at far left, are provided by Longfield Gardens. Right on this page is a peony of grade #2. The larger root requires less time to mature into a robust plant that bears several blossoms.
Plan for Success
Peonies are low maintenance and incredibly simple to grow. Here are some pointers to assist you achieve the greatest outcomes.
Peonies thrive in the sun and perform at their best when they receive at least 6 hours of direct sunlight each day. It is preferable to put your peonies in the most sunny area possible because the more sun they receive, the better their blooms will be.
Zones 3–8 are suitable for peonies’ winter hardiness. Cold winter climates are excellent for their growth and flowering. Zones 8 may be difficult for them, while zones 9 and warmer are not advised for them. Check your hardiness zone now. The USDA Hardiness zone map can be found here.
Soil: Loose, fertile, well-drained soil is ideal for growing most plants, including peony. By incorporating compost and an all-purpose fertilizer during planting time, you can enhance the condition of your soil. Planting should not be done on wet or compacted soil.
When to Plant: Spring or fall are both suitable times to plant bareroot peonies. The plants can withstand frost, so you can plant them two to three weeks before the last day of frost. You can plant potted peonies at any time of the growing season.
Make a 12-by-12-inch hole. Compost and general-purpose granular fertilizer should be added after loosening the soil at the bottom of the hole (follow package directions).
Place the peony root in the hole with the eyes (the growth points) no lower than one inch below the surface of the soil. Peonies that are planted too deeply may continue to grow but not blossom. Add soil over the root and water as necessary.
Planting Tips for Peonies
Peonies need full sun in order to produce a profusion of blossoms. Even though certain types may withstand moderate shadow, fewer flowers bloom in general when there is less light.
Peonies should be planted in soil that is fertile, well-drained, and has a pH range of neutral to slightly alkaline. They will eventually grow a substantial root system and become challenging to relocate. Spend some time placing your peonies in a location where they can flourish for many years. The plants are reasonably drought resistant once they are established.
Continual Gardens Perennial gardens work well with peonies. Their year-round gorgeous dark green leaves. Peony leaves occasionally turn crimson or gold in the fall.
Fence lines and hedges To create a low hedge for enclosing a space, defining one side of a garden, or edging a walkway, peonies can be planted in a row. They also look fantastic when planted at the bottom of a chain link or split rail fence. As a sturdy fence will restrict airflow around the plants and increase their susceptibility to foliar diseases, avoid growing them next to one.
Plantings for the foundation and shrub borders The presence of a peony is comparable to that of a tiny shrub. Peonies may grow practically anyplace in your landscape as long as they are planted in well-drained soil, receive enough light, and have sufficient air circulation.
What to Expect from Peonies
All peonies bloom in the first few weeks of summer, however each cultivar blooms at a different period. The peony season can be prolonged by a month or more if you plant a mixture of early, mid, and late season bloomers. Other early summer perennials like iris, alliums, and roses pair well with peonies. The greenery keeps borders looking full and gives other flowers a lush background.
Most peony mature at least three feet tall and three feet wide, depending on the type. Therefore, it’s crucial to provide them freedom to expand. Peonies will maintain their flowers straight if a support cage is placed all around them. Use a pre-made peony support or create your own from steel or mesh reinforcing wire or wood slats. Early in the spring, before the plants reach a height of 12 inches, supports should be installed.
Carefree peony plants that hardly ever experience insect or disease problems. A young peony plant needs two to three years to become established, but once it does, it will reliably blossom each year.
Fantastic cut flowers are peonies. The majority of cultivars are also incredibly fragrant, and they remain for days in a vase. When the buds are in the “marshmellow” stage, peony stems can be removed and kept in water in the refrigerator for a few weeks. After many days, the buds on the stems brought into room temperature will begin to open.
Caring for Peonies are they Bloom
Use scissors to cut off the wasted flower heads and the top six to eight stems once the blossoms have faded “that stem. This will prevent the plants from forming seed heads and keep the plants looking tidy. The plants will be able to produce the energy they require for the blossoms of the following year if as little foliage as possible is removed.
When the leaves start to turn yellow in the fall, trim all the stems to within an inch or two of the ground.
When the stems are about 6 inches long in the spring, fertilize peonies “tall. Around the base of each plant, dispense roughly a half cup of all-purpose granular fertilizer. To avoid having the eyes buried too deeply, remove any mulch or other debris from the plant’s crown.
How to Divide a Peony
Peonies can stay undisturbed for several years in the same location. If the plants must be moved, do so in the fall when they are beginning to enter dormancy rather than in the spring when they are just starting to grow again. Trim the leaves, which may be up to three feet wide, then carefully remove the entire root ball. Dig carefully, avoiding uprooting any roots, and dig deeply. Replant right away, and give it lots of water.
Plant division can be done in the fall or very early in the spring. One method is to remove the entire root ball as previously said, then place the clump on a tarp. After cutting the clump into sections with a sharp knife, quickly replant each section. Work swiftly and gently, causing the fewest potential injuries to the fleshy roots.
The alternative is to cut one or more portions of root from the mother plant using a sharp spade. Once more, plant these divisions again right away, and during the first growth season, irrigate as necessary. Though you may often anticipate losing at least one season of blossoms, plants will recover more quickly the less the roots are touched.