Planting, Growing, and Caring for Peony Flowers
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Peonies are perennials that return yearly to take your breath away with the fattest, most scrumptious flowers and lush green foliage. Learn how to care for peonies, how to keep them blooming, and more tips about growing peonies.
About Peonies
In the 1930s and 1940s, plant catalogs listed only three peony choices: white, crimson, and rose pink. Today, thousands of varieties are available.
Peonies are flowering perennials best planted in autumn for those outrageously beautiful flowers that bloom from spring to summer. They make magnificent cut flowers and also bear lovely foliage that stays green.
They are cold hardy, so any place you need an overcoat makes them happiest—they require a cold period for bud formation—a frustration to some southern gardeners.
Once settled in the garden, peony plants can be content for generations. Some have been known to thrive for a century!
When Is Peony Season? When Do Peonies Bloom?
Peonies bloom from late spring through early summer, depending on your location and the variety of peonies you’re growing.
Many nurseries offer early, midseason, and late-blooming varieties, allowing you to extend the peony season over many weeks and enjoy those lovely blooms for as long as possible!
Peonies are hardy to Zone 3 and grow well as far south as Zones 7 and 8. In most of the U.S., the rules for success are simple: provide full sun and well-draining soil. Peonies even relish cold winters because they need chilling for bud formation.
Types of Peony Flowers
There are six peony flower types: anemone, single, Japanese, semidouble, double, and bomb. Fragrances vary as well—some plants, such as ‘Festiva Maxima’ and ‘Duchesse de Nemours’, have intoxicating rose-like scents, while others are lemony or have no scent at all.
Where to Plant Peonies
Peonies make fine sentinels lining walkways or a lovely low hedge. After its stunning bloom, the peony’s bushy clump of handsome, glossy green leaves lasts all summer and then turns purplish-red or gold in the fall, as stately and dignified as any flowering shrub.
In mixed borders, peonies bloom with columbines, baptisias, and veronicas and combine well with irises and roses. Plant white peonies with yellow irises and a froth of forget-me-nots; set off pink peonies with blue nepeta or violets.
Planting
Peonies are not too fussy, but choose your location wisely as they resent disturbance and do not transplant well.
Peonies like full sun, and though they can manage with half a day, they bloom best in a sunny spot that gets 6 to 8 hours of sunlight each day. In southern states, provide some shade.
Provide shelter from strong winds, as peonies’ large blooms can make them top-heavy. (Use stakes to hold them up, if necessary.) Don’t plant too close to trees or shrubs, as peonies don’t like to compete for food, light, and moisture.
Grow peonies in deep, fertile, humus-rich, moist soil that drains well. Soil pH should be neutral.
When to Plant Peonies
Peony plants require little maintenance as long as they are planted properly and establish themselves. Note, however, that they do not respond well to transplanting, so you should plan your planting site accordingly.
- Plant peonies in the fall: in late September and October in most of the U.S., and even later in the fall in Zones 7 and 8 (Find your planting zone here).
- If you must move a mature plant, fall is the time to do it—specifically, when the plant has gone dormant.
- Peonies should be settled into place about six weeks before the ground freezes.
- Although it’s certainly possible to plant peonies in the spring, spring-planted peonies don’t do as well. Experts agree: they generally lag about a year behind those planted in the fall.
How to Plant Peonies
- Peonies are usually sold as bare-root tubers with 3 to 5 eyes (buds), divisions of a 3- or 4-year-old plant.
- Space peonies 3 to 4 feet apart to allow for good air circulation between the plants. Stagnant, humid air can be a recipe for disease to develop.
- Dig a generous-sized hole, about 2 feet deep and 2 feet across in well-draining soil in a sunny spot. The soil will benefit from the addition of organic material in the planting hole. If the soil is heavy or very sandy, enrich it with extra compost. Incorporate about one cup of bonemeal into the soil. Learn more about soil amendments and preparing soil for planting.
- Set the root so the eyes face upward on top of a mound of soil in the hole, placing the roots just 2 inches below the soil surface. Don’t plant too deep! (In southern states, choose early-blooming varieties, plant them about 1 inch deep, and provide some shade.)
- Then, backfill the hole, taking care that the soil doesn’t settle, and bury the root deeper than 2 inches. Tamp the soil gently.
- When planting a container-grown peony, cover it no deeper than it grew in the pot.
- Water thoroughly at the time of planting.
Peonies bloom between late spring and early summer, but you can plan your garden for a successive display of flowers from mid-May to late June by planting various varieties. Here are some choices:
- Anemone (an advanced Japanese form)—‘Laura Dessert’: cream/pale lemon to white; strong fragrance; early-season
- Single (one row of petals)—‘Sparkling Star’: deep pink; early- to midseason
- Japanese (decorative centers)—‘Carrara’: white, with soft yellow centers; fragrant; midseason
- Semidouble (five or more guard petals and prominent centers)—‘Pink Hawaiian Coral’: pink to coral rose form; slight fragrance; early-season
- Double (large petals, needs support)—‘Candy Stripe’: white, with red streaks; slight fragrance; mid- to late-season
- Bomb (large, like a scoop of petals)—‘Angel Cheeks’: soft pink; slight fragrance; midseason
- Consider, too, the Itoh peony: Named after its developer, Japanese botanist Dr. Toichi Itoh (d. 1956), this flower is a cross between a herbaceous (bush) peony and a tree peony. Its large single, semidouble, and double blooms appear later in the season and last longer than traditional peonies.
