One of the great joys of spring, peonies are almost fool-proof, so long as you get them off to a good start. Properly cared for, they will flourish for decades.
TYPES OF PEONIES
There are three types of peonies. It is important to understand what you’re dealing with, as they all grow in different ways.
Herbaceous peonies are the plants that we all think of when we think “peonies”. Their botanical name, which we use in our listings to keep things clear, is Paeonia lactiflora. They are very hardy, with big ball-shaped buds which unfurl to huge, chalice-shaped flowers. They grow to around 30 to 40 inches tall and wide, and die down to the ground each winter. Blooms hold up very well as cut flowers. In our climate, we have found that the foliage often looks a bit ratty by August. As such, they are best planted in the middle of a bed or towards the back, preferably beside something that will really fill out in the summer (roses are good companions).
Tree peonies are large peonies which grow out of thick, woody stems. To the botany nerds in the crowd, they are Paeonia suffruticosa. They will take a bit more shade than herbaceous or Itoh peonies, and will be quite happy in a part shade location (4 hours of direct sun per day). Tree peonies are prized for their enormous (and I mean enormous) blooms. It is not uncommon to see a ten inch bloom on an established tree peony – they’re like something out of big land in Super Mario 3 (am I dating myself? I don’t care, that game was the best.) The flowers are best enjoyed on the tree but, if there's a hail storm coming or some other dire forecast, they may be cut no more than a couple of inches below the bloom. Tree peonies will grow to about five feet tall, and will be just as wide during the months they have foliage. The foliage stay very nice all season. At the end of the season, the leaves will fall off. For the duration of winter, they will look like large sticks.
Itoh peonies are the best of both worlds. They are a hybrid between tree and herbaceous peonies. They die to the ground every year like the herbaceous group, but have the show-stopping blooms and gorgeous foliage of the tree group. Leaves are deeply cut and fern-like, which makes for a very good-looking plant whether it is blooming or not. Itohs also bloom prolifically, beginning about two weeks after the herbaceous peonies. But unlike herbaceous peonies, they will often produce a second flush of blooms (and sometimes even a third), which extends their season way past that of their early-blooming cousins. They are also resistant to peony blight – that ugly blotching that ravages most herbaceous peonies by the end of the season. Itoh blooms are borne upon the strong stems of their tree peony-parent, and will not be flattened by a heavy spring rain. Their foliage is also more akin to a tree peony and stays gorgeous all season, so go ahead and plant one right up at the front of a bed. It is no exaggeration to say that Itoh peonies are a horticultural prize. Rare varieties sell for many thousands of dollars. (The cultivars we carry are sought-after, but with a significantly better price point!)
BASIC CULTIVATION
Peonies are tough plants. Plant them in full sun in reasonably good soil (no really heavy clay or soil so sandy you can’t make a ball with it when it’s wet). The trick to planting peonies is not to plant them any deeper than they are set in their nursery pot. They should never be more than 2 inches below soil level. If peonies are planted too deep, they will respond by throwing lots of foliage and no flowers. If peonies are planted in too shady a location, you will also see a decline in the number of blooms.
Once they are established, peonies need regular water up to and during their bloom time (usually supplied in the spring by mother nature) and a drink every week or so thereafter. And....that’s it. Peonies aren’t interested in nitrogen-heavy fertilizers (so keep that miracle-gro the heck away). They really don’t need any fertilizer at all. If you feel compelled, you could give them a snack in March or April that’s low in all digits, especially the first one (a 4-8-6 or similar), but it's really not necessary. Do not feed a peony (or any other plant) after it has finished blooming for the season.
Peonies are a great sort of tonic to modern life (or a frustrating one, depending on your perspective) in that they refuse to produce any serious flush of blooms until they are happy and settled in their spot. For most peonies, this takes three years. You will get a few blooms in the first season, a lot in the second, but the real show won’t come until the third growing season. Like all the really excellent things in life (children, spouses, wine), peonies are a long game.
PRUNING
Good news: peonies don’t require any pruning. Not only that, they will resent it. Follow the guide below regarding harvesting herbaceous peonies but otherwise leave these ladies alone – they know how to look good and a pair of well-meaning clippers will only get in their way.
