Peonies

Nature 3 Minutes

Peonies are the spring-blooming stars of your garden. They have large, showy blooms, heady aromas, and loads of personality. By some estimates, there are as many as 33 different species within the genus Paeonia, known collectively as peonies. Most are herbaceous perennials, though a few are woody shrubs. Peonies are medium-sized, have tuberous roots that are a combination of thick storage roots and thin roots that are designed to absorb water and nutrients.  Careful handling of these roots is critical to planting or transplanting peonies, as well as when you are dividing plants to propagate them.

Slow-growing peonies are categorized in many different ways, such as by flower type or by growth habit. In addition to the familiar garden-variety herbaceous peonies with all their flower variations, there are special types such as fern-leaf peonies (Paeonia tenuifolia), a particularly sensitive and prized species, and tree peonies, which are woody, upright forms. These types have some special planting needs.

Bloom time for peonies varies from late spring to late summer, depending on variety, but all types are best planted in the fall, about six weeks before the ground freezes. This gives the plant time to settle in and establish roots before winter. This is especially true when planting bare root peonies or when transplanting, but even when planting potted peonies, fall planting gives better results than spring planting.

Peony Care

Peonies are classic garden plants that can thrive for decades with minimal care when planted in soil that meets their needs. One of the longest-lived of all garden plants, peonies are sometimes handed down from generation to generation in families. It is important to do the initial planting correctly because peonies can be temperamental about being moved once they are established.

Give each peony plant enough space to grow to maturitywithout being crowded. That means a 3- to 4-foot diameter for each plant. Choose a location that is sheltered from strong winds. The large heavy blooms of this plant can cause the stems to flop over during heavy rain and inclement weather. Your peonies will benefit from some type of support staking. Plant them well away from other trees and shrubs, since they don’t like to compete for nutrients and water.

Peonies like a good chill in the winter. In order to set their flower buds, peony roots should be planted relatively close to the soil surface—only about 2-to 3-inches deep. It may feel odd to leave roots so exposed, but peonies actually need this chilling to attain dormancy and set buds.

Light

Peonies need a location that receives at least 6-hours of sun each day and a full day of sun is even better. Without sufficient sunlight, you’ll get fewer blooms and smaller flowers, and the plants will have a greater risk of fungal diseases.

Soil

Peonies are very adaptable, but ideally, they like a well-drained, slightly acidic soil (6.5-7.0 pH). If you are planting in heavy, clay soil, amending with compost or a soil mix labeled for azaleas and rhododendrons will make it easier for your peony plant to settle in. Since peonies can remain in the same spot for upwards of 70 years, taking the time to prepare the soil before planting is time well spent.

Tree peonies like a slightly more alkaline soil than standard herbaceous peonies, and they do not want to compete with other shrubs.

Water

Peonies need moist, well-drained soil to thrive. Ideally, they should receive 1 to 2 inches of water weekly. They can thrive in relatively wet areas but are not drought-resistant. Mulch your peonies to help them retain water and lessen the likelihood of weeds.

Temperature and Humidity

Peonies prefer cooler areas (hardiness zones 3-8) and do best when they experience cold winters.

Fertilizer

Feed lightly. An annual application of compost mixed with a very small amount of fertilizer around the base of the plant is all that is needed. When you do feed with compost and fertilizer, do it just after the plants have finished blooming.

Don’t smother peonies with mulch in winter. In the first winter season, you can mulch loosely with pine needles or shredded bark, but mulch should be promptly removed in spring.

Tree peonies need iron and phosphate and do well with an annual feeding of sulfate and bone meal in spring. Unlike herbaceous peonies, they need regular feeding with a 5-10-5 fertilizer.

