Author: Elena N. https://floristics.info/ru/index.php?option=com_contact&view=contact&id=19 Category: Garden plants Published: January 19, 2019Last edits: April 23, 2021
- How to care for autumn
- When to replant
- Growing from seeds
- Preparing for winter
- Non-double
What is the favorite flower of Hollywood stars Gwyneth Paltrow and Drew Barrymore? That's right: peony. This flower has been admired for thousands of years, but its popularity does not fade. When Marco Polo first saw the peony, he described it as a flower “the size of a cabbage”: flowers of some varieties can reach 25 cm in diameter. Peonies grow in almost every garden, and we eagerly await the beginning of their flowering, when the air is filled with a magical aroma , and bright caps of flowers will appear on the bushes...
- What varieties of peonies are there?
- When and how to plant a peony in the garden?
- How to care for a peony during the season?
- How to prepare a bush for wintering?
You will get answers to these and other questions in our article.
Planting and caring for peonies
- Planting: late August or early September.
- Flowering: May.
- Lighting: bright sunlight in the first half of the day, then bright diffused light or light partial shade.
- Soil: slightly acidic loam.
- Watering: infrequent, but plentiful: 2-3 buckets of water for each adult bush.
- Feeding: the first feeding is carried out in early spring, and from the second week of May, peonies are treated with a solution of mineral or organic fertilizer every month, leaves at a time.
- Reproduction: root cuttings and seeds (rarely).
- Pests: bronze beetles, turf ants, root-knot nematodes.
- Diseases: gray rot, rust, brown spot, septoria, root rot, viral mosaic.
Read more about growing peonies below.
flower (lat. Paeonia) is a monotypic genus of herbaceous perennials, the only one in the Peony family. There are herbaceous types of peonies, tree peonies, and also types that combine the properties of both tree and herbaceous peonies - about forty species in total. In nature, peony flowers grow in the temperate and subtropical zones of North America and Eurasia. Cultural cultivation of peonies began in China during the Han era, more than two thousand years ago. The peony flower is named after the legendary healer Pean, who saved both gods and people from mortal wounds received in battles. In our gardens, we mainly grow herbaceous peony, highly valued by gardeners for the beautiful fragrant buds that decorate the flowerbed from May for a month and a half. Our story will be about these peonies.
Botanical description
Peonies are herbaceous, semi-shrub (tree peonies) or shrubby plants, reaching a height of 1 m. The rhizome is large, the roots are cone-shaped, powerful. There are several stems, trifoliate or unpaired pinnate leaves of all shades of green, glaucous or dark purple are arranged alternately along the stems. Peony flowers are single, fragrant, reaching 15-20 cm in diameter; they are good both on the bush and as a cut flower. Peony is unpretentious, its agricultural technology is not difficult, so it has always been valued by flower growers: even when the flowers fade, peony bushes with openwork lush foliage remain attractive until autumn.
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Peonies are long-lived; they can grow in one place for decades.
Breeders also showed interest in this garden plant, and to date, over five thousand varieties of peonies have been registered, bred mainly with the participation of species such as peony lactiflora and peony officinalis. Varieties of peonies differ in the color of the flowers, their size, flowering time, outline and height of the bush.
How to choose a division
A herbaceous peony seedling is considered to be a division - a fragment of a rhizome with several buds. Experienced gardeners consider the best choice to be a seedling whose number of stems and root shoots is approximately the same. Renewal buds should be from three to five. A larger number is undesirable - too much effort will be required from dividing them to grow. Until it takes root, it can lead to illness and death. One or two kidneys are also not good. They both may not be viable.
The rhizome is carefully examined: there should be no growths similar to nodes. Nematodes—small parasitic worms—nest in them. It is extremely difficult to cure a culture affected by them. All kinds of formations on the root shoots are most likely cancer. Such a seedling is unlikely to take root and develop normally. The roots must be clean, without signs of rot or softening. A dark purple or whitish coating can be considered a sign of a fungal disease. You must understand that only a completely healthy division will quickly take root and actively develop.
