SUPERMARKETGURU FOOD &
HEALTH WEEKLY NEWSFLASH!
Peony Problem
Published on: August 25, 2008by Diana Greenwood Mead
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This week Bonnie-Jean Yeates, who says she's a novice gardener has written to Diana for help with her peonies:
Dear Diana, I have two peony bushes that I found on the property we bought, but I can't seem to get them to flower. One of the bushes had a couple of flowers on it but other than that nothing. What is the secret?
Hi Bonnie-Jean,
This is a question which must perplex quite a few gardeners faced with a new property and plants not encountered before.
In the words of the poet, there's bad news and good news!
We'll get the bad news over first:
Peonies only flower once a year around May, or June, depending where you live. But they are so beautiful that they are worth waiting for, and the shrubby greenery is quite attractive for about six months of the year.
The good news is, provided they have what they need, they are very reliable and almost pest-free.
Peonies love sun and hate bad weather.
They like their rhizomes* quite high in the ground, so the spring sun will wake them into flowering.
*Rhizomes are the knobbly, knotted-rope 'roots' of various plants (Irises, for instance), which should generally be planted horizontally & only just below the surface of the planting area.
If they're well planted you should just be able to see the tops of the knobbly rhizomes at earth level.
They like good plant food – when I plant new ones I always dig in some organic bone meal below them, but you could try feeding them a rose plant food (following the directions on the pack) to give them energy for next spring.
Some gardeners say that you can't move Peonies, and generally you shouldn't need to, but you can and if you do, follow the above guidelines and they should be fine.
Always remember to water newly moved plants for quite a few weeks after moving, while their roots are re-establishing.
Happy Horticulture,
Diana
