2012 Peony Experiments - Cutting Back Dead Flowers

I usually don't get around to cutting back dead flowers on my peonies. The past couple of years I have just left them to fend for themselves until the entire stem dies back. That way I would leave the flower head intact so that seeds could develop. However I have noticed quite a bit of fungal disease, and I wondered if it had any correlation to leaving the spent bloom on the plant. The flower type really seems to make a difference in this. The single and semi-double type flowers that shed their petals easily do not seem to have as much fungal disease as the more full double flowers that seem to hang onto their petals. Also I have noticed that dead petals that have fallen onto foliage below actual contribute to additional fungal growth that otherwise may not have developed. It seems the dying petals create just the right environment (more moist and warm) that the fungus needs to develop.

Dried Peony Petals on Foliage


Fungus on Peony Foliage
Over time I have been able to better recognize which seeds pods actually have developing seeds in them. So this year, I have started cleaning up my full double flowered peonies to remove the spent blooms. I also have 2 peony bushes of a white double peony that are the same variety. I decided to cut back the spent blooms on one of them, but not the other. I will check the amount of fungal disease later in the season. I also plan to cut down the dead foliage on the same one I cut back the flowers on and leave the dead foliage intact on the one I didn't cut back the flowers on. So we shall see how much difference it makes in the amount of fungus on the plants this fall and next spring.

Peony Spent Blooms Not Cut Back


Peony Spent Blooms Cut Back

2012 Peony Season is Coming!

I can hardly believe it. It's just the end of February, and the foliage on a couple of my peonies has already broken though the earth. They look like tiny red tendrils sprouting from the ground. Before I know it they will be blooming. I generally get my first peony bloom near the beginning of April. So that's only a little over a month away! So I guess now is the time to dream about what type of peony crosses I'd like to make. I'm hoping to also get more peony Photos this year. It seems like I was really busy last year during peony season. Combine that with lots of wet weather to make the blooms mushy, and I didn't get as many photographs as I'd hoped. Here's hoping this year will be better!
Peony 'Coral Charm'

2012 Peony New Beginnings

Dead Foliage in Peony Bed

2012, a new year, a new opportunity to see peony blossoms you've never seen before, to watch the growth of your existing plants, and reflect on growing seasons past. We have had such a mild winter so far. I am curious to see how this will affect the number and quality of the peony blooms. The weather was so warm I took the opportunity to do some cleaning up. I was out in my garden today cutting back dead peony foliage. However one of my peonies hadn't completely died back yet. It was the intersectional 'Yellow Crown' peony that so nicely produced a beautiful fall bloom for me last year. The foliage contained beautiful fall colors of red, orange, and gold. I went ahead and cut the remaining foliage off. Perhaps next year I will leave the foliage on as an experiment to see what happens.

Fall Colors of Peony 'Yellow Crown' with Dead Foliage of Peony 'Bartzella' in the Background

Peony 'Yellow Crown'

2011 Peony Fall Foliage Colors

The fall colors on the peonies this year are amazing! We've had a bit of a late fall, and the foliage has lasted a little longer than usual this year. Several varieties have long since gone dormant for the year, but there are so many more that are still going and keeping me entertained with their colors this season. From golden bronzes, to brilliant reds, and bright green to lime green, the peonies seem to have all the beautiful colors of fall. Here's a small sampling of the beauty of peonies in the fall...

Peony 'Sequestered Sunshine'	Peony 'Morning Lilac'
Peony 'Seashell'	Peony 'Queen of the Dawn'

2011 Gold Medal Peony Performance

I've been growing a "Gold Medal" peony garden for a few years now. The peonies that I grow in this garden are American Peony Society Gold Medal Recipients. So this year I decided to do an evaluation of the varieties that I grow. I don't grow all of the Gold Medal varieties (there are over 50 of them, of which I grow 30). So I'll just evaluate some of the varieties I do have. According the APS web site, the criteria for awarding the Gold Medal is, "The criteria for recent years was written to emphasize qualities important to most of the peony growing public, which included availability, dependable performance, the absence of the need for mechanical support, good plant habit and good foliage throughout the growing season and reasonably priced in relation to its variety and originator."
Sturdiest (Not Needing Support) - Peony 'Bartzella'
Best Foliage - Peony 'Old Faithful'
I think in my climate (and of the APS Gold Medal peonies that I grow), Peony 'Bartzella' and Peony 'Old Faithful' take the cake. Both of their blooms are gorgeous, plus they stay great looking well into late summer. Peony 'Bartzella' is an intersectional peony and has lovely giant yellow blooms. Peony 'Old Faithful' is of a much smaller stature, but grows beautifully and has red blooms of a color that is hard to find.

Floppiest (Needs Support) - Peony 'Myra MacRae'
Peony 'Myra MacRae' is one of the floppiest peonies I have ever grown. If you want this one to grow without lying on the ground, you'll definitely need supports. Peony 'Salmon Dream' and Peony 'Many Happy Returns' both have foliage that disappears. However I think the blooms on Peony 'Salmon Dream' make up for its foliage, and early dieback is expected as with most peonies with a coral color. However Peony 'Many Happy Returns' really disappoints. Its flowers are nice, but the foliage is always diseased and dies back way too early for a peony of this color. This is a recently honored APS Gold Medal winner (2007) which really mystifies me, considering one of the qualifications for the APS Gold Medal is "good plant habit and good foliage throughout the growing season", which this flower does not seem to possess, at least in my southern climate...

Worst Foliage (Dieback) Peony 'Salmon Dream'	Worst Foliage (Dieback, Disease) Peony 'Many Happy Returns'

2010 Peony Fall Foliage

Wow! I am really enjoying the beautiful fall foliage colors in some of the peonies. Peonies really are a wonderful plant that can provide several seasons of interest. They start with the wonderful colors of the emerging foliage in early spring, a rainbow of blooms in late spring, beautiful green foliage in summer, and awesome fall colored foliage in autumn! Here are some of the beautiful leaves I captured today...

Peony 'Walter Mains'	Peony 'Kansas'
Peony 'Seashell'	Peony 'Paul M. Wild'

2009 Fall Peony Foliage

Peony 'Coral Fay'

Peony 'Prairie Moon'

Fall is just around the corner. So I decided to take some pictures of the fall foliage today. Some of my peonies have already gone dormant for the season like 'Coral Fay'. Others are still going strong with very few signs of wear, like 'Prairie Moon'. Still others are showing signs that the season is very near to the end with powdery mildew and botrytis blight. After growing peonies for 6 years in this location, this is the first year I've ever had powdery mildew. We did have plenty of rain this year. So maybe that had something to do with it. Botrytis blight, however, is a constant.

Powdery Mildew

Botrytis Blight