- Type: peony
- Flowering Period: June, July
- Height: 50-200cm
- Color: white, pink, red, burgundy, yellow, lilac
- Perennial
- Winters
- Sun loving
- Loving
Peony is a popular ornamental plant with spectacular colorful flowers and large leaves, characterized by high vitality, longevity and frost resistance up to -40 degrees. The lushly flowering peony bushes are a magnificent decoration of the garden with wonderful shapes, colors and delicate aroma. Despite the fact that caring for peonies is quite simple, their reproduction and planting requires some experience and knowledge.
Peonies are most often used to decorate lawns, planting one variety in large massifs - this is how bright monotonous spots turn out against the background of greenery. Peonies successfully complement flowerbeds and flower beds, look spectacular in curtains and in the form of tapeworms. Beautiful medium and tall peonies planted in groups near trees, shrubs and along the edges of the lawn, and undersized varieties successfully enliven the alpine hill.
You can learn about how to make an alpine hill with your own hands from the material: //diz-cafe.com/dekor/alpijskaya-gorka-svoimi-rukami.html
Brightly colored peonies can smooth out the monotony of the fence.
Pale pink peonies expressively look against the background of shrubs
Until the peony bushes close (up to 5 years of age), they can plant phlox, delphinium, poppy, lupine, alissum, brunner. To make the planting of peonies more decorative in spring, they are combined with early blooming bulbous plants: snowdrops and crocuses, daffodils and tulips. An interesting solution is to plant terry red, white and pink peonies against the background of a flowering hedge of wild rose.
A dense planting of peonies accentuates the paths and paths in the garden
White terry peonies look spectacular on a flowerbed paired with daylilies
To keep the flower garden constantly pleasing to the eye, lilies blooming in July can be planted between peony bushes blooming in June. You can border the peonies with a peonies with a pale pink flower blossoming in July and giving pictures to the faded peony bushes. Pink and raspberry peonies blend perfectly with purple irises and blue lavender. Ideally look flowerbeds with peonies of nuance shades, for example: white, pink, raspberry.
Information about planting and caring for irises: //diz-cafe.com/rastenija/posadka-vyrashhivanie-i-uxod-za-irisami.html
A beautiful combination is obtained when planting peonies of nuance tones next to conifers
Pink and white terry peonies will become a real decoration for the rabatka
The most beautiful varieties
In the garden landscape, park and universal varieties of peonies with undersized bushes, strong stems, medium-sized and brightly colored flowers of a beautiful form are usually used.
Most often, in a garden planting, you can find such varieties: Elizabeth Foster, Burma Ruby, Burgundy, Bravura Suprem, Marie Brand, Livingston, Ellis Harding, Mosero Choyce, Nick Sheylor, Karina, Talisman and others.
Combining planting peonies of early and late flowering, you can get bright accents in the garden for several months. Removing the lateral and leaving the apical buds, achieve abundant and longer flowering peonies.
Peonies of gentle and light colors will always be in place on a flower bed or lawn.
The spectacular shape of the petals of some varieties of peonies looks exotic
White peonies - catchy decoration for the lawn
Varieties of peonies in colors:
- Burgundy: Reward, Red Ensigne, Red Dandy, Red Charm, Red Comet, Sable, Sward Dance.
- Reds: Red Red Rose, Sunshine, Sky Queen, Torch Song, Felix Crousse.
- Raspberry: Red Monarch, Red Romance, Rubra Triumhans, Rosedale, Thomas Vaar.
- Pink: Reine Hortense, Ruth Cobbs, Rubens, Rose Noble, Roselette, Sarah Bernhardt, Solange, Stephania, Celebration, Suzette, Fan Tan.
- White: Rosemarie Lins, Painted Dessert, Primevere, Solfatare, Susanne Braun, Festiva Maxima, Frances Willard, Advance.
- Yellow: Prairie Moon, White Sands.