(You can, if you wish, pinch the side buds of all types of peonies to encourage the remaining bloom to grow larger. We don’t recommend it. Peony plants bloom for as long as they do because the terminal bud – the one at the end of the stem – blooms and then, when it is almost done, the side buds begin their show. In our books, pinching is only appropriate if you are growing an exhibition bloom, or a very specific cut flower.)
At the the end of the season, when the foliage turns black, trim it off and throw it out (do not compost – peony leaves often harbour a nasty fungus that you don’t want lurking in your compost pile). Trim herbaceous and Itoh foliage to the ground – both species should be almost invisible in the winter months. Tree peony leaves may be snipped, gently tugged off, or left to fall on their own (but do pick them up fairly promptly). Do not cut down the "stick" of a tree peony - this will either kill the plant or set it back by years.
As we've discussed, peonies are not mature until their third season. After you plant your peony, give some thought to whether you’d like to speed this timeline up a bit, or whether you’re content to let the plant do its thing. Commercial flower growers, who want their plants to mature as quickly as possible, cut off all flower buds as soon as they emerge in the first year. Some growers continue with this practice until the third year. This forces the plant to divert its energy to root development, thus allowing for an earlier maturation and subsequent bloom bonanza. And it truly is a bonanza - studies on flower production show an exponential increase in blooms on plants which have been disbudded for at least a year. If you want to get to work harvesting armloads of blooms sooner rather than later, consider sacrificing blooms altogether in year one. But most home gardeners will wish to enjoy whatever blooms they can, and let the plant take its time in maturing.
HARVESTING
Peony blooms make fantastic cut flowers. Any source will tell you that the best time of day to harvest anything from the garden is the morning or the evening, but this is quite important with peonies if you want to extend their vase life, especially if the blooms have begun to open. The key is dew: you want to pick them in the morning just after the dew has evaporated, or in the evening before it settles. Try to avoid bringing damp blooms into the house – they will not last nearly as long.
To get the best show indoors, pick peony blooms when the buds are almost open and they have about the same give as a marshmallow if you pinch them gently. If you pick them a little earlier, when the buds have a bit of spring to them but are not yet marshmallow-y (try to keep up with this highly scientific language), you can lay them horizontally in the fridge (no water required), making sure they are not on the fridge shelf that the fan blows onto, and throw a dry cloth loosely on top of them or wrap them loosely in newspaper. They will keep for weeks without developing further. When you’re ready to use them, take them out, re-cut the bottoms, and put them in room-temperature water. They will then unfurl just as they would have if you had put them in the vase straight after harvesting. (They will not last as long in the vase as they would have straight out of the garden, however. Still, if you have an event you want to save them for, it’s a great trick to have up your sleeve.)
You may wonder just how many flowers you can cut from your peony without damaging it. There are a few schools of thought on this. Some say no more than one-third of the blooms should be cut, some say two-thirds. But commercial peony growers (who have a very vested interest in maintaining the health of their plants) say you can cut every gosh darn one of them off. The caveat is that you must leave as much foliage as possible – this means no 24 inch stems! Don’t cut off more than one set of leaves if you can help it. This philosophy makes perfect sense if you think about the purpose of flowers: they are there to propagate the species. The individual plant gives zero hoots whether it is pollinated or not - it has made its flower and done its job. The only thing it cares about is getting enough energy to overwinter and bloom again in the spring. This energy is primarily gathered through leaves, not flowers. Snip away!
WINTER CARE
Peonies are very hardy plants. In the winter time, do not mulch or otherwise cover. All peonies need at least 500 "chill hours" per year to thrive. A chill hour is a one hour period where the entire root is exposed to temperatures of 4 degrees celcius or lower. This can be a squeeze on Vancouver Island, so do your plants a favour and don't keep them any warmer in the winter than they have to be. If you find yourself worrying as the temperatures dip, remember that one of the most prolific American states for peony production is Alaska. The best peonies we have ever seen grew unprotected on a hillside in Calgary. This is all to say that when it comes to winter care, just follow the rule of thumb with all things peony: leave them alone.
PESTS
The number one thing that people worry about with peonies is ants. Peony buds are usually caked with ants, because they secrete a very lovely, sugary sap. The most important thing you can do to address ants on your peonies is: absolutely nothing. They will not affect the bloom or the plant, they’re just there for the sap party. By the time the bloom starts to open, they’ll be home sleeping it off.
