Chinese Peony, Garden Peony (Paeonia lactiflora)

What is your secret to such success? These just hate me!

Well, start with roots that are about a hundred years old...All my peonies are from roots that a neighbor gave me almost 50 years ago when I was seven. He took care of a nearbye park garden & told me he planted the peonies 50 years before that! I moved these from my Mom's garden 13 summers ago. Peonies don't like to be moved, even a large root. It takes 2-3 years to see decent blooms. Get the largest, most intact root you can find--preferably already growing in your area. Plant it with lots of sun, mulch in the summer. I don't feed or do anything to mine but deadhead & trim last years dead stems each spring.

Well no wonder I am such a failure. LOL Too late now. You should have told me 40 years ago!

How great you have such a history with those. What a great neighbor and I bet he got you solidly on the garden path in life!

I have been Blessed with some great gardening mentors over the years. I hope to approach their skill some day as I keep learning more.

I just really use my Peonies for a backdrop & don't appreciate them as much as I should. They make the yard smell so good & blooms last along time.

Those are really beautiful and the large planting of them really makes them stand out. I moved a red one this year, I hope it is happy with the new location. Another one I dug out of a crowded Iris bed and it came out in 3 pieces, I put them in a large pot to recover, I don't know the color but the lady who gave that one to me said it might be pink. Unfortunately the iris in the bed multiplied at such a rate that the poor thing didn't have a chance to grow. There is another one I still need to rescue, found growing in an area that is overrun with wild roses, it has only one stem so it will be a few years before I see what color that one is. They are so hardy it is really worth it to try to rescue them.

Peonies are hardy, but take a long time to establish themselves. I dug out 1/2 of the pink ones shown in the photo and replaced them with a deep red, a pale pink & a white.
It will take a couple of years before I see the small bushes reach the size of the mature ones. I also use my Peonies as back row accents in my border gardens. They look great blooming with the irises & make a nice texture statement the rest of the year. I cut big tomato cages in half & use the lower half as Peony support.

wanda- I have inherited quite a few clumps of peonies. Two clumps (beside each other) get black spots on them just as they are finished blooming, then gradually get more and more. By fall, almost all the leaves are black. Really ugly looking. I have asked at 2 greenhouses and a MG but no one has any idea what is causing it. Have you or anyone else every heard of this problem? I wondered if I should dust it with a fungicide. The other clumps get a few but nothing like this. thanks for anyone's input!

We get black spots on ours too later in the season some years. I cut off the affected leaves & cut back the plants by about 6-8 inches. That seems to stop it here. I don't use sprays if I can help it. Poisons build up in the ground.

How pretty! I love peonies and have several Karl Rosenfelds, Sarah Bernhardts and white ones - the names escape me at the moment. I am trying my luck with japanese peonies. Last year my first attempt looked like a dead sticks all season after planting them in the spring. I mulched them last fall and early this spring was amazed that there were tiny eyes sprouting on these 2 dead stick! They had several leaves and it really exploded with new growth from 4" tall clear up to 5" tall. They were still green when I mulched them this fall - am hoping for the best next year! So far - regular peonies love it here buy am unsure if I will succeed with japanese peonies. Are chinese peonies similar to japanese peonies?

Wanda - that's a good idea. I think I'll give them another year to 'redeem' themselves and cut them back soon after blooming. I think I'll dig one up too and see what the roots look like. I don't like where they are anyway, right in the front of the garden, blocks the view a lot. thanks!

I wouldn't dig them up--peonies hate to be disturbed & it could back your blooms off for several years.

As to the Japanese peonies--alot of sun & expect them to die back in the fall-it's natural. They are slow growing like regular peonies & don't like to be disturbed.