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Planting peonies
How to plant
Growing peonies will not require a lot of time or excessive effort from you. The most important thing is to choose the right area for peonies, because they will grow there for many years. The root system of adult plants reaches a depth of 70-90 cm, so replanting a bush that has reached 4-5 years of age is not an easy task. Peonies prefer to grow in well-lit areas; sunlight for 5-6 hours in the morning is highly desirable. But peonies are afraid of drafts, so it would be nice if they were protected by tall bushes or trees.
Do not plant peonies in low areas: the rhizomes can rot from stagnant water.
In the photo: Growing peonies in a flower bed
As for the choice of soil, loam with an acidity of 6-6.6 pH is best suited for peonies. If the soil is too clayey, you will need to add humus, sand and peat. In sandy - peat, clay and humus. Sand, wood ash and organic matter are added to peat soils.
Autumn planting
Peonies are planted and replanted in late August - early September. A week before planting peonies, they dig holes measuring 60x60x60 cm at a distance of 70-100 m from each other; a drainage layer of 20-25 cm of coarse sand, broken brick or crushed stone must be laid at the bottom of the holes. Then a layer of top dressing consisting of compost, humus, 100 g of lime, 200 g of superphosphate, 100 g of potassium sulfate, 300 g of wood ash is poured in a layer of 20-30 cm. Then the holes are filled to the top with earth mixed with compost. In a week, by the time the peonies are planted, the soil in the hole will have subsided, which will make it possible to place the peony rhizome in the hole, sprinkle it with garden soil and lightly compact the soil.
Keep in mind that peonies do not tolerate deep planting: the result will be a dense green bush without flowers.
If you want to wait for lush flowering from peonies, deepen the rhizome so that the upper bud is no deeper underground than 3-4 cm. In addition, in the first year after planting or transplanting, peonies do not bloom and look lethargic. It happens that peonies will not bloom the next year, but this is not a problem if the bush looks healthy - it’s just that the peony bush has not yet reached maturity.
In the photo: Peony bud
Planting in spring
Actually, peonies are not planted in the spring. But it happens that in the spring you received the planting material you dreamed of... and what to do? In this case, experts suggest planting peonies in a 2-3-liter pot and keeping them in a cool, dark room - a basement or cellar - until planting them in the ground, keeping the soil moist. To do this, you need to place snow or pieces of ice on top of the soil, which, when melted, will moisten the soil in the pot. At the end of April or May, the peony is taken out into the garden and buried in the ground directly with the pot, where it will remain until the autumn transplant into a prepared hole, carried out by transshipment, that is, together with the earthen lump in which the rhizome was located.
Basic mistakes
Sometimes peonies bloom poorly, and sometimes they don’t even bloom at all, although it would seem that the bushes look healthy.
What mistakes did we make when growing peonies?
And they can be as follows:
1. The place for planting was chosen incorrectly - too shady, close to buildings, trees and shrubs, not humid enough or, conversely, too wet (no drainage).
2. The plant is planted too deep or too shallow.
3. The peony was recently planted and the planting material was divided very finely.
4. The peony bush is already old and requires replanting and division.
5.The kidneys were damaged by late spring frosts.
6. Increased soil acidity.
7. Excessive amounts of nitrogen fertilizers.
8.Lack of nutrition and moisture during the period when renewal buds are forming.
9. The leaves were cut off very early in the fall (before they lodged).
As you can see, dear readers, caring for peonies is not so difficult: water them on time, weed, loosen the soil and feed them.
And they, in turn, will give us a lot of pleasure during their flowering period, and not only us, but also all those who pass by our gardens will also admire this fantastic beauty.
See you soon, dear readers!
Caring for peonies
How to care for autumn
In autumn, as already mentioned, it is time to plant and replant peonies. Peonies are not planted every year, and if you have no plans to propagate them this year, caring for peonies in the autumn comes down to trimming withered stems and leaves, which then need to be burned to destroy viruses, bacteria and pests that may , they settled in them. The remaining stems on the bushes should be sprinkled with ash at the rate of 2-3 handfuls per bush. That's all there is to do in the fall. Now we’ll tell you how to care for peonies in the spring.
In the photo: Blooming pink and white peonies
Spring care
Peonies require infrequent but plentiful watering - 2-3 buckets for each adult bush, so that the soil is wet to the depth of the roots. Plants especially need moisture in early spring, during the growth period, as well as during budding and flowering, and in August-September, when new buds are formed in peonies. After watering, it is imperative to loosen the soil around the bushes and remove weeds, if any. Make sure that when watering the water gets under the bush and not on the leaves.
