‘It lives, it lives’, well most things

[awomanwithahammer]

woman, I was going to suggest you go to park avenue but you arrived already!!

Not that it does me any good!

[Lily left the valley]

Oh, my gosh, I've been mowing my yard since the beginning of April! It needed it before then, but I refused to mow it in March.

I inherited a stand of peonies which used to bloom really well, but last year I got only two blooms. I was afraid they were goners but there's several buds this year. However, they're the last ones on the block to open up. I don't know what to do with them. I don't have a green thumb at all!

I don't much about them, but I found a site that has a list of possibles. If these are inherited, the age could be a factor in a few ways. If they were inherited with the house, I'd start at #4 in the list unless you did #2 (transplant/divide) this year.

I know for some of my tuber flowers, overcrowding was always at issue.

1. Planted in too much shade. Peonies need at least 4-6 hours of direct sun to bloom well.

2. Recently divided or transplanted. Peonies that are moved or divided in late summer rarely bloom well, if at all, the following spring. Sometimes it will take 2 to 3 years for plants to re-establish well enough in their new location to bloom well again.

3. Planted too deeply. When planting, position peony buds 1 to 2 inches below the surface of the soil. Nobody knows how they know if it is 2 inches versus 4 inches, but they do! When a peony is planted too deeply, it may have beautiful foliage, but few (if any) flowers.

4. Fertilized too much. Peonies that receive excessive amounts of nitrogen rarely flower well regardless of site. Nitrogen promotes foliar growth at the expense of flowers.

5. Clumps too large? Some references state that large, old clumps may not bloom well. However, I have seen several large plants in the Midwest that seem to bloom beautifully year after year. I would imagine that a clump would have to be several decades old before it would fail to bloom. If a clump is considered too large or possibly too old, this is easily remedied by dividing the plant in late summer as a means of rejuvenation.

6. Plants are too young. If a clump can be too old - then the possibility exists that it can be too young as well. While most peonies that are sold are not typically grown from seed, there are some avid gardeners that successfully attempt this process. Plants grown from seed take about 4 to 5 years to mature and ultimately bloom.

7. Premature removal of foliage. Removal of the plant foliage in July or August will weaken the plant resulting in fewer flowers.

If buds appear - but fail to open, some other possible causes include:

1. Late freeze. A hard freeze in May (much like the one we had last year) may damage or destroy the flower buds. Fortunately, this doesn't happen often.

2. Other extreme weather conditions. Extremely dry conditions in summer may weaken plants and result in fewer flowers the following season.

3. Fungal diseases. Botrytis blight or other fungal pathogens infrequently attack the flower buds, primarily when conditions are cool and wet. For prevention, the best practices are removing the dead buds in late spring and removing any diseased foliage at the end of the growing season.

4. Insect pests. Also on rare occasions, thrips or other insect pests can damage and distort flower buds and thus reduce flowering. Insecticides are usually ineffective since the damage is often done early in the season.

5. Undernourished. This is another rarity in most Iowa soils. Plants that are growing poorly (weak, spindly, yellowish or "off-color") are not vigorous enough to bloom (but may set buds). Transplanting into a more favorable location and fertilizing lightly after establishment would be beneficial.

That's it. The most common reasons peonies fail to bloom are cultural (planting in too much shade and planting too deeply). Remember that peonies are tough and often survive for many years in "not so ideal" sites. However, if they fail to bloom one year - watch out - everyone notices!

[awomanwithahammer]

Thank you for the info, Lily! I haven't touched any of it, don't fertilize it, and it gets plenty of sun. I've trained Bill not to mow over them even after they finish blooming. The only thing I can figure out is that maybe they were damaged in the drought we had a couple of years ago, but it doesn't seem to have affected any of the neighbors' plants up and down my street. The weird thing is that there are two different plants in the bunch, pink and white. Last year, only the white ones bloomed. This year, only the pink ones!

[mjt]

I've trained Bill not to mow over them even after they finish blooming.

The image of someone trying to mow over a 3 foot tall, 2 foot diameter peony has me chuckling...

Peony cages help to keep the stems from flopping over from the weight of the blooms.

[Lily left the valley]

Thank you for the info, Lily! I haven't touched any of it, don't fertilize it, and it gets plenty of sun. I've trained Bill not to mow over them even after they finish blooming. The only thing I can figure out is that maybe they were damaged in the drought we had a couple of years ago, but it doesn't seem to have affected any of the neighbors' plants up and down my street. The weird thing is that there are two different plants in the bunch, pink and white. Last year, only the white ones bloomed. This year, only the pink ones!

They might need a divide/thinning then.

Our front iris bed last year only had one bloom that I recall, but tons of leaves densely packed. Transplanting a lot of our perennial flowers in in our later May planning. I already got some of that started with some of the orange lilies. The clumps I found with just what looks to be the great granddaughters are dense! I can't image what it's going to be like when I work closer to the elder mother.