You are not doing anything wrong. Peonies are lovely and easy to grow; unfortunately they bloom for only a short period of time. How about if, instead of pulling them out, you just interplanted them with some other perennials that bloom at different times?

Yep! About 10 days is about all I can count on (and I was gone for 7 of them this year!). But that is sure 10 days of heaven. Such beautiful flowers with such a lovely scent! I find peony foliage very attractive though they are one of the first plants to die off in the fall.

I have a grouping of 3 peony plants near my front door and I am thinking of moving them so I don't have a big empty spot during the winter in such a visible spot. Last fall I planted 5 more (1 did not make it) around a Crepe Myrtle in my backyard figuring that the flowers and foliage would look good during the warm months and the Crepe Myrtle structure would provide some interest during the winter.

I would agree that a bed with just peonies would be a little boring. Though now that I think about it my father has such a bed...he also has these 40 year old and way ugly yews for is foundation plantings.

- Brent

Have you considered interplanting with oriental and asiatic lilies? That way you would have some summer interest and the lilies don't have a very big footprint so they'd fit in between the peonys.

Mizjoy,

That sounds beautiful except for one problem. I have deer that are so at home in my yard they look into my windows. They don't even scatter when I come outside. Years ago I planted many lilies not knowing as soon as a bud forms that they would be dessert for those sweet deer. Even today I have about 10 lilies left and as soon as they are ready to bloom it looks like someone came along w/scissors and lopped off the buds. Thanks for the advice.

suebot

Many people plant groupings of varieties that have different bloom times - early, mid, late - to extend the "season". Mine were even briefer than yours as although they were about a week or so late in blooming this year due to an unseasonably cool May, they finally did bloom during the unseasonably warm first part of June, and that made them go bye bye, quick, fast, and in a hurry. Ah well...

My peonies were here and gone in a couple days with our rain. Rained some every day for a week. The showers just beat the petals off the blooms. Rain lasted long enough to finish off the mid and late bloomers too. I presently have some tufted blooms who haven't shed all the petals yet. Color but not very pretty. Some years are just better than others.
Perhaps you could find some of the less deer desirable plants to fill in around your peony plants. I am not a deer person, have a fenced yard with dogs inside. Deer have unplanted acreage to graze across the road. Non tasty plants could give you color, but not be eaten. There are quite a few plants in that catagory but I am drawing a blank! Perhaps a check of 'deer-resistant plants' on the Perennial group would pull some up for you.
The nice green of peonies will really set off other plants well. A vine pole centered in the peonies, with an annual Morning Glory, Moonflowers or perennial like Jackmani clematis, could be a quite colorful point of interest, with ground cover, moss roses, dianthus, rock cress below peonies.

Can anyone tell me why my peonies are always about two weeks later then most people's. They are beautiful when they bloom but always so late.

Different varieties bloom at different times. Perhaps yours is just a late variety. Or perhaps it is in a cooler microclimate.

Jenny is onto something. By planting peonies that bloom at different times you can have an extended bloom season.

My peonies generally bloom for 7 to 9 weeks depending on the year. The warmer it is the faster they come along.

The earliest bloom that I get is generally my single fernleaf peony which is soon followed by my double fernleaf. The double fernleaf opens about the same time as some of the earlier Chinese tree peonies are showing color. Following the Chinese tree peonies come the Japanese tree peonies. Along with the Japanese tree peonies I begin to see single herbaceous peonies. You will find very few doubles that bloom during this time. Various cultivars of the singles will be opening over a 2-3 week period. While these singles are showing their stuff the late lutea hybrid tree peonies are in all of their glory. As the latest singles are opening I begin to see doubles beginning to open. The succession of double peony bloom may also last 2 to 3 weeks. My last peony to bloom is Vivid Rose. As the blooms of Vivid Rose fall apart I don't feel any remorse, for these plants have bloomed their hearts out for me and I have throughly enjoyed their display.

