This is for those of your who are planting peonies this fall. That means new roots sent in the mail or if you are dividing and transplanting some of your own.

I advise to apply a mulch over the top of your peony for its first winter only. In following years this won’t be necessary and in fact, it’s not a good idea to mulch peonies. For big, beautiful blooms, they need exposure to winter’s cold.

From our farm to your garden, here’s the process of how your peony roots go from our field to you!

Step 1: The Dig List

There’s a big spreadsheet I make up letting Bryan and I know how many of each variety we need to dig.

After all orders are shipped out I do an inventory check and reload the website with varieties that are still available. Those that have joined the waitlist for specific peonies will be given an early heads up that the sale has begun. Next everyone on this email list is brought into the loop. And finally the rest of the world is invited.

When spring finally arrives after a long winter, nothing lifts the spirits quite like the vibrant blooms of early bulbs and the lush elegance of peonies. While peonies typically flower in late spring to early summer, spring bulbs such as tulips, daffodils, and crocuses can fill your garden with color much earlier. With thoughtful planning, you can plant these companions together for a seamless succession of blooms—and maximize your garden’s beauty without adding extra maintenance.

There’s a reason we ship out our peony roots in the fall. It’s this time of year when the weather turns cool that peonies put their energy into developing roots that will supply the energy needed for next year’s stems, leaves and flowers.

For the same reasons, it’s a great time to divide the peonies you already have to create more beautiful plants for free! Spread them around your garden of gift them to a friend.

Pictured: Wilford Johnson

It never fails, this is my most asked question this time of year, and for good reason! If you ordered peonies, you want to get them in the ground!

Here are some of the factors that determine when we begin harvesting:

• Rainfall: We want roots to be nicely hydrated with well-developed eyes. A couple good soaking rains before we harvest is critical. Plus it makes digging them up a lot easier!

Whether it’s a potted peony planted in spring or a bare root planted in fall, peonies follow a very familiar pattern in their first few years.

The industry standard for a peony root is that it has three to five “eyes” or buds on it. All the peonies we sell meet or beat this industry standard.

Peonies are known for being extra hardy, long-lived and easy-to-grow. But there are some varieties that have proven themselves beyond the masses to be great choices for beginning gardeners and those just looking for proven varieties that are sure to shine in the spring garden.

Read below for the list!

There are a few varieties of striped, or variegated, peonies in our fields… and they are all super popular when they are in bloom.

As visitors wander the fields, most are drawn to these unique peony flowers that offer a little something extra. Candy Stripe, Independence Day, Circus Circus, and Summer Carnival are those that you’ll see growing here if and when you visit our farm.

Fall is the absolute best time to plant peonies. That’s why you often see them for sale as bare roots in the fall. We, of course, sell them in this way!

There’s one main reason why fall is the best time and it all has to do with the magic of roots.

Most peonies are sold as either potted plants or bare roots. There are two reasons why.

The first is that peonies grown from seed are not true to their parent, meaning they don’t end up being the same flower as the plant they came from.

And two, it takes a little more time and a lot more effort for a peony planted from seed to produce a bloom.

DEADHEADING PEONIES IS GENERALLY A GOOD IDEA

After your peonies are done blooming there are a few reasons to cut those old flower heads off. But there’s also one big reason you might want to leave them on!

It is a good idea to cut back and clean up peony debris in the fall.

Doing so helps to prevent and spread any fungal diseases that may have settled in over the spring and summer. But now is not quite the time. We aren’t quite there yet.

It’s true, life for us slows down quite a bit now that the peony bloom season is over. In fact, I actually took a nap on Sunday afternoon after we closed. Peony season is hard work!

But even though the flowers are done blooming and our farm shop is only open Saturdays there’s still quite a bit to do on the farm.

Here’s a few tasks that continue through the summer and into fall.

The questions about powdery mildew have started to pour in so this email is a timely reminder for what to do about it.

WHAT IS POWDERY MILDEW?

Powdery mildew is a fungal disease that affects many plants, including peonies. It appears as a white or gray powdery coating on the leaves, stems, and flowers of plants. The fungus typically thrives in warm, humid environments and can spread quickly in crowded or poorly ventilated areas.

Understanding Peony Bud Blast and Solutions

Peony bud blast, where flower buds fail to open, often results from a combination of environmental factors and cultural care practices. Here's a detailed exploration of the causes and solutions for this common issue:

Tips for picking peonies

Whether you’re here or at home, here’s our tips for the best peony picking techniques.

• Choose stems that have flowers almost ready to bloom but not quite. We want to pick them in the “marshmallow stage” when the flowers have not yet opened but they are squishy soft like a marshmallow. A bud that’s too hard will struggle to open in a vase. A fully bloomed flower won’t last as long for you after it’s cut. Remove any leaves that sit below the water line.

When visitors stroll through the tables of potted peonies we have for sale there is a common question… What do the bloom week ratings mean?

So you bought a new peony. And even better it grew and formed a bud! It’s so exciting to see the first flowers on your new peony. But if you can possibly stand it, it can be a good idea to snip off that bud before it blooms.

Why would I suggest such a horrible thing?

First, peonies don’t love being moved around. It’s a lot of stress on the plant.

While they are getting settled into their new home, it’s best for them to focus on root development. It takes a lot of energy to produce a flower and that energy is coming from the roots that were already stressed from moving.

Removing the flower bud on a newly planted peony allows the plant to conserve that energy and devote it to forming healthy roots. Healthy roots are a healthy plant.

In the long run, your peony will grow faster and give you more flowers sooner if you give it the first year with no blooms.

But it is a hard thing to do. If there is more than one flower bud on your peony plant you may want to leave just one to open and remove the rest.

Or at the very least, if you do choose to let your peony bloom in its first year, be sure to snip the remains of the bud off after it’s done blooming so the plant doesn’t have to use even more energy making seeds.

Many peony plants don’t even produce a flower bud in the season, or even the first couple seasons. That’s just the plant building up energy reserves in the root system until the plant can support the big and beautiful flowers.