I moved most of my herbaceous peonies out of a shady situation, the fall before last ('05, I guess), so this is the first year of optimal bloom for them. As a result, most of mine are *way* up from last year and from previous years. They're also much earlier than normal, unless the tree peonies are late this year; they have never bloomed at the same time before, and they overlapped by at least a week.

Then again, I may be at the opposite end of the state, so maybe others closer to you will weigh in.

WG - what's DDN?

Hi diggin,

DdN is Dutchess de Nemoir. It is an ivory peony.

not sure of your area, but last year I had almost no blooms, non stop rain and no sun - the few that did form would rot before they ever bloomed.
So this year I am nothing but happy, tons of blooms and many on plants that I have now had for almost 2 years but have never flowered.

WG, yes I noticed the same thing on most of my peonies, substantial reduction in a number of terminal buds. However I think there was a somewhat increased production of smaller side buds, though not all of them opened at all. Of course, I did not count them, just a visual observation. SB and KR was a complete disappointment this year.
And my new toy from the fall'05 planting, Garden Treasure, produced only 3 flowers, but I still love it

The only two plants that I noticed no difference in amount of blooms this year was two stallwarts: Festiva Maxima and Felix Crousse. Both did excellent.

I am thinking it is from reduced sun exposure. Some of them are planted somewhat close to maturing PG hydrangeas and I think they are hogging the sunshine. Might be time for a good pruning or relocation.

Mine did great this year. They are all fairly young, so I think they are still in the developing stage and I would expect to get more blooms than last year as all my plants (with one exception) are bigger this year.

Mine also did great this year. This is their fourth year so maybe like others are still developing...still they were about 4' and had about 10-20 buds each. My only complaint is the downpour we had a few days after they really started flowering. I was able to re-stake most stems and there were enough buds to keep the whole show going for another week or so.

We had an extremely mild Dec. & Jan. followed by a suddenly cold Feb. Could that have had an effect upon the developing flower buds???

The only other thing I can think to mention is that I've often read it's important with herbaceous peonies not to bury them too deeply. Has there been a sudden change in the depth of the crown (like the addition of too much mulch)?

Wow, Garden Treasure is aptly named.

I'm having fun with species peonies lately; I lost a tree peony several years ago (stepped on it shortly after planting it, and broke it at the graft) and the rootstock grew and bloomed. It has seeded around a bit, and while the blooms are much plainer than those of the hybrids, they're also very sweet and simple. And, I think the offspring are very unpredictable, so I may get some beauties as well as some dogs.

Just a few stray blooms left, all looking rather bedraggled. But it was, all in all, a great peony season here.