Perfect Peonies

I love peonies but they don’t seem to like my garden much, I’m always envious when I spot them in gardens at this time of year as mine seem to vanish underground never to reappear.

This hardy herbaceous perennial is native to Asia, Southern Europe and Western and North America and prefers heavier soils, but not waterlogged, good drainage essential.

They prefer a sunny or dapple shaded position and shouldn’t be planted too deeply with the roots no more than 3-5cm below the soil surface and therefore mulch is not recommended just a little potash in Feb-Mar.

Avoid cutting too many flowers in their first year leaving until the second or even third.

Cut the plants back in November. You may have heard peonies do not like to be moved but this is in fact not true just make sure it is done in autumn and be very careful to avoid breaking the brittle tuberous roots.

Propagate is easy by division and should be done in autumn. Cut peonies are very thirsty, top up vase every day. I will give it another go as there are some beautiful varieties that I needto give a home to:

Paeonia ‘Bowl of Beauty’ cupped cerise pink flowers with a mass of cream petaloids in the centre 80-90cm tall.

Paeonia cambessedesii AGM – a compact species with purple-pink flowers complimented by grey-green foliage purple tinged on the underside.

Paeonia officinallis ‘Rubra Plena’ AGM – this one may need staking due to it’s large deep crimson red flowers 75cm