How to Ensure Your Peony Will Bloom

The large, red, burgundy, pink, yellow, coral, or white blooms of a peony are striking in the garden among other plants and are beautiful in a vase. The peony bush, which grows 2 to 4 feet tall, is a perennial that blooms in early spring, into summer with lush pompomlike blooms. Occasionally, healthy looking peony bushes don't deliver on their promise of annual blooms. When a peony fails to bloom it is usually due to a cultural problem the savvy gardener can easily correct.

Peony

Determine whether the peony is newly planted. A peony bush can take several years at its location before it blooms for the first time.

Plant the peony root section no more than 1 inch below the surface with the buds, called "eyes," up. If the root is planted too deeply, it may not flower.

Cut peony foliage back to the ground with garden shears only after it turns brown, following the first frost in the fall. If you cut the bush back before the foliage turns brown, you risk no flowers the following spring.

Protect peonies that bud in early spring with row cover fabric if frosts are predicted. If your peony bush had buds, followed by frost conditions, the buds may have been killed by the cold. The bush should be fine the following year.

Dig your peony up with a shovel and replant it if it consistently fails to bloom. A peony needs good drainage and full sun, but can handle some afternoon shade. If your non-blooming peony is located in a shaded location, move it to a sunny location (in late October or November). Also ensure that the bush is not in a low-lying area where its roots can be affected by too much lingering water, or crowded by other plants competing for nutrients and sun.