Peonies: planting and care in the open field, agricultural cultivation and reproduction

For a long time, beautiful spring peonies adorn flower beds, planting and caring for this lush shrub requires certain skills. The plant prefers sunny areas and does not tolerate waterlogged soil. New varieties of peonies have been developed with a longer flowering period that do not require support. Usually peonies are grown for cutting, but they stand in water for only 4 days. It is better to leave the plant in the flower bed and admire its exquisite appearance.

Description and features

Peonies are hard to miss in a flower bed, because huge, bright, fragrant flowers are the main decoration of the flower garden.This rhizomatous plant grows in one place for several years, blooms in late spring. Its erect stems 45-100 centimeters high, together with foliage, form a tall lush bush.

Leaves - large, alternate, trifoliate or pinnatipartite. Flowers - apical, solitary, large, 10-25 centimeters in diameter. They are simple or terry. The color of the flowers is varied, from milky white to bright purple. The fruit is a multileaf with seeds inside.

Peony is a member of the Peony family. The plant got its name from a Greek myth. The healed Hades thanked his savior, and did not let him die, turning him into an exquisite flower before his death.

How to plant in open ground

Peony is a perennial crop, it can grow in the same place for several decades. Before planting a flower, you need to choose a suitable place for it.

Choosing a seat

A well-lit area is suitable for culture. The plant can be planted on a mound to ensure the outflow of water from the roots during rain.

Good lighting

Pion grows poorly in the shade of tall trees and shrubs. In a heavily shaded area, the plant may not bloom. The flower bed should be illuminated by direct sunlight for at least 6 hours a day.

No stagnant moisture allowed

Peony is a viable crop that tolerates frost or drought. There are many dormant buds on its rhizome, which wake up in the spring after winter, but in the ground flooded with water they all rot, because of which the plant dies.

Wind protection

Peonies can be planted near the house or hedge (at a distance of one meter). In such places, the bush will be protected from sudden gusts of wind.

Soil Requirements

The peony bush doesn't like peat. It is not recommended to use it as an additive, mulch or winter cover. Peat has an acidic reaction, and earth is suitable for neutral acidity for a peony culture. Too acidic soil must be limed. Loams or sandy, well-drained, fertile soil are suitable for peony bushes. Soil composition: garden, leaf or sod land, humus, sand, clay.

You can add a little ash, superphosphate and iron sulfate to the soil.

Timing

Peonies are usually planted in autumn (August-September). At this time, the bushes are dug up and divided. Gardeners who bought planting material in the spring can plant peonies as early as April. The culture has two periods of growth of suction roots - August-September or April-May. Peonies take root only in cool soil (at a temperature of 12 degrees Celsius).

Features of planting in spring

Usually peonies are planted until October. Purchased delenki can be planted in the spring. Landing is carried out at the very beginning of April. If the weather is very frosty, you can plant the delenka in a pot, put it in a cool place for the germination of suction roots, and transfer it to a flower bed in April-May.

Peonies are transplanted using the transshipment method. If you remove the plant from the pot, you will notice that the entire earthen lump is entangled in white suction roots. In order for the rhizome to grow normally, and the peony to develop, you need to transplant the culture into a flower bed. Peonies planted in the spring do not take root well.

It is best to plant delenki before the buds start to grow. However, transplanting from a pot to a flower bed, along with an earthy clod, is not perceived by the plant as painful.

What you need to know when planting in autumn

Peonies are recommended to be planted in August-September, so that they have time to take root before frost.By August 15, this plant ends the formation of renewal buds (on the rhizome). New stems will grow out of them in the spring. In the twentieth, you can dig up a bush intended for reproduction and divide its rhizome. Planting material (delenki) can be bought ready-made. Before planting, the rhizome is placed in a solution of Heteroauxin for a couple of hours (to stimulate root formation).

How to choose planting material

A beautiful, luxuriantly flowering peony bush can be grown only from a young plant. It is better not to buy old bushes, because they can bloom a few more times, and then wither. It is best to purchase an annual or biennial plant grown in a special nursery. You can take a small division with 2-3 kidneys.

The root should be young, light, with large buds. You should not buy overdried delenki with blackened and dried buds.

Bad predecessors

Peonies are best planted in a flower bed after legumes or lupins. It is undesirable to plant flowers in the place where bushes or perennials used to grow. Such crops are very depleting of the soil, and it needs some time to recover.

Plant pattern

Delenki with kidneys are planted in dug holes. Preparatory planting work is carried out in advance. Two weeks before planting, the soil is prepared, it is fertilized with rotted humus, potassium, phosphorus, and diluted with sand. Dig a hole measuring 50x50 centimeters. They pour fertilized earth on the bottom, then a little sand and immerse the division to a depth of 5 centimeters.

The most important thing when planting is to correctly set the distance from the top renewal bud to the soil surface. It should be no more than 5 centimeters. You need to leave 1 meter of free space to the neighboring flower, as the peony shrub grows strongly.

