Return to the Peonies Forum
| Post a Follow-Up
Flopped stems with crimps
| | |
Posted by eigdeh z6 NJ (My Page) on Sat, Jun 2, 07 at 18:00
| Bought Peony's last year and this year I got tons of flowers! Love these plants.
Last night it rained and they all flopped down. I thought I would stake them this morning, but all the stems are crimped. Is my only option to cut them for indoor flowers?
Does everyone here stake their peonies as the buds start to open to avoid this?
Thanks!
Ken |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Flopped stems with crimps
| | |
| Peonies in general are notorious for needing supports, especially when heavy rain soaked flowers makes them flop over. There are special stakes you can buy as well, though any thin small stakes tied to near the tops could work, if you're wishing to save a bit of money. I note that even my tree peonies, though they have strong woody stems , do need some support, as I recently discovered with the biggest flowered ones when rain soaked I was fortunate , though the stems were weighted way down, they didn't break the woody stems farther down or even split away from the main stems , and that's serious damage for tree peonies, with the open wounds most likely not being healthy either. I'd guess those "crimped" stems caused by them actually breaking would make it difficult for the flowers and upper leaves to get sufficient water with the damage, so they may not last long , and as long as there are some good leaves to feed the plant for the rest of the growing season farther down on each shoot below the crimps, you could jsut cut the damaged ones off about that point! |
RE: Flopped stems with crimps
| | |
| Thanks for the response birdinthepalm! It is appreciated and it was helpful. I did end up cutting them and bringing them in. It was nice to have them inside, but it would have been nice to enjoy them a bit on the plant too. I will definately set up some sort of support next year as the buds get big and ripe. |
RE: Flopped stems with crimps
| | |
| Both mine & my mom's old doubles got crimped this year, despite staking. The crimping did not interfere with the blooming, other than making the flowers hang upside down. |
|
|
|
|
