Problems With Peony's

[Pyewacket]

Are there any Peony experts out there?

I have a peony bush in my garden. I have lived in my house for 9 nine years and it was here when I moved in and very established so is probably in excess of 12 years or more?

It has flowered magnificently every year and I haven't touched it. Last year the buds formed as normal and then never got bigger and instead of flowering just died. I think I had a total of 2 or 3 flowers and the bush is about 2ft by 2ft spread. The leaves were very lush and there was no sign of die back or any insect problems so I just thought it would recover for next year.

This year the same thing has happened. The leaves are very lush and bushy and healthy and there were loads of buds. But again the buds dont form properly and I have had only 1 flower.

My other peony which is the other side of the garden and the same age is absolutely fine.

Have looked in books but no luck.

Any ideas or will I have to consign it to the compost heap and invest in a new one?

Pyewacket

[Flummery]

I have 2 peonies which, like yours, came with the territory! This seems to happen some years. I think it's when the buds get rained on, then dried up, then rained on etc. They seem to form a hard cap of crisp outer petals around the outside of the bud which then doesn't open. It's happened a couple of years out of the 7 we've been here. I think it's just weather conditions.

[Palustris]

If as you say the leaves are healthy looking and the plant is otherwise thriving, then the weather is the most likely culprit. All the (very few actually) Paeony troubles show themselves in various leaf discolourations. Next February you could give it a feed with Tonk's Rose Formula fertiliser. Make sure that any mulch you put down on the soil is kept about a foot away from the plants stems. the buds need a period of cold to ripen them enough to initiate flowering.

[Madasafish]

I warn my peonies if they don't flower they will be dug up. I then cover them with compost at winter and ignore them apart from staking. They are all in deep shade under trees.

They take the message and flower - every year.:-)

[TPeers]

As with the others I suspect the recent rain is the culpret but have you been weeding around them? Sometimes they can be fussy about having their roots disturbed and or being deeper that they like.

I have the rhysomes showing on the surface of my clay soil and have not had any problems so far.

[MrsC]

I had a medium size peony, (prob about 7 yrs old), dug it up and split it at easter (into 4) and transplanted in other part of my garden and it seems to have done it the world of good! no buds tho, so maybe nothing this year, but looks gr8t anyway!

[Percy T]

sorry to hear of your problems thought I would share a pic of my blooms

[heebiejeebie]

That's lovely.

I got about a dozen blooms on mine then it stopped flowering. I think it objected to having the ivy pulled out from around it.