Peonies are beautiful flowers that will come back every year and last for as long as you are willing to take care of them. I have stools that are forty years old! Late August is the perfect time for transplanting your peonies.
Use a shovel to make a circle around the stool with three inches circumference away from the stool. You need to dig deep as to not disturb the roots.
Once you have your stool out of the ground now is the perfect time to split the stool too, just break it in half and you will have two beautiful flower bushes.
Dig your new holes deep enough to cover the stool you are planting with a inch of soil on top of the stool. Fill your hole with water and add just a little plant food, miracle grow works well.
Place your stool in the water root side down and fill the hole with composite cow manure, patting it firmly down once your stool is covered. I suggest you plant in a place where there is a lot of full sun although they will grow in partial sun too.
Do not expect to see flowers the next year unless you had a very large stool. It usually takes three years to grow a flowering bush that is magnificent but once it starts blooming every May you will be amazed at how much bigger it gets as the years go by.
There is no need to water as April showers bring May flowers until during the hot summer days they will want a weekly drink of water just to keep them healthy.
About the time you mow your yard for the last time of the season I recommend you weed eat them all the way down to the ground. By doing this you will not have dead growth the next year for the new stems to grow around. The dead growth weakens your plant and if you persist in not cutting out the old for a couple of years your plant is in danger of withering away. When you rake the dead leaves up in your yard late fall instead of bagging them to set out at the curb dump them on the peonies! We always fill those orange pumpkin bags full of leaves for Halloween, once the witching hour has passed we dump the leaves on the peonies. The leaves provide great nutrients and cover during the long winter while your flowers await the spring awakening.