Care and cultivation

Peony bushes will grow for a long time and delight with abundant flowering every spring if they are properly cared for. After planting, they will bloom only after two years. Before flowering, the ground can not be fertilized, but you need to constantly remove weeds from the flower bed and break the soil crust.

Prophylactic spraying with fungicides

In rainy and cool weather, peonies can get sick. Common diseases are gray rot, rust, brown spotting. Fungal spores are destroyed by fungicides (copper oxychloride, colloidal sulfur, Bordeaux liquid, copper sulfate, Fundazol). The first treatment is carried out in early spring, when sprouts sprout. Water the plant itself and the ground near it.

The second and third times spray the already green foliage with the fungicide solution. It is desirable to carry out processing before or after flowering. Between sprayings, an interval of 10-11 days must be observed. The bush takes 1 liter of solution (5 grams of the drug).

Growth promoters

For active development, peonies need growth stimulants. In spring and autumn, after planting, the bushes are watered with a solution of Heteroauxin. This drug stimulates root formation. Zircon, Ferovit and Epin are used to improve the development of stems and leaves.

Feeding

Peony bushes are fed as soon as shoots appear, and before flowering. It is best to fertilize the plant with a solution of mullein. Fertilizer should be applied to circular holes near the bush. If there is no mullein, the peony can be fed with minerals by dissolving them in water. Even after flowering, until August, the bush needs to be fertilized with phosphorus and potassium.

Foliar

For young plants, it is better to apply foliar feeding so that nutrients are absorbed through the leaves. The first is carried out at the time of the appearance of sprouts. Peony is fed with urea (5 grams per 1 liter of water).After 10 days, you can spray the plant again with this nitrogen fertilizer.

Subroot

In the spring, peony bushes are watered with nitrogen-potassium fertilizers. For one bush, you need to dissolve 10 grams of ammonium nitrate and potassium sulfate in 3 liters of water. During the budding period, the third top dressing is performed. For one bush you need to take 15 grams of potassium sulfate and superphosphate.

Irrigation

During a drought, the plant should be additionally watered to the full depth of the roots (a bucket of water every 3-4 days). Peony bushes need watering at the time of budding, during flowering and at the end of summer, when flower buds are laid. Peonies are watered every 2-3 days, 3-7 liters of water are poured under the bush.

Loosening and weeding

After watering, the ground near the bush can be loosened. Emerging weeds must be removed from the flower bed so that they do not take away nutrients.

After flowering

Immediately after flowering, you need to cut off the flower heads to the first green leaf and remove them from the flower bed. Leaves do not need to be touched. They should remain in the flower bed until frost. After flowering for 1.5 months, the laying and development of renewal buds (on the rhizome) takes place. They will grow into flowering stems for the next season.

Transfer

Peony bushes try not to transplant. In one place, they can grow 10 or more years. If there is a need for a transplant, it is carried out in early spring or autumn. During the autumn transplant, the entire ground part is cut off. The soil is moistened, after which the plant is dug up. Together with an earthen clod, the rhizome is transferred to a new place and immersed in a prepared hole.

Diseases and pests

Crop in rainy and cool weather can become infected with a fungal infection. Preventive spraying with fungicides (Fundazol, Bordeaux mixture, copper oxychloride) saves from diseases. Bushes are processed before and after flowering.

Peonies can be attacked by insects. Bronze beetles feed on leaves, gall nematodes infect the roots, and the soddy ant eats flower petals. Protective spraying with insecticides (Fitoverm, Aktellik, Karbofos) saves from pests.

Botrytis

The disease is caused by a fungus that lives in the soil. Gray mold appears on buds, leaves and stems in damp weather. Too acidic soil and excess nitrogen fertilizers can provoke the disease. For prevention, the soil is treated with lime, and the plants are sprayed with copper-containing preparations (copper sulfate, Bordeaux mixture) in early spring.

Grey mold

Affects stems, leaves, buds and rhizome. Brown spots appear on the tips of the leaves, after which they dry out. The base of the stem is covered with a gray bloom, the shoot darkens and breaks.Gray rot can appear on the buds, which turn black and dry out because of it. Preventive spraying with fungicides saves from the fungus.

Powdery mildew

Fungal infection affecting leaves in late summer. A white spider web appears on the upper side of the leaves. Spraying with a solution of copper sulphate or soda ash saves from powdery mildew.

Preparing for wintering

Before winter, all stems must be cut to the surface of the earth. Cut off the aerial part only after the first frost, when the stems fall down. Even after the peonies have faded, the foliage is left in the flower bed, since until the autumn there will be an outflow of nutrients from the leaves to the roots. Pruning too early can damage the plant. After pruning, the surface above the rhizome can be mulched with dry foliage or sawdust.

Reproduction

Peonies are most often propagated by dividing the rhizome. The best time to breed is April or the end of August.

Dividing the bush

Closer to autumn, a bush at the age of 3-4 years should be dug out of the ground. Pre-cut all stems with leaves. The rhizome is removed from the ground. It needs to be dried, and then divided into sections. The root is cut with a knife. Each division should have at least 3-5 buds. The slices are sprinkled with crushed coal.

