Glance out into the garden, down the path to the flower borders. Is your eye stopped by billowy mounds of pink, white, crimson, or rose—the grand show of peonies?
This month this shrubby perennial, prized for its elegant flowers, enduring foliage, and incredibly long life, highlights many gardens.
Years ago, when Paeonia Officinalis Rubra was the variety grown in most gardens, there would be only a flash of bloom around Decoration Day. Today, however, peonies have a longer run—two months if the appropriate varieties are chosen.
What is the Flowering Sequence of Peonies
The earliest of all are the gorgeous, woody-stemmed tree peonies.
Then the herbaceous varieties take over, those which frost-kill to the ground and grow the following spring anew. First of these are the brilliant hybrids, such as the reddish-black CHOCOLATE SOLDIER, the smoky pink AVANT-GARDE, and the luminous orange-scarlet GOLDEN GLow.
Then follow a few of the early-blooming old reliables, such as the deep garnet CHERRY HILL and the massive white FEs’rivA MAXIMA. Next are the tufted, pollen-laden singles in white, pink, or red (such as KRINKLED WHITE, SEASHELL, ANGELUS, and PRESIDENT LINCOLN) and the Japanese peonies, with their exquisitely formed, cup-shaped flowers.
Finally, bringing the sequence to a close are the late varieties such as MYRTLE GENTRY, NICK TAYLOR, and MME. JULES DESSERT and YOSEMITE.
Would you like your garden to be the stage for this two-month show of color? It can be if you do the necessary paperwork now—survey the planting area, draw the plan, select the varieties and place your order.
Buying Guide
Include all types of peonies in your planting, Japanese, tree, and new hybrids, as well as the more common herbaceous varieties (see the list of suggested combinations below). Your order will be shipped in early fall, the best time for planting (though peonies are sometimes planted in early spring, also).
When buying peonies directly from the nursery bins, select only those with three to five potent buds (this is no concern if buying from a quality mail-order nurseryman, for this standard root division is the only kind he sells).
Where To Plant
Since peonies are attractive during the entire growing season (the enduring foliage, tinged with red in spring and deep green thereafter, is just as much an asset as the flowers), they can be planted in any conspicuous spot: along a garden path, in the foreground of a shrub group, bordering a vegetable patch or utility area or towards the back of a border of perennials. To flourish, peonies need full sun and well-drained, rich soil.
How To Plant
A peony, once planted, stays put for years and years, enough reason for good technique and thorough soil preparation. It is wise to prepare the planting hole at least a week before the expected arrival time to give the soil time to settle.
First, remove soil to a depth of 18” inches; make the hole as wide as deep. Work in a heavy layer of compost in the bottom, add some bonemeal, and top this with a layer of soil. Firm the soil and place the root division so that its buds or eyes are 2” inches below ground level.
Planting depth is necessary: too-deep planting is the most common cause of failure. Tree peonies are planted with the graft union 4 inches under. Then fill in with soil to the surrounding level. Mulch lightly with salt hay or leaves the first winter.
Later Care
Remove the mulch in spring, taking care not to damage the tender, unfolding leaves. The plants will take two to four years to become well established and flower typically. Since they are gross feeders, needing phosphorus and potash in particular, fertilize them annually. When the plants grow to flowering size, stake them in early spring.
Do not be alarmed if ants scurry over the swelling buds. They will not harm; they are merely feeding on the sweet sticky substance secreted by the buds.
If, after three or four years, the plants are not flowering normally, check these points:
- too-deep planting;
- flower buds rotting or blackened and not growing beyond marble size (in which case remove and burn all diseased parts, replace the soil around the plant, cut down tops in fall to just below soil level, discontinue manure mulch, sprinkle the soil with corrosive sublimate and spray plants four or five times in spring with Bordeaux mixture);
- buds killed by late spring frosts;
- plants not in full sun.
Topnotch Peonies For All
KANSAS, bright red double; MOONSTONE, blush double; LE CYGNE, white replica; MYRTLE GENTRY, fragrant pink image; SEA SHELL, pink single; KRINKLED WHITE, single; Ismat-Gmui, white Japanese; CHOCOLATE SOLDIER, blackish-red Japanese hybrid.
Peonies For The Connoisseur
In addition to the varieties above: GOLDEN GLOW, single red hybrid; MLOKOSEWITSCHI, single yellow species; PRESIDENT LINCOLN, red single; DORIS COOPER, pink double; ANN COUSINS, white double; GESSEKAI, white Japanese tree.
44659 by Carol Sue Umbreit