Top dressing
As soon as the snow melts, the ground around the bushes is watered with a solution of potassium permanganate at the rate of 2-3 g per 10 liters of water for two peony bushes. When the shoots begin to grow, you need to fertilize the plants with ammonium nitrate at the rate of 15 g of nitrate per 10 liters of water. Starting from the second week of May, young plants are watered once a month over the leaves from a watering can with a sieve with a solution of complete mineral fertilizer in the recommended concentration. Add washing powder to the solution at the rate of 1 tablespoon per 10 liters of water - this will prevent the solution from simply flowing down the leaves into the ground. Feeding is done in the evening or on a cloudy day.
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During the period of budding and flowering, it is necessary to mineralize the soil with the following solution: 10 g of superphosphate, 7.5 g of ammonium nitrate, 5 g of potassium salt per 10 liters of water. Two weeks after the end of flowering, you need to feed the peonies with a solution of 10 g of superphosphate and 5 g of potassium salt per 10 liters of water. You can alternate mineral fertilizers with organic ones, and instead of a solution, scatter dry fertilizers in the furrow around the bush, followed by moistening and embedding into the soil.
In the photo: Opening peony bud
Caring for peonies in the summer , after the peonies have bloomed, consists of timely watering, fertilizing after flowering, weeding and loosening the area.
Trimming
When to prune peonies? Complete pruning of peony stems is done in late autumn, when frost sets in. But if there is a need to do this earlier, then try to cut the stems not too low, leaving shoots with three to four leaves above the surface of the ground. The fact is that at the end of summer, peonies lay replacement buds, and the success of this process directly depends on the presence of leaves on the bush. Therefore, by the way, when cutting flowers you need to follow this rule: cut the peduncle not very close to the root, leave a part of the stem with several leaves on the bush.
Open ground: simple tips
Peonies, like many plants, have their own distinctive characteristics when planting. Firstly, this, of course, is that the growing point during planting does not need to be left at soil level, but rather should be deepened. If you neglect this rule, the plant may simply find itself without protection in severe weather conditions. However, you should not be overzealous with the planting depth, as you can harm the plant.
Several important conditions when planting :
- The holes should have a depth of about 80 centimeters (if it is a tree-like bush) or about 60 centimeters (if it is a herbaceous shrub).
- The width of the holes is about 60 centimeters.
- Do not leave the bottom open; it is better to cover it with drainage.
- The hole needs to be filled 2/3 with a special substance (substrate + 100 grams of superphosphate + 1 spoon of iron sulfate + 1 liter of bone meal/sifted wood ash).
- The expanded roots of peonies should be covered with soil with a loose structure.
You need to start caring for the plant as soon as it is planted. First you need to compact the mail (about 10 liters of water per bush).
Interesting fact! Before wintering, it is recommended to thickly mulch the ground with a 10 cm layer of peat. This is done for young plants, because adults endure the winter without it.
Transplanting peonies
When to replant
Wild peonies grow in one place for up to fifty years or even more. Hybrid varieties that originate from the officinalis peony can grow without replanting in the same area for no more than ten years; after this period, the bush must be divided and transplanted to another place. In addition, dividing and planting the bush is the easiest and most reliable way to propagate peonies. But for this purpose, 4-5 year old bushes are used, which have already fully bloomed once or twice. The fact is that the root system of peonies grows greatly over the years, so it is easier to cope with a younger rhizome than with an old one, so in order to ensure that the quality of flowering of your peonies does not decrease, it would be better to divide and plant the bushes every three to four years . Peonies are replanted in September.
In the photo: White peony flower
Autumn transplant
How to replant peonies? In autumn, the bush is dug at a distance of 25 cm from the rhizome, then carefully loosened with a pitchfork and removed from the ground. The rhizome is cleared of soil with a peg, then washed with a not very strong stream of water so as not to damage the fragile buds and eyes of the peonies. The above-ground part is cut off almost to the root. The washed rhizome is left in the fresh air so that the water drains and the roots slightly wither and become more elastic. Then the old thick roots are trimmed to a length of 10-15 cm at an angle of 45º.