Peony Varieties

‘Big Ben’: boasts magenta flowers and a heady aroma

‘Festiva Maxima’: shows white blooms with specks of magenta

‘Pillow Talk‘: offers giant pink flowerheads with touches of yellow

‘Spider Green’: has a yellow center and large white petals

‘Sweet Marjorie’: presents hearty dark-pink blooms

SOURCE: The Spruce

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Published by pat frederick

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128 thoughts on “Peonies”

  1. Morning All!
    guess who forgot to change their bedroom clocks last night? LOL

    we had peonies at the old house along the fence line. they were gorgeous till a rain would hit them or the dog got too close–then it was petals everywhere…lol

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Morning, Pat! I’ve been up for hours, of course! LOL – I changed my clocks mid-day yesterday. I always do it early so I don’t forget. Now what will happen is that I’ll forget to change the clock in my truck until I notice one day and get confused…then it will dawn on me: “OH, YEAH! Change the clock!” ROFL – that’s happened several times but I got it right away this spring.

      I’ve spent the last couple of hours delving into the SSRI anti-depressant issue. I went back and read the MW Doctor’s latest super long article, where the comment was made that he was unaware if Jared Loughner (Giffords’ shooter) was on them. So I went down that road and discovered that he wasn’t since he had never gotten any mental health counseling. I did leave a comment, tho, thanking him for the free articles and offering to undertake some editing duties for him….LOL

      It was 3 am when I got up – I turned on the light on the patio and Wheezer’s head popped up from his chair. I stepped over to get his food dish and turned back to find him already waiting at the door. LOL – a little petting and rubbing and he settled to his breakfast. He’s back in the chair sleeping again, food dish back inside until it gets light later.

      Peonies….too much work for me and they only bloom once early in the spring. My 3 bushes have some kind of fungus and it’s not worth it to me to try to “fix” them. I keep expecting them to die off but they keep coming back, with fewer and fewer blooms every year. I’m not interested in perennials that require that much care and attention and don’t re-bloom, thank you. One of these years, I’ll probably dig them up once and for all.

      Liked by 1 person

    1. it always amazes me with people like this^^^^
      where is this black nation going to get their currency? their entire system?
      oh i bet i know. they want to take over some ALREADY established state or area–with roads and buildings. they don’t want to build anything of their own just want to take over something someone else has already built.
      there is plenty of land OUTSIDE the US they can colonize

      Liked by 2 people

              1. Oh, yeah – we actually made it to 70 yesterday! The last few nights it has stayed in the mid-40’s and predictions call for more of the same for a week or so. But they’re almost always wrong anyway so it’s a guessing game/wait-and-see approach.

                Liked by 2 people

          1. This racism BS is all a scam and always has been! When you track it to it’s roots, you come to the African Chieftains who “sold” them in the first fricking place!!!

            Liked by 2 people

  10. disgusting! they trashed dc…left litter, paint, defaced statues and NOT A SINGLE DAMN ONE WAS ARRESTED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    but J6ers are rotting in prison for PARADING.

    DEVELOPING STORY: Tens of thousands of pro-Hamas Muslims marched in the streets of Washington, D.C. today – desecrating beloved monuments and vandalizing statues. Watch videos of the destruction below. A massive crowd of Muslims, many waving Palestinian flags, stormed the White House gates chanting, “Allahu Akbar.” The White House gates were splattered with red paint. Not a single person was arrested. Every person supporting Hamas and every person who vandalized our great monuments should be shipped out of the country. Send them back to whatever wasteland they call home.

    https://www.toddstarnes.com/crime/dc-statues-monuments-desecrated-by-pro-hamas-muslim-mob/

    Liked by 1 person

  11. some michigan dems condemning tlaib
    FTA
    .@RashidaTlaib, I have supported and defended you countless times, even when you have said the indefensible, because I believed you to be a good person whose heart was in the right place.

    But this is so hurtful to so many. Please retract this cruel and hateful remark. https://t.co/HBCf8jRgYo
    — Dana Nessel (@dananessel) November 4, 2023

    Then, Dana Nessel, the Attorney General of Michigan, and also a Democrat, weighed in.

