I have a couple peonies growing in the garden of my new house. They recently flowered, and they looked lovely, but the flowers are weighing the stalks down, so that they're leaning over and some are touching the ground. Even before they flowered the stalks were heavy and leaning.

The flowers are dying now, and the petals are shedding like crazy, but the stalks are still leaning way over. I want to plant some other stuff around them, but the stalks are taking up a whole bunch of space by the way they're leaning.

How do I deal with this? Should I stake each individual stalk? Or not bother now that they've flowered?

And once the flowers die completely, should I cut off the stalks?

Ronni

Cut the flowers off when they are no longer attractive, but not the whole stalk. You can wrap some twine around the clump to pull the branches more upright. Next year, you might want to consider using plant supports

Hi ronni,
I'm P. and I'm new here. Just happened to be wandering around and saw your peony problem. I have them along the back of my house. Mine don't flower until the end of May, here in WVA. When the stalks are about 2 feet high, I wrap them with twine, before they get too big to handle easily. This is usually all it takes to keep them upright during their blooming. I take off the flowers once they start shedding, then cut the stalks off to the ground in the fall. The bushes will stay green, leafy and pretty until then. Hope this helped! P.

They do make peony supports which are inexpensive and really help. I got mine last year at a Home Depot store. If you deadhead the peonies, a lot of times they will flower back for you.

Thanks, guys!

I'll deadhead those peonies first thing in the morning, then wrap twine around them to gather them together.

Then I'll have room to plant some more stuff! I have some columbines a neighbor is giving me, I just have to dig them up. And a couple coleus I bought from Home Depot. And a mystery plant that one of my clients left for me--it's a perennial, I've seen it come up in her garden every year, purplish leaves that look somewhat like grape leaves, but I've never seen it flower.

Anyway, thanks for the tips.

Ronni

My peonies were beautiful. Big, beautiful, fragrant flowers. Then we had about 5 minutes of rain and the flowers and buds have turned brown. A man told me his friends roses did the same thing. They got a few drops of water on them then turned brown. Is it going from drought to just a little rain that causes this?

I have a peony plant that once flowered but has not flowered in the last 4 years. Last year thinking it was not getting enough sun, I moved it to another part of the garden and this year it still does not have any buds. Any ideas about this one from you experts out there?

I know they like morning sun, regular watering but not wet conditions, and I think they don't like being buried too deep. The too deep part may be your problem if it's not flowering at all.

Peonies take a few years to recover after being transplanted. Mine didn't bloom at first either. It's been about 10 years now, and this year there are maybe 50 or more buds on mine.

Full sun is a good idea.