You’re only here for a short visit. Don’t hurry, don’t worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way.
-Walter Hagen
Peony Perfection
The peony bloom period is so ephemeral and fleeting it makes you love them even more. Their bloom time is greatly affected by temps and rain – cooler and dryer seasons they will hang around longer. They benefit from some support and you will find a whole host of cages and support options are on the market to keep their blooms upright during early spring when they are opening and that can stay in place until fall when they are cut back.
A few of my favorites:
- Shirley temple – white with fuchsia touches, early season voluminous blooms
- Love birds – pale pink single petal with yellow center and hot pink bracts
- Bowl of Beauty – single layer of pink petals surrounding cream center, mid to late season
- Celebrity – similar to bowl of beauty but fuchsia with pink/fuchsia center, mid season
- Karl Rosenfeld – mine is a fuchsia red, mid season, voluminous blooms
- Prairie moon – the most beautiful ethereal white single petal with yellow center, later season
- Sarah Bernhardt – soft pink with fuchsia touches, later season and voluminous blooms
Planting and Care
In addition to color, consider bloom time – early, mid, late season. Also consider the three types of peonies:
- herbaceous – foliage emerges from the soil each spring and dies back completely in fall.
- itoh – also known as intersectional, these are hybrids of tree and herbaceous and die back to the ground like herbaceous but have sturdier stems like the tree peony.
- tree – not a tree in any sense but these peonies do not die back to the soil but instead leave their stems and form eyes/buds on stems rather than at soil level
Although usually planted in the fall, you can sometimes find potted peonies in spring in garden centers. The widest variety will be available online from specialty growers and pre-orders often happen several months before delivery. When planted from tuber they are dormant and spend the winter months growing underground before shooting up in spring. Things to be careful of when planting
- They do not like heavy competition, wet feet, or heavy shade so select planting location with these things in mind
- They do not like to be disturbed.* Blooms can take several years after planting from bareroot and moving them can also delay blooms so consider their placement within a larger planting plan
- They are sensitive to planting depth. The eyes must be just below the surface on both herbaceous and itoh peonies.
- If planting from bare root it is beneficial to cut the blooms the first year or two to prevent the plant from putting too much energy into flowering. Let them open to see color but quickly cut rather than letting them persist on the plant.
*one caveat, if a peony is struggling it is worth disturbing them to move them to a better spot or adjust planting depth.
Below are not the typical size roots you will receive from most sellers. The roots pictured below are incredibly healthy and vigorous tree peony and herbaceous peonies bare root from Solaris Farms. I have had many mislabeled peonies and small dud tubers from other sellers, so I don’t often recommend particular sellers often on here but Solaris roots bloomed the first spring for me and all have been true to color. Where a wrong color dahlia tuber puts you a year or two away from having that variety in your garden, a wrong color peony bare root puts your several years away from having it in your garden.
From Garden to Vase
I’ve never really cut my itoh or tree peonies but prefer to use the herbaceous varieties as cut flowers. Their vase life impacted by temperature and harvest time, ideally harvest when the buds have reached marshmallow stage for longest vase life. If harvested at this stage you can even wrap and store these in a refrigerator for later in the season. I have never personally tried storing my blooms bc I now have so many other flowers in the garden thru each season, so I try to enjoy their fragrance and their beauty while they last.
Want to find all my favorite flowers in the garden? You can find the whole series at link below
Among the Flowers