How to Grow Peonies? Detailed Guide to Cultivation Methods and Precautions
1. Planting time for peonies: Peonies love sunlight and are cold-hardy; they prefer cool temperatures and fear heat, growing poorly in high summer temperatures. Autumn is the best time to plant peonies.
2. Soil: For peonies planted in the ground, choose a sunny spot on high ground with good drainage, and never plant them in low-lying areas prone to waterlogging. Peonies have fleshy roots, so when planting, choose a loose, fertile, slightly acidic sandy soil. They are not suited to growing in alkaline soil. If the soil is too alkaline, it will cause the leaves to yellow, or even shrivel and die.
3. Cultivation points: For open-ground cultivation, apply barnyard manure, dig deep, and after breaking up the soil finely, form high beds. Generally the bed height is 10-15 cm, the bed width is 70 cm, and the length is unlimited. The planting spacing is 80 cm. When planting, dig holes according to the length and size of the root system, taking care that the roots are spread out and not planted too deep; cover with soil to a depth of 4-5 cm above the top buds. After planting, water thoroughly once and mound soil over the plants for winter.
4. Fertilizer and water management: Apart from natural rainfall, ground-planted peonies do not need frequent watering. Usually, water only a few times when water demand is highest, around flowering, and during spring drought, to supplement the soil moisture; each watering should not be too heavy. Topdressing should be controlled, with three applications per year. The first is when new shoots are rapidly emerging. When the leaves and flower buds are just extending, apply mainly quick-acting fertilizer, known as the flower-promoting fertilizer.
5. Shaping and pruning: To make peony flowers plentiful and colorful and the plants grow vigorously, shaping and pruning are very important. Peony shaping mainly includes establishing the trunk, trimming branches, removing buds, thinning flower buds, and cutting off spent flowers. Peonies can be trained to a trunk after 2-3 years of planting. For varieties with particularly strong and vigorous growth, they can be pruned into a single-trunk peony. For varieties with weak growth and few branches, generally cut out the thin, weak branches and keep the strong ones.
6. Pest and disease control: Common peony pests and diseases include brown spot disease, anthracnose, rust disease, root rot, root-knot nematode disease, longhorn beetles, red spider mites, scarab beetles, mole crickets, and others, among which brown spot disease, anthracnose, and rust disease are fungal diseases. Pest and disease control should focus on early prevention, and once pests or diseases occur. According to the degree of outbreak, follow the above-mentioned dosage, appropriately shorten the spraying interval, and increase the number of applications.
How to Grow Peonies
Peony (Jiangli, Meiguhua)
Aliases: Jiangli, Licao, Lanweichun, Yurong, Lishi, Meiguhua, Heiqianyi, Hongyao, etc.
Family and genus: Ranunculaceae
Morphological characteristics: It has thick, sturdy roots underground, and the plant height is 60-120 cm. The leaves are alternate, bipinnately compound with three leaflets. One to several flowers are borne at the top of the stem or the ends of branches, with long stalks, large and fragrant. There are many horticultural varieties.
Ecological habits: It loves light and is extremely cold-hardy; it dislikes summer heat and humidity, and prefers sandy soil. Over the course of a year, as the climate rhythm changes, the peony plant undergoes phased developmental changes. These are mainly manifested as alternating changes between the growth period and the dormant period. Among these, the vernalization stage of the dormant period and the light stage of the growth period are the most critical. The vernalization stage of the peony requires a low temperature of 0°C and takes about 40 days to complete; after the mixed buds grow and sprout, they emerge from the ground, both sending out branches and leaves and unfolding buds to bloom. The peony is a long-day plant; flower buds need long-day conditions to develop and bloom. After the mixed buds sprout, if the light duration is insufficient, or under short-day conditions, they usually only grow leaves without flowering or flower abnormally.
Flowering period: April-May.
Flower language: Shame, shyness, bashfulness. It is a traditional famous flower of our country, praised by people as the “Flower Fairy” and the “Flower Minister”.
Landscape uses: Flower terraces, flower borders, flower terraces, specialized gardens, cut flowers, potted plants.
Species identification: A similar species in the same genus - tree peony p. suffruticosa.