The Heartland Peony Society has a listing of peony cultivars and the sequence of bloom with the difference between general bloom dates. By planting even a few plants spaced throughout the bloom season you can have a much longer peony bloom display in your yard.

Hi Peonyman, you sound very knowledgeable, can I pick your brain? I have a peony Raspberry Sundae, that has me puzzled. Most of the plant has nice green foilage, but a few stems look terrible. They have slightly clorotic looking leaves. dried up places on the leaves, and some red spots. Is this clorosis, and why only a few stems on the plant?

Flowergirl,
I don't think I can help you with this question. I do not think this to be clorosis. You can add iron to the garden bed just to check but if the soil is iron deficient it should affect the entire plant. Your problem is not unique. I have seen plants that appear the same way and in fact I have seen it in the same bed on diffent cultivars, again only affecting a few stems of each plant. The diffence in the stems is not always just a slight diffence. The next year all of the foliage appeared to be normal. It has me as baffled as it has you. I think it may have to do with the growing season due to the fact that in 2003 I had one plant that experienced this and a friend located some 10 miles away had the same problem on 2 of here plants. A similar temporary condition can be caused by damage from cold. I think this would have to be caused by cold damage that occures after the shoots begin to emerge. While in dormancy a peony plant can take a lot of cold with no damage. Some sources also call this condition clorosis. I think of clorosis as a condition primarily caused by an iron deficiency. A similar problem can also be caused by virus, however a virus is not limited to a portion of the plant. It will move thoughout the vascular system of the plant and all parts will be affected. I think this will happen pretty rapidly. I do have a few tree peonies which have this condition. It doesn't affect flowering but the plant looks bad by mid-summer. I notice this on tree peonies that I have grafted onto herbaceous roots of very old herbaceous cultivars. I usually try to get rid of these plants. Anyone out there want one of these tree peonies?

Peonyman, thanks so much for your answer. this same peony had the same condition last year with seemingly the same stems. I cut the bad ones out and treated the plant with benoyml. Didn't help, as it was back again this year in much the same places on the plant. I treated with iron, sequesterene 6, it now looks some better. I'm supposed to be a master gardener, ha, but the longer I garden, over 65 years now, I find the less I know.I too have a tree peony I would like to dig out, Chromatella( sp)? has a beautiful flower but the blooms hang down into the foilage so far they can't be seen. also I plan to dig Coral Charm, as it fades to a putrid beige in a couple of days.

Suebot:

I just came across your posting while looking for scented peonies and noted that you have a deer problem with your lilies.

We had a similar problem in our yard - since the deer meander through our yard twice a day in making their "rounds". While it is delightful to see mothers and their kids playing and grazing in our back yard; they often took notice of the various flowery "desserts" around and snipped them off one by one.

I was able to locally purchase some "deer bags" for want of a better term and tied them to small bamboo stakes and put the stakes in various parts of the garden. So far, the materials in the small draw bags have save all of my plants this season. I don't know what materials are put into the small bags - a 1 x 2 inches in length w/drawstring, but they work.

Sorry, I can't remember the name, but they are produced locally here in Manistee, MI and a box of them - about 25 to 30, I think - sell for around $15.95.

Cheap deterrant, especially for my lilies which they loved - last year.

Thought this might of some help in your gardening endeavors.

Bill

MY BUSH PEONIES HAVE NOT FLOWERED AS IN PAST YEARS. FROM NO FLOWERS, TO A FEW FLOWERS WHEN IN PAST YEARS EACH HAD AT LEAST 15A= FLOWERS
I DIDNT MULCH THIS LAST YEAR. THEY GOT A WHITE . MOLD AND THOUGH I CUT IT BACK IT WAS PRETTY AGGRESSIVE

I'd get a bull mastif to play with the deer.

Help!!! For probably the last 4 years my peonies bloom and the flowers are huge, but the problem is while they r blooming the stems start turning black and the leaves have black spots all over them and start drying out and curling up. W
What can I do to prevent this??