    When people show you who they are….
    — Kathleen McKinley (@KatMcKinley) November 4, 2023

    The best thing to do is stop defending Tlaib. She is not worthy of your defense.

    You’re a naive fool and should have never defended her. She wants you dead.
    — Max (@MaxNordau) November 5, 2023

    She won’t and I’ve defended her as well many times.
    — David Weissman ✡️ (@davidmweissman) November 4, 2023

    And yet another Democrat, this time an influencer, weighed in.

    Breaking news: She’s not a good person and her heart is not in the right place.
    — Jay Bienvenu (@JayBienvenu) November 4, 2023

    Some people are just terrorist sympathizers are there is no defense for them.
    Advertisement

    Michigan state Democrats finally speaking out against Tlaib’s bigotry, but most Congressional Dems remain silent. https://t.co/ht7SX8v4EC
    — AG (@AGHamilton29) November 4, 2023

    This is different than a lot of Tlaib statements – you’re seeing a jailbreak of Michigan Dems condemning her https://t.co/mC2F5QwaYY
    — Blake Allen (@Blake_Allen13) November 4, 2023

    https://twitchy.com/justmindy/2023/11/04/rashida-tlaib-fellow-michiganders-democrat-lawmakers-are-done-n2389420

    Liked by 1 person

  12. Peonies won’t grow down here in the Tropic of Heat and Humidity. Neither do lilacs and tulips.

    We can grow roses – and a small S GA city just to the north of us – is called the Rose city.
    Our city has lots of rose gardens too and one of my joys is to go from garden to garden taking time to smell the roses – the different colors and varieties have different scents. Fragrant flowers are a true joy and comfort on this fallen earth.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. how lovely!!
      at the old house, i planted miniature rose bushes at the back of our flower garden. I waited for them to bloom–they were yellow! as soon as they budded the deer ate them. I was really upset and hubby bought this spray deer-off and we sprayed them–smelled like ROTTEN EGGS! you couldn’t go near the garden when the wind was blowing.

      Liked by 2 people

        1. it did! you couldn’t go anywhere near the flowers with that stank.
          so we dug up the one little yellow one and planted it on his father’s grave–the cemetery allowed it. his dad always remarked about the yellow roses.

          Liked by 1 person

  13. So last Friday for some reason, hubby’s vpn wasn’t working correctly which he needs to work from home. his IT guy tried a bunch of things and couldn’t get it working and he was trying to figure out of it was our router or hubby’s computer that was the problem.
    we had to find another router to use to try to figure it out. i googled free wifi in our area–LOL–anyway–the results said McDonalds–45 minutes away has free wifi.
    that’s where we went yesterday afternoon.
    we got there and pulled into a parking spot and i opened my kindle–sure enough the wifi came up–but it said it needed a password. so hubby took his laptop and went inside. he wanted to buy a coffee and sit at a table–they had kiosks–no counter people.
    he sat at a table and tried to access the wifi…no luck. the guy at the table next to him said the wifi wasn’t working for him either–he had a phone.
    so when they called his number for his coffee, he asked THAT employee who asked the manager who said no password needed–it just comes up. but it wasn’t coming up for anyone. and that was that. manager shrugged.
    sign on the door said they are hiring—$12 an hour.

    Liked by 1 person

  14. NF: Nope! FISA needs to be eliminated in it’s entirety!!!

    EXCERPT: “House Judiciary Committee Republicans are pressing ahead with sweeping reforms to the government’s FISA surveillance powers that among other things would would prohibit the FBI from searching through Americans’ phone records without a court-approved warrant.

    The effort is on track to be wrapped up by the end of the year when several Patriot Act powers expire. Republicans and Democrats are coming together on this matter in rare bipartisan cooperation, lawmakers told Just the News.

