GROWING PEONY WITH EARTHWORMS

PEONY / Paeonia Species
Peonies are among the most loved and admired garden flowers. Their huge single or double blossoms are showy, sweetly fragrant in some cultivars. Peonies are easy to grow dependable, and durable, bloomers.

CLASSIFICATION OF PEONY:
Perennial
Bowl of cream-2.5 feet, midseason double white bloom; Coral Charm-3 feet tall, semi-double coral blooms; Festiva maxima-3 feet tall, late-spring double white blooms; Karl rosenfield-2.5 feet tall, midseason double red blooms; Monsieur jules elie-3 feet tall, late-spring double pink blooms; Sarah bernhardt-3 feet tall, fragrant, early-summer double light pink blooms flecked with red.

HOW TO SELECT ROOT CROWN OF PEONY:
Select barefoot plants or compact rhizomes with several eyes, or growth buds or thick, tuberous roots.

HOW TO DO THE ORGANIC MIX FOR PEONY AND THE USE OF EARTHWORMS:
The following is a simple organic mixture for bedding of Peony.
1 part peat moss. 1 part other organic material such as earthworm castings, compost. Leaf mold or Nitrogen stabilized bark. 1 part builders’ sand.
Dig and amend the soil with above mix, let the mix to aged for 2 weeks, but if you added manure into this mix, then let it age for 4 to 6 weeks before planting. Plant the Peony into this soil. After planting and covering the Peony roots 2 inches deep with this mix, immediately water thoroughly. Dig a small ½ inch hole beside the plant the next day and put a dozen live earthworms into it, then cover the earthworm with soil so that birds won’t come and pick them up right away.

HOW TO PLANT AND CARE FOR PEONY:
All peonies are extremely long-lived plants of significant size, demanding special care in selection of planting location. It can reward you with years of marvelous cut flowers and eye catching border or pathway. Dig deeply on selected plant site, working in plenty of thoroughly decayed manure or compost and earthworm castings, allow the soil to age for a month, then set the herbaceous peony roots with eyes, or growth buds 2 inch deep in cold region and 1 inch deep in warmer region. Deeper or shallower plant setting of the roots will affect and prevent blooming. After planting, add a few dozen earthworms to the soil. Peony makes excellent cut flowers; however, when cutting flowers, as described below, don’t cut more than half the blooms in each clump in order for the plant to retain enough leaves to store next seasons requirements of energy. Also trim the spend flowers to prevent seed formation.

HOW TO FIX PEST AND PROBLEMS OF PEONY:
Plant peonies in sunny sheltered location. Strong winds can damage peony flowers. During cool, humid weather, fungus disease botrytis is at times a problem. If stems wilt and collapse, buds blacken and fail to develop then you got botrytis. You can prevent it by cleaning surrounding dead leaves or stems during autumn, sprinkle sulfur power as the new growth emerges in spring.

HOW TO PREPARE CUT PEONY FLOWERS FOR THE VASE:
Peonies makes marvelous cut flowers, you may cut peonies when the buds are starting to show color before the flower open, leave at least three leaves on each cut stem. Do not remove more than half the blooms in any clump. Cut flowers early morning or early evening. Split the ends of thick stems and put it in cold water containing sugar solution or commercial flower preservatives. Let the flowers stand in the solution for several hours. Now you are ready to rearrange the cut peony flowers in the vase by themselves or mixed with other smaller flowers and foliage. Re-cut the peony stem before the flower arrangement.

HOW TO MAKE YOUR PEONY PUT ON A BLOOMING SHOW:
There are several reasons why peony will bloom poorly: If the plant is too young, wait a while. If it is planted too deep or too shallow, lift it during dormant season and replant it at proper depth. If it lacked nutrients, apply organic fertilizer. If the clump has been moved or divided too often let it be for a while. 

HOW TO PROPAGATE PEONY:
Peony could be propagated by clump division after 3 to 5 years in spring or fall by digging the Peony clump up and carefully dividing the clump, then immediately replanting them in a sunny area, thoroughly water, partially shade the plant from sun for a few days after replanting. Another way of to propagate Peony is to plant Peony seed and grow them from seedling. Growing from seeds will not produce original hybrid offspring.