① Peony: Herbaceous, the plant is relatively shorter, the leaflets are narrow, the tips are not lobed, dark green on both sides, the flowers are mostly clustered at the top of the branches, the flowers are relatively small, and the flowering period is early to mid-May.
How to Grow Peonies
Peony is a perennial herbaceous plant of the Ranunculaceae family and the Paeonia genus. It has a thick, fleshy main root, clustered stems, and both purple-red and green stems and leaf stalks. The leaves are alternate, bipinnately compound with three leaflets, and the leaflets are three-lobed. The flower buds are borne singly at the top of the branches and bloom around the beginning of summer.I. Habits:
Peony is cold-hardy, loves fertilizer and fears waterlogging, likes moist soil but is also drought-tolerant, loves sunlight, and likes cool summer climates. Potted peonies are prone to scorched leaves under the hot summer sun, so attention should be paid to shading. Peony has fleshy roots and a relatively long root system, so it should be planted in fertile, loose, well-drained sandy loam; planting it in clay or low-lying waterlogged areas easily causes root rot.
II. Propagation:
There are two methods of peony propagation: division and sowing.
1. Division propagation method: The best time for division is late September to early October, when the above-ground part of the peony has stopped growing, the rhizome nutrients are most abundant, and after division and planting, the root system still has a period of time to recover and grow, which is beneficial to the growth of the whole plant the following year. First dig out the roots of the mother plant, shake off the attached soil, and let it dry for one day, then separate the roots along the peony's natural separation points, cutting them apart with a sharp knife, with each clump of roots having 4 to 5 buds. It is best to coat the root cuts with sulfur powder to prevent pathogen invasion, then let them dry for 1 to 2 days before planting them separately. For peonies planted in the open ground, the plant spacing is 50 cm and the row spacing is 70 cm; for potted peonies, a pot with a diameter and depth of 40 cm each is more suitable. For peonies grown mainly for flowers, they should be divided once every 5 to 6 years; for peonies grown mainly for medicinal use, they should be divided once every 3 to 5 years.
2. Seed propagation method: In August, when peony seeds mature, the fruit splits open, and they should be sown immediately upon collection. Before sowing, prepare the ground and make beds, water thoroughly, and then sow. After sowing, cover with fine sandy soil to a thickness of 1 to 2 times the diameter of the seeds, and keep the soil moist regularly; if necessary, cover with a layer of corn stalks or rice straw on top to achieve shading, ventilation, and moisture retention. Sowing in autumn allows rooting the same year, but the young shoots can only emerge after the weather warms the following spring. Seedlings grown from seed grow slowly, and well-developed ones need 3 to 4 years before they can bloom. Generally, sowing peonies is mostly done to breed new varieties.
III. Cultivation management:
After peonies are planted, they cannot be frequently transplanted, otherwise the roots will be damaged, affecting growth and flowering. To make peonies grow well, reasonable fertilization is needed every year. The first application is in March when they sprout; the second is in April when flower buds appear; the third is in late May after the flowers fade; the fourth is after the End of Heat in late August, when the plant is forming flower buds for the next year; the fifth is in November, when winter fertilizer is applied in trenches around the plant. After each fertilization, water thoroughly and immediately loosen the soil to reduce water evaporation. During the rainy season, cultivate and weed regularly.
For potted peonies, after Frost's Descent, cut off the withered branches and leaves to prevent pests and diseases. During the winter, there is no need to move them indoors; place them on a balcony or under the eaves in a sunny spot, and just make sure the potting soil does not become too dry.
Before peonies bloom, after the side buds appear, they can be removed in time so that nutrients are concentrated, promoting larger and more beautiful terminal buds. After the flowers fade, if you do not plan to propagate by seed, cut off the flower stalks at any time to avoid seed formation and nutrient consumption.
IV. Pest and disease control:
The pests that harm peonies include white grubs, red spider mites, and aphids. To prevent white grubs from biting the peony roots, in early spring each year you can drench the roots with a 1000-fold diluted solution of 50% phoxim for control. For red spider mites and aphids, dimethoate can be sprayed to kill them. The main disease of peonies is brown spot disease, whose symptoms are brown spots appearing on the peony leaves in summer, and by autumn the leaves gradually wither, and even the whole plant dies. The control method is to spray Bordeaux mixture 1 to 2 times a month from April until after autumn.