Peonies are Hellenic , long - lived perennials . Given their basic cultural requirements , they bloom faithfully with piddling attention for many years . After several years , peonies will command fertilization . A thrifty program of nutrient will insure many more years of abundant blooms from your paeony . Always water straightaway after fertiliser applications .

Soil Conditions

Peonies require well - drained grease racy in constitutive matter . Organic matter , such as compost , holds plant nutrients and releases them over clock time to peony root . dirt pH should be neutral to slenderly alkaline – about 6.5 to 7.0 .

Soil Depletion

After many yr , the soil may become nutritionally deficient as peonies use the nutrients and water washes them away . Often , old planting of peonies work up up with organic matter , raising soil acidity . Old peonies with leaves plough jaundiced or slowing growth but no sign of the zodiac of insect harm or disease need fertilizer .

Peony Food

Peony works food should be low in atomic number 7 . Too much nitrogen will result in abundant foliage ontogeny with little or no flower product . Fertilizers should contain no more than half as much atomic number 7 ( N ) as P ( P ) and potassium ( K ) ( 5 - 10 - 10 , for case ) .

Application

Apply fertiliser in spring when peony shoots are about 2 to 3 inches tall . Use consort to label directions . Top - fertilization with 1/3 inch of compost keep the plant food in place without rub bid antecedent .

Natural/Organic Alternative

Wood ash tree contain potassium and is a good peony food . Wood ash is alkaline and course modifies acidic grease . Containing no nitrogen , Ellen Price Wood ash will not have excessive foliage production . desegregate a small amount of ash with compost ( 1 to 9 ratio ) and top - clothes to a depth of about one - half in . The compost helps keep the ash in place , stock-purchase warrant against excessive soil alkalinization and naturally adds nitrogen to the soil .

Dig Up Peony Plants To Move

Cut back the peonies after the leafage begins to die back in fall . crop back each stem to within 6 in of the earth with clean shear . turn around the peony cluster , loosen the dirt with the forking . Locate the buds or acquire eyes on the rootage , which resemble swollen nodes . reduce apart the clumps with a astute knife into two or three division , with each section incorporate three to five bud . break in up the grease in a well - draining , full - Lord’s Day bed to a 12 - column inch depth . Space the holes approximately 3 feet apart . place each peony in a prepared hole so the antecedent buds are approximately 2 inches beneath the soil surface .

References

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