Gardening Topic for May 2006
Peonies

Provided by the Western Massachusetts Master Gardener Association
www.wmassmastergardeners.org.

One early summer day many years ago my Aunt Dorothy invited me for lunch. On a table in her foyer was a vase of the most exquisite flowers I had ever seen - luscious pink and cream, with a wonderful, delicate fragrance. I wanted to bury my face in the soft blossoms.

“What are these flowers?” I asked, enchanted. That was my introduction to peonies.

My next experience with peonies was when we lived in Belchertown. On our way to work and school in Amherst we passed a house that had flower-covered hedges all around the edge of the yard in June. Peonies again. I noticed that the rest of the yard was nothing spectacular, obviously not well tended, yet these amazing pink, dark pink and burgundy red flowers bloomed profusely every year. I read about them then, and learned that they are easy to grow and can live 30 years or more in one spot, but they don’t like to be transplanted. I decided that when I was settled I’d get my own.

We moved several more times, I started gardens whenever I had a yard, but it wasn’t until we moved into our current home 10 years ago that I felt settled enough to get a peony. After much perusing of garden catalogues, I ordered “Nick Shayler” and “Sarah Bernhardt” from White Flower Farm in Connecticut. While I waited for them to arrive in the mail, I chose a spot in the sunniest part of my mostly shady yard, a spot that I could easily see from the house. I turned over the soil in the circular bed, dug down a couple of feet and added composted cow manure, bone meal, a handful of super phosphate, and a couple of handfuls of lime. The plants came in the fall, which is the safest time to move peonies. The bare rooted plants had two or three “eyes,” which are the growth buds that will grow in the spring. I read my planting instructions carefully and made sure not to bury the crowns with the “eyes” too deep, no more than an inch or two below the surface. Then I mulched my new babies for the winter, crossed my fingers and waited for spring.

I think I got one or two glorious flowers that first year. Since then I have purchased a single-petaled Japanese variety, and brought several plants from my husband’s parent’s yard. My little peony bed is three times larger that it was that first year. “Nick” and “Sarah” now grow into bush-like plants that are covered with huge blooms, and I have flowers to put in every room in my house and bring to all my friends for a couple of peony-filled weeks in June.

And that (sadly) is the only downside of peonies. The bloom time is painfully brief! Some gardeners are organized enough to grow early, mid- and late season bloomers, which can extend the season by a few weeks. And I have found a trick for extending the bloom time that I will share later.

Peonies (Paeonia lactiflora) were cultivated in China over 1,400 years ago, and are not hard to grow. The plants in my mother-in-law’s yard bloomed every year for the 30-some years she lived in her house, and I don’t believe she ever fertilized them, mulched them or gave them any special care. Perhaps the gardener that originally planted them had enriched the soil well. They didn’t bloom as heavily in her yard as they do in mine, but they certainly survived.

The peonies I am describing are herbaceous perennials, and die back in the fall. I cut off the stems to the ground after the first hard frost, then I top dress them with compost, composted cow manure, bone meal, and some lime. Peonies prefer an alkaline soil, so add lime if your soil is acid. Feed them a balanced fertilizer (8-8-8) in spring and fall. (There are also tree peonies, P. suffruticosa, a gorgeous shrub I will describe another time.)

Peonies often have huge double flowers, and are too heavy for their stem to support, so they flop right over to the ground if you don’t pick them fast enough. Many gardeners put hoops in the ground in the early spring when the plants are still small, and the plants grow through. But I love the looks of the new growth, I think it is one of the most beautiful parts of my May garden, so I don’t put up supports until the plants are just about to bloom, then I push bamboo stakes into the ground around the entire peony bed, and attach string to support the foliage and blossoms. A couple of weeks later when the bloom time ends, I cut off all the spent flowers and take down the string and stakes. The foliage never needs staking, and makes a nice green backdrop for annuals.
If the spring is particularly damp (like this year!) I will watch for mold on any of the leaves or buds and cut them out immediately. The best way to avoid fungus is good sanitation. Always clean gardens well in the fall and throw away all leaves and stems. Fall clean-up also helps get rid of over-wintering insects, slugs, and eggs.

Ants love peonies. Don’t be concerned if your buds are covered with them. I’ve heard that the ants help the buds to open, and they certainly do no harm.

If your peonies don’t bloom, you may have planted them too deep. The eyes should not be more than an inch or two below the surface. And I also think too much mulch may make the peonies think they are buried deeper than they really are.

Peonies are a spectacular cut flower. Cut stems early in the day when the buds are just opening, put them in water up to their necks and keep them in a cool dim place until you are ready to arrange them in a vase. If the weather is cool, they will last a week, and the smaller buds will continue to open along the stem.

One spring a few years ago I was invited to a party at my sister’s in Maine, during the third week in June. I really wanted to bring peonies, and hoped for a late bloom, but flowers started opening the first week in June. So I tried a trick I had read. I cut some stems with buds that were just about ready to open, and I dipped the newly cut ends in melted candle wax. Then I wrapped the stems in damp newspaper and then in plastic wrap. I put the (large) package in the back of my fridge. My mother always told us to cut flower stems as long as possible (she probably was presented with a lot of dandelion heads when we were little). So my stems are 18" to 24" long. I transported the flowers to Maine two weeks later in a cooler. I unwrapped them, pulled off any leaves that looked “tired,” then cut the stems above the wax and put them in water. Like magic, the buds opened in a few hours. Isn’t nature wonderful?

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Provided by the Western Massachusetts Master Gardener Association
www.wmassmastergardeners.org