Peonies have long been one of my absolute favorite flowers. I love their enormous full blooms and fragrance. I just wish they had a longer bloom season but I anxiously await for them to bloom each May. I was thrilled to find a nice big patch of peonies emerge in the garden during our first spring on the farm. Since then, I’ve divided and multiplied these original peony plants and planted over 100 new peonies in our flower field. I plan to add another 100 this fall as well.
Peony Varieties
Paeonia, it’s botanical name, come in the form of herbaceous (bush) peonies as well as tree peonies. Herbaceous peonies typically bloom in mid to late May in our area and grow up to 4 feet tall with flower blooms around 6 inches in diameter. They can also be easily propagated through division (more on that later), whereas tree peonies cannot. Tree peonies bloom 2-4 weeks prior to Herbaceous peonies and can grow up to 10 feet high. They will lose their leaves in the fall but maintain a graceful branching structure, while herbaceous peonies should be cut to the ground in the fall.
A Somewhat New Introduction
Following WWII, a Japanese botanist, Dr. Toichi Itoh was the first to successfully create a modern hybrid of the two varieties, aptly named Itoh, or Intersectional, peonies. Other botanists around the world had unsuccessfully pursued this goal for decades due, in part, to the difference in bloom times between the two varietals. Interestingly, Dr. Itoh patiently cared for his young seedlings for over eight years before his death in 1956 without ever seeing one bloom. His family continued his pursuit and finally brought them to flower in 1964. Subsequently, they were imported into the US and are growing in popularity.
Most cut flower production in the US comes from herbaceous varieties but tree and Itoh peonies remain popular for landscaping and botany enthusiasts. At Pleasant Hills Farm, we grow herbaceous peonies. My modest patch, which will hopefully someday be an entire field is mostly filled with soft pink and white peonies favored by brides. However, I’ve been testing some beautiful coral and red peonies and love what I’m seeing!
Growing Peonies
Herbaceous peonies grow each year from an underground crown, which should be planted in the fall. The most important factor in planting peony crowns is depth. The eyes of the crown, where the growth originates, should not be more 1 inch below surface. Chose a site with good drainage and preferably full sun, although peonies will tolerate light shade. Peonies need plenty of water but should not be allowed to get water logged.
After planting, mulch the area to provide winter protection to the young plants. Because we don’t use any chemicals on our farm for weed control, we heavily mulch the first couple of years but then it is important to ease up so that the roots don’t get buried too deeply, reducing critical oxygen and water penetration to the roots.
Patience is Key. Most peonies will not bloom the first year after planting and often take three years to really hit their stride. As my husband will tell you, I’m not the most patient person in the world but I even I think peonies are well worth the wait! In the fall, whether you have a bloom or not, cut the peonies to the ground and discard the waste to avoid foliar diseases for the next year.
Those Darn Ants! About the only real pest threat for peonies are ants but they aren’t really a threat. In my experience, ants do no real harm. They often appear as the buds swell, dining on the sugary substance created by the budding. Some believe the ants actually help the buds open. Either way, they will disappear once they do.
Multiply Your Investment
One of the things I love best about peonies is that they can easily be divided to grow new plants. They can also be easily moved so if you invest in peonies and then move homes, just dig them up and take them with you! Peonies should be divided in the fall. To do so, dig up the roots, being careful to dig a wide circle around the plants so as not to damage the roots. Lessons learned from me - divide before you cut the plants back for the season or it won’t be as easy to know where to dig!
Once the roots are out of the ground, rinse them vigorously with a hose so that you can clearly identify crown buds. After rinsing, I suggest leaving the roots in the shade for a day or two so they soften up and are easier to cut but not longer! I start with cutting long roots back to only about 6 inches of the crown. Don’t worry, the crown will grow new roots! Cut the root into pieces with a sharp knife so that each division has at least one crown bud, or eye, but three visible buds are best.
Harvesting Peonies
While I’m sad that I can only harvest peonies for two weeks a year, I do appreciate their long vase life and the fact that you can store them in a cooler or refrigerator for several weeks for future enjoyment. It is beautiful to see full peony blooms in your garden but if you want to enjoy cut peonies, you need to harvest them well before they are in full bloom. It is best to harvest cut peonies when the first true color appears at the tip of the bud and the bud has started to soften (see picture above). When harvested in what I like to call “marshmallow” stage, they can be stored dry in a cooler or refrigerator. Strip off all the leaves except a few small ones near the bud. I then loosely wrap them in paper towels and then plastic wrap, sealed at both ends to keep moisture in if I am harvesting a small bunch. For larger harvests, I put them in a box lined in plastic and separate layers in plastic. Store them horizontally but I recommend not keeping them in a refrigerator where you store fruits as the ethylene gas that fruit gives off when ripening can cause the flowers to prematurely age. Side note - keep flower bouquets away from fruit to last longer!
When you are ready to enjoy the peonies, simply take them out of storage, snip the ends and put them in room-temperature water and they will begin to slowly open up within hours.
A few weeks before peonies are ready for harvest, cut flower growers will typically “disbud” each peony stem by cutting off lateral buds, thereby increasing the size of the primary flower. I follow this practice for about half of my peonies because I do like the look of the smaller buds in arrangements.
Even if you are growing peonies for landscaping, it is good practice to cut a fair number of the stems to take inside and enjoy. This redirects the plants energy away from the bloom and into the root growth for future abundancy.
If you are interested in more information and hands-on knowledge about peonies, look for future on-the-farm classes for planting and dividing peonies in the fall and harvesting in the spring.