Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Peony tips
The peonies are really poppin’! The garden center I work at recently featured ‘Buckeye Belle’. The flowers are a deep, dark red!
But today’s Bite is really about tips for taking care of these lovely perennials. Northern Gardener magazine continues to feature tips that they’ve shared over their 150 year history. And today I share with you their tips on peonies. Brand Peonies, Minnesota’s first peony breeding operation, opened in Faribault, MN, in 1868, just two years after the founding of the Minnesota State Historical Society. They are no longer in existence but that link will take you to an article on them.
Here is a link to breeders from the Minnesota Peony Society (it also has links to Wisconsin breeders)
The state is still home base for several peony specialty nurseries and breeding operations because our climate is perfect for them. Cold winters and warm summers. They’ve been a true sign of summer for generations.
- The best time to plant peonies is in the fall, beginning in the last of August until freeze-up.
- In the first year after planting, cover the plant with mulch or straw in winter to prevent heaving.
- Peonies don’t like to be disturbed, so you won’t get blooms the first season but by the third it will flower beautifully.
- We’ve already had a nearly 100 degree day, when it’s hot and dry, don’t forget to water your peonies even after they’ve finished blooming.
- Divide them in August. Dig up the old clump with a spade or garden fork. Then, with a sharp knife cut the clump into pieces so that each piece has at least two or three buds.
- Plant so that the buds are 2 inches deep when planting is complete.
