Do This One Vital Task as Soon as Peony Shoots Emerge For Bigger, More Abundant Flowers
As soon as you spot those distinctive red shoots in spring, take 10 minutes to do this easy job and you’ll fuel your peony plant to produce luxuriously big blooms.
Few flowers in the garden match the flamboyance of peony blooms, and if you do this simple task when you spot spring shoots sprouting from the ground, you’ll enjoy more flowers, and bigger flowers to boot! For centuries, peonies have been cultivated for their luxurious blooms, and all sorts of new flower forms have been bred to give 21st-century gardeners fabulous ruffles of petals that we all adore. Some modern peony flowers can grow to a whopping 10 inches across with more than a hundred petals!
Now, I know it’s not good to be greedy, but there’s a very easy way to encourage your peony plant to grow even more, even bigger flowers. Peonies are dormant through the winter, fully retreating below ground while they wait for the warmer weather to return. It’s always an exciting garden moment in spring to spot distinctive red peony shoots emerging from the soil in spring. And this is the time to act, and feed your peony to fuel a bumper year of blooms.
When is the Best Time to Feed Peonies?
Your optimum time window to feed peonies for more blooms opens when the emerging shoots are around 3 inches high to when they’re around a foot high. If the weather is warm, growth happens rapidly, so do keep a careful eye out.
Article continues belowWhat is the Best Feed for Peonies?
Choose a balanced slow-release all-purpose feed that supports all-round growth, not just flower production, such as Burpee Organic All Purpose Food, available direct from Burpee and via Amazon.
Have a look at the three numbers on the fertilizer packaging that show the ratio of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K), always in that order. A fertilizer that has the same number for all those is perfect to give peonies a spring feed. If you've already got plant food that you'd like to use up, then it's fine to use one with a slightly higher phosphorus or potassium level, as they encourage root and flower development. But, whatever you do, don't use a feed with a higher nitrogen level, as that prioritizes leaf and stem growth over flower production.
What is the Best Way to Fertilize Peonies?
Slow-release feeds are typically granular, so wear gloves such as these from Amazon to spread it as some fertilizer ingredients can irritate skin. Following the dosage on the packaging, sprinkle the granules in a circle around your peony. Aim for the dripline of your plant – that’s the perimeter diameter of your peony at ground level, or where its shadow would fall if the sun was directly overhead when the shrub is in full growth. This is where most of the feeder roots will be. Don’t worry if you can’t quite remember how big your peony grew to last year, it doesn’t have to be exact.
Now use a small hand rake with rigid tines to work the granules into the top inch or so of soil, being careful not to disturb any roots. A claw rake such as this from Amazon is perfect as it’s strong enough to cope with any compacted soil. Try to spread the granules inwards a little from the circle, but don’t get any on or anywhere near the crown (the shoots). Water well to activate the plant food.
Should I Mulch As Well?
If you mulched in autumn, you shouldn't mulch now. In fact, it’s best to pull any old mulch back away from the crown in spring: the most common reason for peonies not blooming well is that the crown is buried too deeply.
If you didn’t, then it’s not necessary to mulch now, but it will help to lock moisture in the soil and supply more nutrients to the peony roots long-term. You should only apply a thin, one-inch layer of a general-purpose mulch or compost such as this from Amazon, though, and keep it well away from the crown.
And you’re done! All you need do now is support stems if needs be, and water during dry spells, trying to wet the ground rather than the plant, and look forward to a fabulous show of bumper flowers.
If you want to try growing a seriously enormous peony bloom, then have a go at disbudding. You can disbud just one stem to see what happens, a few, or all the stems. Simply snap or twist off the small side buds as they form on the stems, using small snips or your forefinger and thumb. Leave the main, end bud alone. Your plant will now put all its energy into growing this one flower, rather than all those you've removed by disbudding, so you'll get a far bigger bloom – but only one! It’s a fun way to create a few showstopper flowers for a vase or bouquet, though.
