Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Tree Peony

The fall before my daughter Martin-Lane was born, 10 years ago, we planted a tree peony. The flower bloomed the day she was born and has continued to bloom every year on her April 16th birthday. This year was an exception. The cool early spring kept nearly everything in my garden dormant longer than usual this. The flower bloomed 10 days late this year on April 26th. Tree peonies have larger and more delicate flowers than most varieties of bush, also known as herbaceous, peonies. The trees grow slowly and prefer not to be moved. Also unlike bush tree peonies next year buds are formed above the ground on the woody stems during the fall so take care not to prune in the fall or you will not have any flowers the following spring. With herbaceous peonies next years buds are also formed in the fall but in the underground rhizome so cutting leaves will not affect the next springs flowers. Tree peonies flowers bloom before the other peonies and are better enjoyed on the tree because blooms fade very quickly once they are cut and placed in a vase.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Sidra,
I have a tree peony and it is full of blooms right now. Someone recently mentioned that they can be trained to grow as standards. Do you know anything about this?
Ann Kaye