Yellow peony will be an extravagant decoration of any flowerbed
Cream petals with burgundy interspersed - an unusual color scheme for peony
Delicate pink peonies of a sophisticated shape look very noble
Propagation of peonies by dividing the bush
Propagation of peonies by dividing the bush is a simple and affordable method, applicable to all varieties of peonies with the aim of obtaining planting material or rejuvenating old plants. For reproduction usually take 3-5-year-old bushes. The division of a bush of peonies is preferably performed in the period from mid-August to mid-September. If the summer was arid, then it is possible later - in October-November.
Peony propagation by dividing the bush is a simple and affordable method of obtaining planting material
Young peony bushes planted in autumn actively sprout in spring
Bush dividing sequence:
- Since the peony, as a rule, has a very powerful and branched root system, at first they dig a ditch around the bush, and then they carefully dig it from below, after tying the stems.
- Holding the bush by the branches, the peony is removed from the soil on a shovel, moved to a flat area with a drain, and the root system of the flower is pre-washed from a hose or watering can, being careful not to harm it.
- The shoots of the bush are cut to a height of 7-8 cm and finally release the peony's rhizome from the ground with a wooden sharp and flattened peg or washing the roots in a deep container filled with water.
- Before dividing, the bush is carefully inspected, the broken roots are cut, and their sections are sprinkled with charcoal or hexachloran, ground into powder.
- When dividing the bush, it is necessary to try to separate the roots in the lintels using a sharpened stake or knife, and not cut them indiscriminately. Each peony planting unit should have a rhizome length of at least 15 cm, at least 2-3 renewal buds (preferably 3-5 buds) on the root neck and 3-4 leaves on the stem for optimal plant survival.
Old peony bushes with a heavy root system are divided right in the pit, digging and lifting the plant. The bush is divided in half, then each part is again cut in half, and then already removed from the ground.
Lush bushes of peonies serve as an excellent setting for a terrace
Burgundy peonies combine perfectly with plants blooming in blue and purple
From a developed 3-year-old peony bush, you can get about 7 planting units, which are recommended immediately in the fall and planted in a permanent place for partial rooting of the planting. Some gardeners advise a partial division of the bush, digging a peony on one side and separating half, a third or a quarter from it. The root slice is dusted with ash and the pit formed is poured. The separated part is cut into planting units and planted according to the standard scheme.
Nuances of landing technology
Site selection and soil preparation
Peony is an amazingly perennial plant that can grow without transplantation sometimes up to 10 years and give abundant flowering with good care. For planting peonies, it is recommended to choose sunny or slightly shaded areas of the garden, protected from the wind. Often they practice planting a flower surrounded by shrubs for better protection from the wind, in which abundantly flowering branches of the bush can heal. The swampy and shady corners of the plot are not suitable for planting peonies - in the shade the plant is very stretched, blooms poorly or does not throw buds at all.
In lower sections of the garden, peonies are planted in high beds, falling to the bottom of the planting holes with a 20 cm thick drainage made of broken brick, gravel, and coarse sand.
The soil around the peony bushes is mulched with bark
Bushes of pink and raspberry peonies are often planted nearby for expressiveness of flower beds.
For planting peonies, acid-neutral sandy, clay, or loamy soil is suitable. On sandy loamy soils, the peony root system develops actively, flowering begins earlier, but it is less plentiful and decorative than that of flowers planted in loamy soil. On sandy soils, the peony is densely covered with leafy greens, but it blooms sparsely, and the bush itself quickly ages and loses its decorative effect.
You can improve the sandy soil for planting peonies by adding peat and clay, saturating with nutrients. On clay soils, peonies bloom colorful and lush for a long time and are less susceptible to disease.
A combination of red and white peonies will be a successful decoration of the relaxation area in the garden
Before planting peonies on a significant plot of land, it is recommended to pre-sow lupins in order to enrich the soil.
You can learn more about the features of growing lupins from the material: //diz-cafe.com/ozelenenie/lyupin.html
Work sequence
Peonies are best planted in the fall, and the planting period varies depending on the region: in the northern regions - from mid-August, in the middle lane - from early September, in the southern regions - in October. Spring planting of peonies is bad because the plants then develop poorly and bloom, and the process of planting the flower must be done in a short time - until the buds of renewal begin to grow.
