Early on in the spring I had plans to tell you all about peonies. And then Covid 19 overtook our lives.
So, at the time of the year when peonies come back into our minds after a summer of many other plants at the forefront, fall seemed like a good time to try to pick up the cold trail and write more about them, finally, and to answer any questions you might have about them.
Hands down my favourite flower, the peony is one of the hardest working plants in the garden... despite what many people say. Interesting early shoots are often red and blue and grey as they emerge in the spring; the plants provide good structure and pretty leaves all summer in a garden bed; there is a seemingly endless selection of bloom form and colour; bloom time can be spread out over about 7 weeks by choosing different types; pretty fall colour of leaves appears in some varieties; many have unusual seed heads and seeds; herbaceous and Itoh peonies have strong winter hardiness, and, these days, with our warmer winters, even my tree peonies are no longer covered in their very exposed bed except when a very heavy frost threatens their buds which grow on their above-ground woody stems (see blog post below, dated May 9th, 2020, for a simple solution to an early frost).
As an aside, the reason herbaceous and Itoh peonies don't ever need any protection at all is that they actually need a cold period to set bloom. If they don't get a specific number of cold days, they just don't bloom. Hence no peonies in Florida and why instructions here specify planting herbaceous and intersectional peonies with their eyes about two inches below soil level. Deeper than that, and they are too warm! (Not so for tree peonies which should have their graft 5-6 inches below ground so that the tree peony roots take over from the herbaceous graft. More about that later… ) I have even read about crazy peony people (yes, there are a few, but I don’t know them…) who live in warmer climates who put ice over the ground where peonies are growing with the thought of providing enough cold days so they will bloom. Just like trying to change the acidity of soil to accommodate rhododendrons and azaleas, it is not often successful…
Anyway, I realized that I could write a book on these glorious plants, so where would I start for a short blog??? Even this short post saying I am just sending a link has turned into something way too long!
As I was pondering this, I opened up an email from a very large peony grower in the States - Peony's Envy (as a friend noted, a rather unfortunate choice of name….), and it is all there. Everything you want to know to get you started on understanding the basics of peonies. Sixteen sections under the Peony Care heading, most of which are again broken down into more sections covering everything from soup to nuts!!!! Now, there are lots of stories and interesting facts about peonies which are not covered there, but it is an excellent Peony 101 course. Please remember, however, that some things they write do not apply to us at all. For example, planting peonies in the spring bare root, which is a real no-no here.
So, instead of reinventing the wheel, I am going to send you to their site but will be totally available to Ottawa Garden Club members to answer any and all questions about this delightful plant. You have but to be in touch through Heather Brown if you don’t have my email. Let’s see how this works – if there are gaps or confusing items, I will cover those in other posts. And I know there are some interesting tidbits about peonies which you would like to hear, so I will keep coming back to peonies from time to time in future posts. You will all be experts in no time!!
In the meantime, if you need to plant/divide and/or move peonies, now is the time. But remember a few things…
1) never wake a sleeping baby – if your peony is looking well, blooming well and has no disease, why are you dividing it? There are lots of good answers to that question, but do ask yourself before you dig…
2) Try not to buy bare root at this time of the year if they are in plastic bags filled with sawdust at your local nursery. They will have no feeder roots and storage roots will be small. It will take several years before a peony like this will bloom, whereas a large, healthy root from a specialist peony grower in Canada will send up many shoots the first spring and should bloom first year. Ditto for potted peonies in the spring, unless the pot is pretty large. Again, the feeder roots will be cut to fit in the pot, so not ideal for the plant.
The Peony’s Envy site is peonyenvy.ca
