Peonies

Peonies, Paeonia

A fantastic flowering herbaceous perennial, with showy, often fragrant blooms during May to July.  The flowers can be almost rose like in appearance and really stand out in a herbaceous border.

Peonies are also available in a shrubby form, called tree peonies.  These tend to develop a woody structure over time and can look quite exotic, in the right conditions.

Peonies require deep fertile soil, and it is worth, putting lots of good compost into the hole and preparing the ground thoroughly, where you intend to plant it or them.

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The position ideally needs to have, lots of sun, avoiding the early morning sun and very sheltered from wind, as you will need to support them, with canes or grow through hoops, as they run up to flower.

Most of the flowers are good for cutting and putting in the house.

There is a whole range of types of flower, from single through to full double, and some have much more pronounced stamens than others.

The flower colours can be from white, through pinks and into plummy colours.

Try to make sure that you get the correct position first time around, as once established, if the plant has to be moved, you will set its flowering back by several years.

Many of the varieties are between two and 3 foot high when they are in flower and generally stay fairly clump forming.

A lovely variety to start with is Paeonia officianalis Rosea Plena which is a full double, dark pink flower and a lighter version of this will be a variety called Paeonia suffruticosa Sarah Bernhardt.

They offer excellent value for money as it is a long-lived plant that generally reaches its full glory from five years, and reliably from then on for 20 or more.

For me, bearing in mind the foliage contrast too, they look fantastic against frothy flowering herbaceous such as Crambe cordifolia, with its cabbage like leaves and gypsophila with its thin, silvery foliage.

Don't expect new ones to perform particularly well in the first couple of years after planting.

Go on, introduce some different varieties into your garden and see the difference.  Good luck

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