A Complete Guide to Peony Cultivation Techniques: Growing the King of Flowers Like This

Peony, also known as Luoyang flower, wealth flower, and bailiangjin, is a perennial deciduous shrub of the genus Paeonia in the family Paeoniaceae. The peony flower is China's national flower and one of the flowers that best embodies traditional Chinese culture; "national beauty and heavenly fragrance" is used to describe the peony flower. Below is an introduction to the “King of Flowers” peony cultivation techniques.

I. Growth Habits of Peony

Peony prefers a warm and dry growing environment and is suited to living in a spot with ample sunlight, while also tolerating partial shade. Peony has strong adaptability: it can tolerate cold, tolerate drought, and also tolerate weakly alkaline soil conditions. However, peony fears heat and fears direct blazing sun, and is suited to a cool, ventilated growing environment with partial shade cover.

The most suitable conditions for planting peony are loose soil, fertile soil, and well-drained neutral sandy loam; planting in acidic or heavy clay soil easily leads to poor growth. Peony's roots are fleshy roots, so the planting soil must have good drainage and must not hold standing water, otherwise the root system easily becomes damp, soft, and rots.

Peony cannot be exposed to blazing sun. Once the temperature reaches above 25 degrees, the peony plant will enter a dormant state. Cultivating peony in the south places stricter requirements on the artificial growing environment, because the south's hot and humid weather is extremely unfavorable to peony growth. Before flowering, peony must undergo 2 to 3 months of low-temperature treatment, at a temperature of around 1-10 degrees. The suitable temperature for peony flowering is between 17-20 degrees, and it can withstand low temperatures down to -30 degrees. But if planted in cold northern regions, appropriate cold-protection measures are also needed in winter.

II. Peony Cultivation Techniques

1. Planting

The soil for planting peony should preferably be loose, fertile, and well-drained neutral sandy loam. Before planting, cut off the broken roots and diseased roots of the peony seedling to be planted, and soak them in a 0.5% potassium permanganate solution for disinfection. Then plant into a previously prepared pot or pit; the pit should be dug deep in a straight cylinder shape, not a bowl shape. When planting, the peony seedling's root system should be spread out, then firm the soil and cover it.

2. Watering

After the peony seedling is planted, water it thoroughly once. Peony dislikes standing water, so water as appropriate; especially for pot cultivation, be careful not to let water accumulate, and it is best to use the watering method of letting it dry before watering again. In arid northern regions, generally about three waterings are enough: pre-flowering water, post-flowering water, and freeze-up water.

3. Fertilizing

When the peony seedling is first planted, apply a basal fertilizer once. One year after planting, apply additional fertilizer: in autumn use decomposed organic fertilizer, and in spring and summer generally use chemical fertilizer, applying pre-flowering fertilizer and post-flowering fertilizer together with watering.

4. Pruning

In the year the peony seedling is planted, after the plant sprouts in spring, just keep about 5 branches; the remaining branches should be cut off. The purpose of doing this is to concentrate nutrients for the plant's main trunk, so that the flowers blooming the next year will be larger and more vivid. In autumn and winter, you can cut off dried flower stalks, thin weak branches, and non-flowering branches.

5. Cultivating

During the peony growing season, cultivate and weed promptly, clear away weeds in time, and also pay attention to preventing and controlling the intrusion of pests and diseases. In autumn and winter, implement plowing on plots where peonies have been grown for more than two years, which is more conducive to the growth of the peony plants.

The above is Tuliu.com's introduction to peony cultivation techniques. To grow peonies well, you must first understand their growth habits. Friends who grow potted peonies at home and flower farmers who grow peonies can use this article as a reference.