Peonies are somewhat of a national treasure with their bold, layered petals making maximum impact in any border whilst also attracting bees and butterflies to your garden with their glorious fragrance.
The flowers can bloom to the size of a plate – making them the perfect choice for someone to fill a gap in their flower beds in the summer months.
Although peonies are a low maintenance crowd pleaser once they get going, they do require some maintenance and abiding to strict rules that gardeners should never miss including one that seems counter-intuitive.
Peonies may take several years to start blooming in full but they can last for decades if you avoid one key step which many gardeners will assume applies to all plants. The trick is to avoid ever pruning your peonies in the typical way, according to Gardener’s World.
However, some parts of your peony plants still need to be removed but this depends on the kind of peony you have.
There are three types of peony including herbaceous, which grow to around 90 cm high and die back to ground level every winter, tree peonies, which are taller, to around 1.5-2 m high with woody stems, and intersectional hybrids, which are herbaceous in habit but crossed with tree peonies to make them more sturdy.
In autumn, wait for the leaves of your herbaceous and intersectional peonies to die back fully before cutting them to the ground.
Tree peonies do not need pruning at all. But you do need to remove the leftover seed heads whilst making sure to not remove any of the foliage, letting it fall off naturally instead.
The blooms, which also make wonderful bouquets with their sweet fragrance will blossom from April to July depending on the variety.
In terms of care – make sure to water during dry spells for the first year, until the plant is established. Thereafter, peonies benefit from watering during dry spring weather making sure to give special attention to watering when the buds are forming.
Use plant supports to prop up peonies with large, heavy flowers to keep the blooms on full show for as long as possible in your borders.
In winter, herbaceous and intersectional peonies are dormant, and once growth has been cut back there’s no way to see where they are. Marking their site with a label or similar avoids any accidental damage when blasting through your flower beds on a weeding rampage.
You should also take care to avoid stepping on the newly forming buds of the herbaceous types. If you can – feed peonies once a year in spring or autumn with a general slow-release fertiliser and mulch the soil over the roots, keeping the crown clear.
If you are wondering where to place your peony plant in your garden – they prefer a sheltered spot in full sun to partial shade, in rich but well-drained soil.
If you don’t have access to rich well-drained soil – you can fix this by mixing in plenty of well-rotted organic matter before planting your peonies. It is important to note that peonies do not like to be planted in waterlogged soil. Most herbaceous peonies need a neutral or slightly alkaline soil.