Carefully examine the root and only then proceed with division.
If the bush is old, then it is most convenient to drive a wedge into its middle with a hammer, which will split the rhizome into several parts. Often in the middle of old rhizomes there are voids and rotten areas that need to be cleaned, disinfected with a strong solution of potassium permanganate, and then the sections are powdered with fungicide. The divisions should consist of part of the root collar with well-developed 3-4 eyes and several roots. You need to try to divide the rhizome into approximately equal parts, so that there are no too large sections that will hurt for a long time after transplantation, or too small ones that may die.
In the photo: Growing peonies in the garden
How to replant
You need to plant the cuttings in the ground using the method that has already been described. The area with transplanted plants must be mulched with a seven-centimeter layer of peat for the winter; the mulch can be removed when reddish peony sprouts break through it in the spring. During the first two years after transplanting, peonies must develop a root system, so be patient and do not let young plants bloom. In the first year, pinch off all the buds that appear, the next year, leave just one bud on the bush and, when it bursts, cut it as short as possible and consider how well the flower matches its variety. If the match is incomplete, then you will have to pinch off the buds for another year, leaving only one, until the flower fully matches its variety. This may happen in the third year, or maybe in the fifth.
Hello, dear readers!
Let's continue the conversation about peonies, about these romantic flowers that so excite our imagination with their unusually bright colors and enchanting aroma.
I always look forward to the blooming of peonies, because when on a warm sunny day you approach a huge flowering bush, inhale this wonderful aroma, touch the fragile and delicate silk petals, you understand how beautiful our life is and all the troubles that happen to us are just nonsense.
In the previous article, we got acquainted with the history of peonies, their healing properties, biological characteristics and variety of varieties.
Today we will talk about how to properly grow peonies, care for them, and the secrets of lush flowering of peonies. Peonies are extremely popular among flower growers not only because of their beauty, but also because they are able to reproduce easily and can also grow in one place for quite a long time.
And if the plant is planted correctly and in the future you devote at least a little time to it, then the peony will delight us with its lush flowering for many, many years.
Peony propagation
Growing from seeds
You are already familiar with the vegetative propagation of peonies by dividing the bush. Peonies also reproduce in other ways, for example, by seed. But it should be remembered that peony seeds do not always retain varietal qualities, therefore, as a rule, only breeders use them. And plants grown from seeds bloom only in the fourth or fifth year. But if you want to try to develop a new variety, then sow freshly collected seeds in August directly into loose soil, and next spring they will germinate.
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Propagation by root cuttings
This is the most reliable way to propagate peonies. A small piece of rhizome with a dormant bud is separated from the bush in July, planted, and by September it has already taken root. True, this method is not suitable for those who are in a hurry: such shoots develop slowly and will be able to bloom for the first time in five years.
Peonies after flowering
Peonies have faded - what to do? Peonies bloom in late May or early June. Remove all faded flowers, after two weeks, apply a third fertilizing with phosphorus and potassium fertilizers and continue to water the plants regularly. In August, watering should become more abundant, since the period of formation of replacement buds begins, and the plant will need moisture.
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Preparing for winter
When the leaves and stems of peonies begin to turn yellow, watering should be gradually reduced, and when frost sets in, the above-ground part of the bush should be cut back almost to soil level. If you replanted old peonies or planted new ones in the fall, you will have to cover this area with a layer of peat mulch of 5-7 cm so that the weak peonies after transplantation feel comfortable in winter. In the spring, when peonies sprout, the mulch layer can be removed.
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In the photo: Peony seeds
Peonies in winter
Peonies spend the winter in the garden. Old bushes are not afraid of frost, and if you have covered young peonies for the winter, you can rest assured that your flowers will not die.
Preparing for winter
For winter, we cut off the entire above-ground part of the plant to ground level. But we do this only after the first hard frost, when the peony stems die.
Up to this point, there is still an outflow of nutrients from the leaves and stems to the storage roots.
Therefore, early pruning will cause great harm to the plant.
Some gardeners explain the early cutting of stems by the fact that the leaves have dried out, but the leaves dry out only on sick plants, and if it is healthy, then the leaves remain fresh and beautiful until frost.