Harvesting
Keeping Peony Flowers in a Vase
Peonies make wonderful cut flowers, lasting more than a week in a vase. For best results, cut long stems in the morning when the buds are still fairly tight.
You can wrap freshly cut peony stems in a damp paper towel and put them in a plastic bag in the refrigerator until you’re ready to use them. When removing the peonies from the refrigerator, give the stems a fresh cut and place them in lukewarm water to wake them up.
Pests/Diseases
Peonies are generally very hardy. Plus, peonies are also one of many deer-resistant plants you can grow in your garden.
However, they are susceptible to:
- Verticillium wilt
- Ringspot virus
- Tip blight
- Stem rot
- Botrytis blight
- Leaf blotch
- Japanese beetles
- Nematodes
- Aphids
Why Are There Ants on My Peonies?
Many gardeners wonder why so many ants crawl on the peony buds. Don’t worry! They are just eating the peony’s nectar in exchange for attacking bud-eating pests. They are attracted to the sugary droplets on the outside of flower buds or to the honeydew produced by scale insects and aphids. Never spray the ants; they’re helping you by keeping your peonies safe!
Catherine Boeckmann
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I planted two peonies from roots bought at the Keukenhof in Holland about 3 years ago, in the spring. They are herbaceous, a modern, more resistant replacement of the "Sarah Bernhardt" variety, they said. They only started blooming last year, and this is the first year that we have a glorious bunch of beautiful, big pale-pink flowers. But the stems are bending under the weight and the plants look dismayed, most flowers touching the ground. I attached them together in a bundle, but the whole thing keeps tilting down. I put a cane near one of the flowers and it seems to work, but it is not going to be very aesthetic if I plant 20+ sticks, and I fear damaging the roots... What can I do? Is there any way of reinforcing the stems? Thanks a lot in advance.
PS: I live in Brussels, Belgium. No idea of the bioclimatic zone, but they seem to be very healthy and thriving. I have planted other peonies in other parts of the garden in the past and this is the first time they grow and blossom.
You can purchase a peony support. It is a metal circle you place over the peony plant before it blooms. When the plant grows, it grows up through the support and the flowers are then supported by the circular ring. It has three metal stake legs to push into the ground, and the circular grid floats over the area until the plant grows through it. You can buy various heights, but none higher than 30 inches, I think.
Had them about 10 yrs. 3 megenta 2 pink, this year the pink plants are 1/2 the size of the megents. What's going on?
Do peonies need ants for the blossoms to open? Mine have blossoms but they seem to be stunted, like not opening. Since I live in Michigan and our weather has been rather screwy would that have any bearing on the blossoms opening? We have had a frost since the blossoms have gotten to a certain size and I washed the plants in the a.m. before the sun came up.
Hi Patricia, No, peonies do not need ants for the blossoms to open. See more about this myth: http://www.almanac.com/blog/almanac/musings/blog-peonies-and-ants
What are those pods that have 3pod things that look like buds, they come after flower dies. Are these like plantable seeds? Thx
Hi Kathy,
You are correct: The leathery pods contain peony seeds. Wait until the green pods have dried out and turned a dark brown, occurring at the end of the summer. When the pods have cracked open slightly, the seeds are ready to be planted. Plant each seed 1 to 2 inches deep in the soil, and then cover with mulch and dead leaves. The seeds will germinate underground in the fall, popping out above the soil the following spring.
I am wondering, I transplanted my peonies from my Grandma's almost 15 years ago. Have no problems with them. First of all, my question is, Grandma had several different colors, I only ended up with the Deep dark Pink ones. I was sure I had some of every color. Is it possible that where I planted them, they have gone back to an original color, like tulips do? Also, I keep noticing that you keep telling everyone that they need full sun. Mine have bloomed so much better after the trees grew up and shaded them. The do get the morning East sun. They are surrounded by Ponderosa Trees and Mullberry trees. They are completely covered in pint needles, year around because, smart me, I put rock down years ago and I can manage to rake the needles. I am assuming the needles are supplying some type of nutrient for them.
Flowers can change color when moved to a different location, when under stress from temperature (colors are often more vivid in cooler northern gardens than in hot southern ones); also drought, insects or plant nutrition can result in differing levels of pigments in flowers and, thus, differing colors. It may be your soil pH. Peonies prefer 6.0 to 7.5 pH. You could check the soil and adjust accordingly; see here: http://www.almanac.com/content/ph-preferences (Note that changing the pH may or may not have an immediate effect on the flowers.)
I ordered bare root plants and they came in a dark plastic bag. I live on the central coast in California. I'm afraid it's too late in the spring to plant them, will they be okay if I keep them in the bag in a cool place until fall? Our weather is already 70 to 80 degrees during the day and 40 - 50 at night.