    “We’ve got, I think, strong agreement amongst members of the Intel Committee and members of the Judiciary Committee. And frankly some Democrats as well, that there needs to be stronger penalties if you abuse the system,” Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told the “Just the News, No Noise” television show in an interview aired Friday night…..”

    https://justthenews.com/government/congress/house-gop-crafting-major-fisa-reform-block-snooping-americans-phone-records

    Liked by 1 person

  21. what a weasel and a coward.

    T. Turtle
    November 5, 2023 8:58 am

    Interested. Obama is now “backtracking” on his support for Israel. As we know from Sundance, he has always fully supported Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood.

    “Obama Backtracks on Support for Israel Against Hamas, Thanks Activists: You Pushed Me”

    “Former President Barack Obama backtracked Friday on his early support for Israel against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, telling an audience at the Obama Foundation Democracy Forum in Chicago that they had pushed him to modify his position.
    “I had a conversation with a group of you around this issue, and you were passionate and pushed me around some of the public statements I’d made,” Obama told a group of activists and supporters. He said that all agreed on the desired outcome — ” an end to the killing, peaceful coexistence between two sovereign and free peoples” — but that people disagreed on the way to achieve it.”

    https://www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2023/11/05/obama-backtracks-on-support-for-israel-against-hamas-thanks-activists-you-pushed-me/

    Liked by 1 person

  24. oh yeah…digital id is secure.
    FTA
    An anonymous hacker claims to have breached the digital ID numbers, as well as other sensitive personal data, of around 815 million Indian citizens.

    To put that number in perspective, it is more than 60% of the 1.3 billion Indian people enrolled in the government’s Aadhaar biometric digital identity program, and roughly 10% of the entire global population. Thanks to the breach — the largest single one in the country’s history, according to the Hindustan Times — the personal data of hundreds of millions of Indians are now up for grabs on the dark web, for as little as $80,000.

    To register for an Aadhaar card, Indian residents have to provide basic demographic information, including name, date of birth, age, address and gender, as well as biometric information, including ten fingerprints, two eyeball scans and a facial photograph. Much of that data has apparently been compromised.

    Media reports suggest that the source of the leak was the Covid-19 test data of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), which is linked to each individual’s Aadhaar number.

    The alarm was first raised by Resecurity, a Los Angeles-based cyber security company, which on Oct 15 included the following in a blogpost on its corporate website:

    On October 9th, a threat actor going by the alias ‘pwn0001’ posted a thread on Breach Forums brokering access to 815 million “Indian Citizen Aadhaar & Passport” records. To put this victim group in perspective, India’s entire population is just over 1.486 billion people.

    HUNTER investigators established contact with the threat actor and learned they were willing to sell the entire Aadhaar and Indian passport dataset for $80,000.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/worlds-largest-biometric-digital-id-system-indias-aadhaar-just-suffered-its-biggest-ever

    Liked by 1 person

  25. bears drunk on fermented grains form a spill are getting run over by trains in Montana
    FTA
    Getting “drunk” on fermented grain has killed dozens of grizzly bears along a treacherous stretch of rail line near Glacier National Park, Montana.

    Since 1980, 63 bears have been killed along a stretch of rail line that goes over Marias Pass and the Great Bear Wilderness, according to reports from state and federal wildlife agencies. The worst year on record was 2019, when eight grizzlies were killed by trains, and three have been killed so far this year.

    Many of them likely died during a “drunken attempt” to outrun the trains, a Wyoming bear expert said.

    https://cowboystatedaily.com/2023/11/04/63-grizzlies-some-drunk-on-fermented-grain-killed-by-trains-in-montana/

    Liked by 1 person

  26. NYC offering illegals a one way ticket ANYwhere else…few takers–they like the free stuff
    FTA
    New York City sees providing one-way airline tickets as a cheaper solution than sheltering migrants long-term, as it has cared for roughly 130,000 migrants since 2022, according to Politico. The city is evicting some migrants out of shelters after 30 days, The City reported.

    https://americafirstreport.com/out-of-room-new-york-city-is-literally-paying-for-illegal-aliens-to-leave-but-many-refuse-to-go/

    Liked by 1 person

  27. President Trump to testify tomorrow in NY case.
    FTA
    Former President Donald Trump will be in the spotlight in New York Monday as he takes the witness stand to testify in his own defense.

