Peonies

I just couldn’t resist cutting this gorgeous peony from the garden today.

I love peonies and it just so happens I have a few specimens around the garden. Peonies are actually quite easy to grow, they love full sun, or at least 6 hours of sun a day, and can cope with pretty dry climates, so no need to water. This rather large pink blossom, which has petals that look like tissue paper, is from a tree peony.

The tree peonies flower slightly earlier than the herbaceous bush peonies and produce these beautiful oversized flowers. The tree peony, which is deciduous, is starting to fade now and the flowers are dying back, but I’m looking forward to the bush peonies flowering next.

I’m going to try and split some of my herbaceous bush peonies this autumn (October/November) to make some more. To do this they will need to be lifted and split with a minimum of five eyes on each plant, then replanted and watered in well. The challenge though is that they may not flower for two to three years after being split, so I will need to chose carefully which ones I decide to do this with.