I'm a peony neophyte. I planted all my peonies 3 to 4 years ago. They are all common varieties that you can buy at any big box store.

I even moved some of them last Sept to new locations as I overhauled a planting bed. I've never had many blooms on my plants. And last year I only averaged 2 to 3 blooms per bush. I figured my plants were still immature and needed time to get established.

I use alfalfa pellets (bunny food) as a spring organic fertilizer on my organically maintained lawn. And I had some left over this year. So in early April just as the peonies were coming up, I scratched in a handful of alfalfa pellets near each plant.

I had blooms and green growth like I've never seen before. Even the transplants had 4 to 6 blooms. Compared to my neighbors I had perhaps 3 times as many blooms per plant.

So my question is...was it the alfalfa? or, were the plants finally just ready to bloom and the alfalfa did not help matters?