    Trump is defending himself in a civil trial against charges of making fraudulent statements to take out loans and insurance for his business, the Washington Times reported.

    The state’s Democratic attorney general, Letitia James, is “predicting fireworks” for the session, according to the report.

    “Next week, Donald Trump himself will take the stand,” she said in a video posted to social media.

    She added: “And while I am sure he will try to hide his wrongdoing behind taunts, threats and name-calling, we will not be bullied out of uncovering the truth.”

    Today, we heard testimony from Donald Trump’s sons and co-defendants, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump.

    They pretend that they were not involved in their family’s fraudulent business.

    But the facts tell a very different story. ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/m5X0B8saa0

    — NY AG James (@NewYorkStateAG) November 2, 2023

    https://www.westernjournal.com/get-popcorn-ready-trump-scheduled-take-stand-defense/

    Liked by 1 person

  28. I’m back…in fact, I’ve been back for a couple of hours now. I stopped and picked up a local newspaper and there was a brilliant LTE posted, primarily in defense of President Trump….I just had to write a reply to back her up and provide additional info with links to support some of her statements, as well as additional info. And I’m betting Brook expects a reply from me, too! LOL

    What a wasted trip! No WP blocks at all and the screening they had for the patio isn’t big enough. No cat wormer or litter box deodorizers either. I stopped at Dollar General while I was there – holy cow! What an AWFUL store! There were racks of boxed goods lined up in nearly every aisle, impossible to get thru some of them and you couldn’t even SEE the shelved items, much less reach them!

    I much prefer Family Dollar, where I shop here. Dollar General filed a lawsuit when the City Council didn’t approve their permit request to build a store here and won. So now one is being built on the west end of town. I stopped @ FD to pick up more Butterfinger Bites (hardly any this week!) and told the gal I see there all the time – you don’t have to worry, I promise ’cause they suck! She said a lot of their customers have been telling her that.

    Wheezer was up wandering around, looking for lunch, when I got back….now he’s off doing whatever, wherever…really windy today with a temp of 67 and partly cloudy.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. that’s very promising on the letter! people waking up or just finally opening their mouths?
      we have a FD on one end of town and a DG on the other (not us–the bigger town next to us…lol)
      FD is always crowded. never been to DG

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I got the impression this has been going back and forth for a while – someone clearly said some pretty hateful things to her but IDK if it was in the paper or not. Someone had mailed something to her, tho, so maybe not. I’ve never met her to my knowledge but I looked up some info – she’s 66 years old and a nurses aid somewhere, not sure where. I’m going to go ahead and sign up for a mail newspaper subscription again. I had let it lapse a few years ago when I was really tight on $$$. I can afford it now and I need to get back into the swing of things with LTE’s.

        Liked by 1 person

  42. Wow! I decided to give Catherine (the woman who wrote the LTE) a call – they have a house line. I just now got off the phone – we’ve been talking this whole time!!! I’ve found a compatriot!!!

    Liked by 1 person

      1. We found all kinds of connections – remember my battles with Mr. Wilson? Good friend of her Father’s, as was my old neighbor who died who gave me the wooden lady bug I have up on the front of my house.

        Liked by 1 person

  47. Dying Oakland’s restaurants are losing thousands a week from diners leaving mid-meal because their cars have been robbed, with locals shunning Dem-run city’s downtown, as property prices tank and woke DA faces recall
    Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price is facing a recall as a result
    Two beloved restaurant spots closed their doors after years of service because of the rampant car burglaries and violent crime on their doorsteps

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12713013/Oakland-restaurants-cars-robbed-locals.html

    Liked by 2 people

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