COMMON CONCERNS
All large perennials take a couple of years to really get settled. Below are some common questions gardeners may have during a peony's first couple of years (and, in some cases, beyond):
My peony made beautiful buds, but they never opened and shriveled up! Is it sick?!
This is known as bud blast, and is a common occurrence in first year plants. Bud blast occurs when a plant is too immature to finish the job on producing a bloom. It can also occur when a very cold snap hits after the buds have been produced, but this is rare in our climate. A third cause, which is less common in first year plants, is botrytis, described below. If your plant experienced bud blast bud did not develop black blotching on the leaves, it is very unlikely that botrytis was that cause.
What about the dreaded botrytis?
There's not much that phases peonies, but they can be affected by a fungal blight called botrytis, which can be a nuisance if it takes hold. Botrytis can emerge in cool, wet conditions (like the crummy "summer" of 2020). If your plant is affected by botrytis, you will see clear symptoms: bud development will be stunted, black blotches will appear on the foliage, and you will eventually observe devastating rot at the base of younger stems.
If your plant is affected by botrytis, it cannot be "cured" until the next season.
Prevention is the name of the game with botrytis. The odds of infection can be very sharply reduced if you are sure to cut down every last bit of dead peony foliage in the fall (toss it in the garbage, do not compost). Siting your peonies in locations with good air circulation, full sun exposure and decent drainage are three other very important preventative elements. If your plants become affected by botrytis, it is prudent to treat them with a fungicide as soon as new growth appears in the spring, and every two weeks thereafter until flowering is complete. Do not spray buds that are about to open or the petals may be uglified.
If you are concerned about discolouration of the leaves (little orange or brown spots, or the leaves turning reddish or orange) and your plant has already flowered (or attempted to), you are likely looking at the natural decline of the foliage after the plant has done it's job for the year. Almost all herbaceous peony leaves will look like hell by October - it's not always indicative of any fungal issue. If you are unsure, please feel free to send us a picture. (Please do not bring potentially affected plant matter to us unless it is in a sealed ziplock bag and the exterior of the bag has been washed with soap.)
My new peony has hardly grown at all!
There are only a few reasons this can happen: Firstly, there are some peonies that are simply slow starters. Infamous among these are 'Coral Sunset' and 'Coral Charm'. We have found 'Gay Paree' to be similarly dopey in the first year. We strongly recommend disbudding these cultivars in the first year in order to promote root growth. Year two will be better, and you will have a proper sense of the plant by year three. All three of these cultivars are truly worth the wait!
The second reason slow growth can occur is sun exposure. If your peony is not in full sun (a bare minimum of 6 hours of totally unobstructed sunshine every day) then it will not grow properly. It simply will not have enough energy.
Insufficient water can also stunt plants, but they let you know this is a problem pretty early on by wilting. If a plant is regularly water-stressed, it will slow growth for the season. This doesn't happen too often here, because we generally have sufficient rainfall to guard against the odd forgotten watering day during the really active months of peony growth.
My peony is not blooming. No buds at all!
If your peony was planted this year, do not expect blooms. Past the first year, if you are not seeing any blooms, one of two things is likely happening: either the plant is not getting enough sunlight (6 hours a day! No cheating!) or the root is buried too deep. There should not be more than 2 inches of material between the root and the open air. This includes mulch! We very commonly speak to folks who planted their peony properly at the outset, but then piled two inches of mulch on top of it every year. This will prevent your plant from blooming in pretty short order. Peonies do not need mulch in our climate. If you feel compelled, be sure to clear it off in March (very carefully - there may be buds breaking, which must not be snapped off).
AVAILABILITY
We have been proud to offer a fantastic selection of herbaceous peonies in the past: Coral Sunset, Coral Charm, Lillian Wild, Duchesse de Nemours, Gay Paree, Solange, Lady Alexandra Duff, Monsieur Jules Elie, Myrtle Gentry and Kirinmaru.
And a similarly stunning line up of Itohs: Julia Rose, Cora Louise, Canary Brilliants, and the show-stopping Scrumdiddlyumptious.
We have a solid network of suppliers for all classes of peony – if there is one you are looking for, please ask.
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