Alex, I bought two of her books (reprinted of course) and they are full of the neatest information and the phrasing, as you have seen, is priceless. Even if it were not about peonies it would be well worth the read just for the flavor. I bought two volumes by an English gardener who specialized in rock gardens and he has the same delicious wonderful turn of phrase. Just love it. You can just see and hear them speaking those lines with that wonderful supercilious tone.

That would be an interesting experiment, Alex.

Dear fellow gardeners-in-arms, could you convince me to disbud most of 2015 fall planted peonies? I know it should be done, but the idea of skipping another year is heartbreaking.

Alex, perhaps you can compromise. You do not need to disbud all of them. Leave a few buds to bloom and enjoy those flowers this year.

When you say disbud are you talking about cutting off all the buds so the plant can put energy back into the root?

Yes, Ticker. Karen, I certainly will leave at least one bud, but what is the most I could for a first year with 5-7 stems? They are all doubles and Old Faithful, Red Charm, Etched Salmon flowers are not what you would call tiny... 2-3?

From my personal observation, I don't think 2-3 flowers will set the plants back much. Case in point is my double fernleaf. THis plant was planted in fall 2014. In spring 2015, it produced 5 buds which I allowed all of them to bloom and immediately deadheaded as soon as the petals started to wilt. I did not want the flowers to set seeds. This year, it is about the same size as the plant in 2015 but it has only 4 buds. So the flowers did set the plant back a little but not much. But you can also see that there are alot more young stems that don't end in buds coming out of the base. (Note: I did fertilize when I first planted, again the following spring, and again this spring)

2016



2015

Thanks Karen. I think I'll do some disbudding, but not on original scale. I'll watch for extremely small divisions of early semi-doubles and see how they behave. Last fall weather was some kind of special, so perhaps I have a chance. Fertilizing helped for sure as well.

I could probably cut off a few if any of my newer peonies ever had more than 1 or 2 buds; there's no way I could cut them all off! It's too much of a novelty to get 1st year blooms to begin with! Are you seeing lots of buds on your new peonies, Alex?

Yes, Liz. Old Faithful - 7 stems, 7 buds. 1st Red Charm (divided )- 4 stems, 4 buds.2nd RC ( divided as well ) - 4 -5 stems, at least 3 buds. 1st Etched Salmon (divided) 5-6 stems, at least 4 buds, 2nd one ES - similar. Florence Nicholls (divided) 1st -2 buds and stems , 2nd-3 buds and stems. FN is late than hybrids. I am just afraid that it is too much for 1st year plants. But OF root was enormous. Actually, they were all were ok to begin with, I just divided them all except OF.

That's amazing, Alex! Sounds like you'll have a very good bloom season, congrats!

Couple of my ES



one of Red Charm


one of Smith Family Yellow


one of Yankee Doodle Dandy


Old Faithful

They look really healthy, Alex! Makes me wish I were home to see how mine are doing after the last snow...Is the ground cover in the YDD pic Sweet William? If so, do the peonies resent its presence? I'd LOVE to find ground covers that can co-exist nicely with peonies, mulching is getting too labor intensive....

That's woodruff, Liz. I am experimenting with it and sedum. Geranium will be next.

Definitely interested in hearing how well it plays with your peonies, Alex. It is getting really old replacing mulch every few years....

Living mulches for around peonies---let us start a separate thread for that!

I placed an order with the Peony Shop in the Netherlands and received a note saying they would be sending the plants FedEx to assure they would arrive in good shape. It would be more expensive but I told them to go ahead and ship them. He replied that he would furnish the phyto cert free of charge when it would regularly have been 100EU (at an exchange rate of 1.14 that would be $114US. Pretty darned nice of him. I guess he watches the history channel's programs about Alaska. I told him not to believe all he sees and if I could answer any questions he might have to just drop a line. So I have to recommend The Peony Shop for 1) less expensive plants, 2) prompt service (he is shipping in Sept which is much earlier than US vendors seem to ship to Alaska), 3) personal service. I will let you know what the plants look like when they arrive. Oh, and a wonderful selection. I ordered 13 plants.

That seems to be a good source for good peony roots.
But phyto, shipping and exchange on money,---- make it too high for me, although their
charges for plants are low.
Someday when I can--I will order a large order from them.

Alex, the buds won't hurt your plant. I'd probably let them bloom. However, I wouldn't let them set seed. However, I would cut the blooms off as fast as they start to fade. In my experience, it's the setting of seed that zaps a plant more. Have fun, you have a great selection.

Well, my paltry offering of peonies from the north; note the ruler is sunk 3-4" into the ground so subtract that for the height
Coral Sunset (new this spring)

Athena

Athena

Cora Louise

Roselette

Fernleaf Hybrid

Mackinac Grand

Miss America

Nosegay

Pink Hawaiin Coral

Roselette


Not as many have buds as I would have hoped. Just fat leaves unfurled.