After we have cut off the above-ground part, it is worth paying attention to whether the buds at the base of the shoots are exposed.
If this happens, then you need to hill up the bushes by 7-10 cm.
Usually peonies are not covered for the winter. The exception is newly planted plants; it is recommended to cover them with peat or humus with a layer of 10-15 cm. In early spring, before the emergence of seedlings, we remove this covering layer.
Diseases and pests
Of all the existing diseases, peonies most often suffer from gray rot - botrytis. This disease manifests itself in mid-May with rotting of the stems, although botrytis can affect both buds and leaves - parts of the plant become covered with gray mold. Excess nitrogen, crowded flowerbeds and rainy weather contribute to the appearance of gray rot. Diseased areas should be cut off and burned away from all plants. As a preventive measure, spray with a solution of copper sulfate (50 g per 10 liters of water) or garlic water (10 g crushed garlic per 1 liter of water). You need to spray both the plant and the soil around the bush.
In the photo: Yellow milky peony
Sometimes peonies become infected with powdery mildew, a fungal disease that affects the leaves of peonies and covers them with a white coating. Powdery mildew should be combated by spraying the bush with a soap solution (200 g of laundry soap, 20 g of copper sulfate per 10 liters of water).
Types and varieties of peonies
According to the structure of the flower, peonies are divided into 7 groups:
Non-double
They have one or two rows of petals. The flowers are large, there are numerous stamens in the center of the flower, the leaves are sometimes corrugated (for example, varieties Golden Glow, Nadya);
Semi-double
Very large, light flowers; the stamens are located either in the center of the flower or between the petals. The flower usually has seven rows of petals. Varieties:
- Miss America is a mid-early variety, a pink flower 25 cm in diameter turns white after opening, the stamens are bright yellow;
- Ann Berry Cousins - an early variety of coral-pink color, cup-shaped flower 17 cm in diameter, bush up to 65 cm tall;
In the photo: Non-double peonies
Japanese
The modified stamens in the center of the flower form a pompom; the petals in the flowers can be in one or several rows. Varieties:
- Carrara is a medium-flowering white variety, 16 cm in diameter, bush height – 80 cm;
- Hot Chocolet is a mid-early peony of dark burgundy color, 16 cm in diameter, height up to 80 cm;
Anemoneaceae
A transitional form from Japanese peonies to the group of double peonies. The lower petals are wide, rounded, arranged in two rows, the central petals, shorter, form a ball. Varieties:
- Rhapsody is a mid-early variety, the marginal petals are pink, the central petals forming a ball are yellow-cream, flower diameter is 16 cm, bush height is 70 cm;
- Snow Mountain – early cream-colored peony, 17 cm in diameter, height – 75 cm;
Terry hemispherical, bomb-shaped, spherical
The petals of the flower are collected in a hemisphere and, when fully opened, form a ball. Varieties:
- Pink Cameo - a medium-late variety of creamy pink color, 16 cm in diameter, bush 80 cm in height;
- Monsieur Jules Ely - an early fragrant variety of lilac-pink color, diameter - 20 cm, height - 90 cm;
In the photo: Semi-double peonies
Rosaceae
The petals of a flower, very similar in structure to a rose, are the same in size, round, wide, large. Varieties:
- Solange is a late creamy-white peony 17 cm in diameter, the height of heavy stems that need support reaches 70 cm;
- Henry Boxtox is an early variety of bright red color, 16 cm in diameter, bush 90 cm tall.
In the group of pink peonies there is a subgroup of semi-rose peonies, which are distinguished by the presence of an island of stamens in the middle of the flower. Varieties:
- Gudi – mid-early, bright crimson, 16 cm in diameter, height – 70 cm;
- Ballerina is an early variety of white-cream-green color, a powerful bush, flower diameter is 18 cm.
Crown hemispherical and spherical
Flower petals are arranged in three tiers: the upper tier is a ring of petals, the middle one consists of petals that are narrower than those on the upper and lower tier. As a rule, the top and bottom rows are the same color, the middle row may differ in color. Varieties:
- Nancy is an early variety of pink-peach color, 17 cm in diameter, bush up to 80 cm tall;
- Aritina Nozen Gloria is a very early variety of pink-lilac hue, bush height - 70 cm, flower diameter - 20 cm.
