Maybe you can do an experiment, Liz. Have some peonies applied with azomite in fall and some peonies applied with it in spring and then compare the results. And then have a control group with no azomite at all to see if the group performs the same or worse. Cricket Hill Garden recommends applying azomite in fall along with other stuffs like lime, greensand, and wood ash. I am out of azomite so I can't do much at this time. But in the future, I will only apply azomite to tree peonies.