Now is the time to cut back your peonies! Learn when to cut back herbaceous and Itoh peonies, why you should wait until the foliage begins to fade, and why tree peonies should never be cut back to the ground. Proper fall peony care helps plants transition into dormancy, protects your garden from disease, and prepares your peonies for healthy growth next spring.

When summer starts to wind down and the garden begins to slow its pace, it’s easy to think that planting season is coming to an end. But for gardeners, fall is actually one of the best times of year to plant!

Cooler temperatures, warm soil and more consistent moisture create ideal conditions for plants to establish their roots before winter. While we especially love fall for planting peonies, it’s also an excellent time to plant many other perennials, trees and shrubs.

A customer recently wrote to me after her husband sprayed grass around her peonies with an herbicide. He carefully placed cardboard around the plants, but she was concerned that some of the spray may have reached the peony foliage.

The good news is that there’s no need to panic or immediately dig up your peonies. What you should do depends largely on how much herbicide reached the plant and what type of herbicide was used.