Peony Care NZ, what do you need to know to get the most out of your peony roses?
When we purchased our home in 2017 it came with a paddock of peonies. We had plenty of conversations about what we could do with them and offering the stems for sale became a very obvious starting point.
Since then we have started to branch out with creating products with the dehydrated petals and recently offering peony tubers for sale as well.
Throughout this process we have managed to pick up knowledge surrounding the best care of peonies and we can’t wait to share this with you!
Peony Care NZ is as simple or as complicated as you want it to be, but there are certainly a few key factors that will contribute to gorgeous peonies every time!
In Season Peonies
The peony season starts mid to late October and can go until early December. The timing will always depend on Mother Nature and what she has in store for us weather wise.
When the peonies are in bud we are always praying for a warm days. This encourage the final formation of the bud and preparing the stem for flowering.
Did you know that flies have an integral part to play in our peony paddock aswell as the warmth?
Flies encourage the peony flower to open. Merely by landing and walking over the buds, therefore encouraging the bud to open.
Rain hail and frost can also end a very promising peony season prematurely. The rain can often discolour the petals and the hail will damage the petals. This cannot be seen until the peony blooms.
We have a variety of peonies in our paddock but the majority of them are the Herbaceous variety (common garden variety) and a few varieties of tree peonies.
Cutting The Dead Peonies Back
Once the peonies have finished flowering for the season we then let the weeds do their thing.
In the past we have put our sheep into the paddock to eat down all the weeds but last year they got a bit happy munching peonies and all the ones that were marked to be lifted lost their tags.
So needless to say the sheep have been banned from our paddock of peonies this year. It is quite a shame as they also naturally fertilise the paddock as well.
We use a weed whacker and/or brush cutter to cut the dead foliage as we have so many plants and cut them back to about 2-3 inches above the ground.
We then go around and scrape up all the cuttings and put them on our burning pile. I don’t like to compost them incase there are any diseases that I don’t want spread in our paddock.
Lifting Tubers
Since we started selling the peony stems we have had numerous enquiries year after year about the sale of our peony tubers. This year was the first year that we offered tubers for sale and will continue too offer them over the coming seasons.
So be sure to lodge your interest in our tubers through the link at the bottom of the page. There will be limited amounts available so it will be first in first served.
Natural Fertilisation
This last season also saw us use broken down horse manure as we have an abundance of this natural resource.
The foliage looked amazing this year on the plants that were fertilised by the horse manure.
Experimenting with the use of natural fertiliser has so far shown great success.
We are pleased with and we would 100% stand by our use of manure with the peonies for growth.
Weed Management
Peony Care NZ has a focus around weed management.
Prior to the tubers popping out of the ground we manage the weeds in the paddock with a weed killer.
Weed management is super important as any plant with roots and plant surface. They brings competition which means nutrients are spread out.
To ensure fantastic growth of your peony plants weed your peonies or manage with a good weed killer. That way you help them out but limiting the competition.
Once they come through the ground the weed spraying stops. We never use any pesticides or insecticides on our plants.
We never spray the peonies directly. As managing the weeds is enough to ensure our peonies get all the nutrient’s and sunlight they need with limited competition.
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