(Please, no lectures on use of herbicides - I've been beaten down enough for this.)

I had my lawn sprayed with pre-emergent weed killer and fertilizer and I think 7 of my peonies were affected by overspray. I've had these peonies for 30 years or more so they're well-established. Do you think they'll recover or is there something I should do for them?

Start to flush all that herbicide with water asap, especially if the weather is right and they can dry faster. Push watering to the limit, but do not spray on stems/leaves. Other than that - nothing, really.

Actually, if they've been sprayed over the top, it make sense to clean the stems with water as well - just once - really good - and on the dry day, should not be extremely sunny or windy.

Nancy, I would also try to find as much as possible on the weedkiller. For example, a while ago, my evil neighbors were spraying weedkillers on my plants. I called the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks and asked about the active substances in weedkillers. When you figure out which active substances have been used, you can do some research to find out how to get rid of the substance. There are probably other organizations that can provide the information.

In the meantime, I agree with Alex, flush as much as you can.

I had someone come up to me in our peony booth at a flower show and ask me how to kill a peony. At first I thought he was joking. He wasn't, he then told me he dug it up and threw it in the trash. It came back. He then said he saturated it with Round Up. It came back.

I told him all he had to do was call me and I would come over and make sure I got the whole thing. Then it would have a nice home again....

So what I am trying to tell you is it may be just fine. The more you flush out the chemical the better though. Most peonies are pretty tough.

So do you have a photo of the rescued peony Tracey?

No I have no photo, because it didn't happen, me rescuing that peony.. that's just what I told him when he went over to our booth and we chatted with him. In other words, there are plenty of people in the world who absolutely adore peonies who would be happy to take that home with them.

We thought it was the strangest thing to do, coming up to a Peony enthusiast table and asking how to kill them.

I remember this story, Tracey. So weird!

Yes, very odd.

Thanks for your responses. The drooping stems are looking better. Real troopers!