Delenka is kept in a cool room for a couple of days, and then planted in a permanent place. The rhizome can be pre-treated with a growth stimulator and a fungicide. You can rake up the ground near the bush in the spring, cut off a piece of rhizome with a bud and plant it in a new place.

Seed method

This method is rarely used. Peonies grown from seeds will bloom only after 5 years. Seeds are harvested at the end of August. In early September, they are sown in a garden bed and sprinkled with a 5 cm layer of earth. In the spring or a year later, the seeds germinate.

Cutting

Peonies can be propagated by stem cuttings. In the spring, the tops of shoots 10-12 centimeters long are cut off and placed in a jar with a solution of Heteroauxin. A week later, they are planted in a moist sand-earth mixture and covered with a plastic bottle on top. The plant takes root for 3 weeks, after which it can be transferred to the flower bed.

Layers

Adult bushes aged 5-8 years can be propagated by layering. In summer, the shoots are pressed to the ground, covered with soil. You can make a small scratch on the stem. By autumn, roots sprout, after which the layer is cut off from the mother bush and transplanted to a permanent place.

How to plant a tree peony in the garden

Tree peony seedlings are usually bought in February-March. At this time, planting material comes from European and Chinese gardening companies. It is better to store a purchased peony until April in a cool room, and then bury it in a hole in a flower bed.If the buds woke up and began to grow, you need to plant the rhizome in a pot with a substrate, put it on the window and water it regularly. By the end of May, the planted plant will have suction roots.

The awakened peony is transplanted to a permanent place when the air warms up to 15 degrees Celsius. However, the best time to plant a tree peony is late August, early September.

Why doesn't bloom or blooms badly

Gardeners sometimes face unexpected challenges. Regularly caring for peonies, they wait several years for flowering, which for some reason does not occur. It turns out that there are some nuances that you need to pay attention to.

Recessed Root Planting

A peony will not bloom if the rhizome is deeply buried during planting. The ideal distance from the kidney to the surface of the earth is 5 centimeters. If the root is placed a little deeper, the shoots will grow annually, grow green, but never bloom.

Young plant

Peonies usually bloom 2-3 years after planting. Late-flowering and red varieties may only bloom for 4 years.

The bush is too old

It is not recommended to buy and plant mature bushes. The lifespan of peonies is limited, the old plant stops developing, and can be infected with a fungus or virus.

Diseases

Peonies don't bloom well when sick. Plants, with improper care or in rainy weather, often suffer from gray rot. To prevent disease, peonies are sprayed with copper sulphate or Bordeaux mixture in early spring.

Overcutting

If you cut the flowers along with the leaves to the very base, the bush may not bloom next year. The stems with flowers are cut to a third of the length. The leaves are left on the bush until frost.

Problems with agricultural machinery

If peonies stop blooming in spring, it means they lack nutrients. It is necessary to feed the plants with nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium or complex mineral fertilizers. Peony loves sunlight and moderate watering. If you plant it in the shade of tall plants and do not water it, it will not form buds and will not bloom.

Secrets of growing in the country

Peonies can be grown at their summer cottage. To do this, you need to buy a rhizome with buds and bury it shallowly in a flower bed in August-September. The planted plant will bloom in 2-3 years. Peonies bloom at the end of May. Each flower blooms for 5-10 days, terry varieties bloom longer (up to 15 days). On one bush, there are several dozen buds, which bloom in turn. Peonies can bloom until mid-June.

Removing wilted buds

Wilted flowers and buds are cut immediately without affecting the leaves. If peonies are grown for cutting, then the pea-sized side buds are removed. Then the flowers remaining in the center will be more lush.

How to cut properly

The first two years, the buds are completely cut off. At this time, the formation of the rhizome. In the third year, peonies may bloom. The flower is cut in the morning by a third of the stem (by 40 centimeters), leaving more green leaves on the bush.

Compliance with watering and fertilizing

Peonies love the sun, can't stand waterlogging. They require regular watering (5-10 liters per bush once every 3-4 days) and fertilizers with urea, potassium sulfate and superphosphate. Top dressing should be applied at least 2 times per season.

Plastic and iron circular support

Peonies with large flowers need support. It is made from plastic pipes or iron wire. Rings are installed around the bush, which raise the stems with flowers.

Landscape use

To decorate the backyard and create beautiful compositions, new hybrids with small flowers, strong stems and long, abundant flowering are used.Popular park varieties: Karl Rosenfield, May Love, John Howard Wigel, Dutch Dwarf, Eaglet. Such bushes do not require support and fit perfectly into any composition. Peonies are used for mixborders and creating natural green spaces.

Healing properties

Pion has medicinal properties. Plant roots are used for treatment. They are dug up in autumn and dried. Medicinal characteristics have flower petals that are harvested during flowering.

Decoction and tinctures from the peony root are used for neurasthenia, metabolic disorders, stomach diseases. The petal tincture is used to treat epilepsy, hemorrhoids, and kidney stones.

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