Pits for planting peonies measuring about 70x70x70 cm should be dug up ahead of time (a few months before planting), staggering them and maintaining a distance of 60-120 cm depending on the properties of the variety. For mass planting, trenches are prepared.
The bottom of the pits (trenches) is loosened on a bayonet shovel, then filling with a mixture of garden soil, peat, compost, rotted manure, ash, superphosphate (200-400 g) and bone meal (400 g). After filling the pits with soil, they watered, and, as the mixture settles throughout the entire period until the peonies are planted, they add soil.
Immediately before planting, in the center of the poured holes, dig holes with a depth of 20-30 cm, plant roots are dusted with hexachlorane and planting material is planted so that a layer of soil about 5 cm is formed over the renewal buds. Planted peonies are abundantly watered, spud and mulch with compost or peat.
The density and depth of planting peonies depends on the particular variety. Deeply planted peonies may bloom weakly or not bloom at all, and finely planted peonies may freeze. Low-growing varieties of peonies are planted at a distance of 60-80 cm from each other, tall ones - 1-1.2 m. Since peonies grow slowly, flowers can be planted densely, so that later one can dig out bushes and plant them.
Proper peony care
Although peonies are unpretentious in care, nevertheless, it is necessary to take certain measures so that the plant develops well and actively blossoms with large buds.
The list of basic procedures for the care of peonies:
- Watering. Peonies are big lovers of moisture, for this reason watering is the most important component of caring for them. Poor watering of peonies leads to the absence of buds or the formation of small flowers and weak flowering.
- Loosening. Loosening of the soil around the bushes, weeding of weeds and irrigation are factors contributing to the constant flow of air to the root system of peonies.
- Prevention of lodging. In rainy times, flower-bearing stems of peonies with lush color can lie down - to prevent such a moment, supports are used in the form of a group of three rods stuck in the ground and a wire garter.
- Preventive pruning. Faded flowers during flowering are pruned to seed formation. At the end of October, shoots are cut off near the ground (to a height of 15-20 cm).
- Preparing for the winter. Before wintering, peonies are spudded and mulched with compost, peat or rotted manure.
In the first year after planting, peonies can not be fertilized, but regularly loosened and watered. It is better to pinch the buds of young peonies, not allowing the plants to bloom - such a practice will become the key to the formation of a strong and abundantly flowering bush in subsequent years.
To prevent lodging, lushly flowering peony bushes are tied
In the second year, peony care consists in moderate fertilizer, while the side flowers are torn off, and the central one is left. Although peonies cease to bloom in early July, they should continue to be taken care of: loosen the soil, weed, and water - during this period, the plant forms root buds from which young shoots will grow next season. In the third and subsequent years, peonies actively fertilize and continue to care, as in the first years after planting.
Young shoots appear in peonies in April-May - at this phase of development, the flower needs nitrogen, in the initial stage of budding (June) - in nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, at the end of flowering (early July) - in phosphorus and potassium. When applying fertilizers, the age of the flower and the degree of soil fertility are taken into account. Experienced gardeners recommend starting to feed peonies with small doses of fertilizer only from the third year of vegetation after irrigation or rain (they do not enter fertilizers into dry soil).
The slab along the brick fence will become much more attractive with interspersed with bright peony flowers
Fertilizer (doses for each bush of peonies):
- Spring. The beginning of growth. Nitrogen fertilizers 60-70 g.
- Spring. May. 1 bucket of slurry, mortar with bird droppings or mullein.
- Autumn. September. 50 g of superphosphate and 10-15 kg of humus.
- Autumn. October. Deep digging (20 cm near the bush, on a bayonet - between the rows), 15 kg of fermented manure or compost, 30-40 g of potash and phosphorus fertilizers.
Adhering to our planting recommendations and regularly caring for the peony, you will achieve excellent development of the flower and its lush flowering.
