Peonies are perennials that return yearly to take your breath away with the fattest, most scrumptious flowers and lush green foliage. Learn how to plant, grow, and care for peoniesyear-round.
Peonies are flowering perennials that are best planted in autumn for those outrageously beautiful flowers that bloom from spring tosummer.
AboutPeonies
In the 1930s and ’40s, plant catalogs listed only three peony choices: white, crimson, and rose pink. Today, thousands of varieties areavailable.
Peonies have outrageously beautiful flowers that make magnificent cut flowers and also bear lovely foliage that stays green. They are cold-hardy, so any place you need an overcoat (they require a cold period for bud formation—a frustration to some southerngardeners).
Once settled in the garden, they can be content for generations. Some have been known to thrive for acentury!
When Is Peony Season? When Do PeoniesBloom?
Peonies bloom from late spring through early summer, depending on your location and the variety of peonies you’regrowing.
Many nurseries offer early, midseason, and late-blooming varieties, allowing you to extend the peony season over many weeks and enjoy those lovely blooms for as long aspossible!
Peonies are hardy to Zone 3 and grow well as far south as Zones 7 and 8. In most of the U.S., the rules for success are simple:provide full sun and well-drained soil. Peonies even relish cold winters because they need chilling for budformation.
Types of PeonyFlowers
There are sixpeony flower types to choose from: anemone, single, Japanese, semi-double, double, and bomb. Fragrances vary as well—some plants, such as ‘Festiva Maxima’ and ‘duch*esse de Nemours’, have intoxicating rose-like scents, while others are lemony or have no scent atall.
Where to PlantPeonies
Peonies make fine sentinels lining walkways or a lovely low hedge. After its stunning bloom, the peony’s bushy clump of handsome glossy green leaves lasts all summer and then turns purplish-red or gold in the fall, as stately and dignified as any floweringshrub.
In mixed borders, peonies bloom with columbines, baptisias, and veronicas and combine well with irises and roses. Plant white peonies with yellow irises and a froth of forget-me-nots; set off pink peonies with blue Nepeta orviolets.
