Peony How To

Whether you are new to growing peonies or you've been growing peonies for a while, these How To Guides for Peonies will give you the latest tips, tricks, and hints for growing peonies successfully. Have an idea for another "How To"? Let us know! Contact Us!

You can also check out our "Top Tips" page for information on best practices, cultivars, and growing conditions.

How to Cut Back an Herbaceous Peony

How To Cut Back an Herbaceous Peony
Herbaceous peonies should be cut back each year to create a pleasing aesthetic in your peony gardens, maintain good air circulation, and prevent the spread of disease. Diseased, dying, and dead peony foliage isn't very nice to look, and cutting back your peonies will definitely present...

How to Cut Back an Intersectional Peony

How To Cut Back an Intersectional Peony
There are two ways you can cut back an intersectional peony. You can cut the entire plant back to ground level or you can cut the plant back, leaving short stems with growth buds on them. In colder climates, it is preferred to cut the plant back to ground level. However here in the South, with...

How To Cut Back a Tree Peony

How To Cut Back an Intersectional Peony
After a while that beautiful tree peony goes from gorgeous to gross, and you just want to erase it from your landscape. In order to get it looking decent again (and ready for spring), you need to cut it back. Cutting it back also removes parts of the stem that won't be needed next season...

How to Deadhead an Herbaceous Peony

How To Deadhead an Herbaceous Peony
After your herbaceous peonies have finished blooming, you can deadhead them (remove their spent blooms). There are several purposes of this. Firstly, it keeps the plants looking neat and tidy. The dried brown flower petals and sepals aren't very attractive hanging on the plant. Secondly...

How to Deadhead an Intersectional Peony

How To Deadhead an Intersectional Peony
Deadheading your intersectional peonies is really a personal preference. I actually prefer to leave the seedpods on my intersectional peonies. The seedpods actually provide some additional interest and height on the bush. Since intersectional peonies do not actually form seeds 99%...

How to Divide an Herbaceous Peony

How To Divide an Herbaceous Peony
Since it's that time of year, and I needed to divide a few peonies of my own I wanted to create this illustrated how to divide an herbaceous peony guide. Let talk about reasons why to divide a peony and what would qualify as a peony that needs division or would be okay to divide. The reasons to...

How to Divide an Intersectional Peony

How To Divide an Intersectional Peony
The topic everyone has been dying to find out about... How to Divide an Intersectional Peony. Some have claimed that it's impossible, that the roots are so different than an herbaceous peony, that if you wait too long its too late. The rumors about dividing this plant have swirled...

How to Fertilize a Peony

How To Fertilize a Peony
There are two main times of the year to fertilize peonies, before your peonies bloom in early spring and after they have bloomed in the later summer / early fall. This is a good time to add a slow release organic fertilizer or composted cow manure around the drip line of your peony plants...

How to Plant Peony Seeds

How To Plant Peony Seeds
The first step in planting peony seeds is soaking them. This step is not required depending on how fresh your seeds are and whether you feel like soaking them. I usually soak purchased peony seeds just because I'm not sure exactly how they've been handled, and I really have no way of...

How to Plant a Tree Peony

How To Plant a Tree Peony
Tree Peonies should be planted similar to Herbaceous Peonies, except much more care should be taken to make sure the stem and roots are facing the proper directions. This is important for herbaceous peonies as well, but more so with tree peonies. The first step and perhaps the...

How to Plant an Herbaceous Peony

How To Plant an Herbaceous Peony
Herbaceous Peonies should be planted similar to Intersectional Peonies, taking care to make sure the root is facing the proper direction. This is very important for intersectional peonies as well and even more so with tree peonies. The first step and perhaps the most important step...

How to Plant an Intersectional Peony

How To Plant an Intersectional Peony
Intersectional Peonies should be planted similar to Herbaceous Peonies, except a bit more care should be taken to make sure the root is facing the proper direction. This is important for herbaceous peonies as well, but more so with intersectional, and even more so with tree...

How to Lift a Sunken Herbaceous Peony

How To Lift a Sunken Herbaceous Peony
So if you live in the South, and you grow peonies (or try to grow peonies), you probably know that a common problem is peonies not blooming. Why are they not blooming you ask? Most likely because they are planted too deep or do not get enough sun. If your problem is the former...

How to Take Awesome Photos of Peonies (or Any Other Flower)

How To Take Awesome Photos of Peonies (or Any Other Flower)
So you want to know the secrets of how to take awesome photos of peony flowers? Well, they're not really secrets, but here goes... Here are my top 7 tips for taking awesome peony pics. The stuff on this list isn't really covert, classified information only for professionals, it's more like how...

How to Tell if Your Tree Peony is Happy!

How to Tell if Your Tree Peony is Happy!
Not sure if your tree peony is happy? Does it seem to be growing leaves each year, but no flowers? Does it still just have 1 or 2 stems? If so your tree peony might not be very happy. There's a saying that says tree peonies don't like to be moved, which is probably true for very mature and...

How to Make a Peony Support Ring from a Tomato Cage

How to Tell if Your Tree Peony is Happy!
Day after day, I just couldn't take looking at it this way anymore. This Peony 'White Cap' just kept blooming and blooming. I thought at some point it would just quit blooming and I wouldn't have to watch the blooms keep opening on the ground, but it just kept blooming and blooming. Even...