Dare to Divide Your Peonies

It’s easy to make more of these pricey perennials

Would you wish to have a few more peonies in your garden but waffle because of the toll ? If you already have a gravid herbaceous peony , you could disunite its radical to get more plants without spend a dime bag . Herbaceous peonies ( Paeoniacvs . , USDA Hardiness Zones 3–8 ) are long - lived perennials that can be divide to yield clon ( or , literally , piece of the original ) that produce into individual works . water parting peonies in fall to allow the divisions time to grow and establish themselves in warm soil . But do n’t try this technique on intersectional or tree peonies , which are pass around by slightly different mean .

Tools

• Isopropyl alcoholic drink , and paper towels or a clean-living rag

• Hand pruners

• A digging fork or a spadeful

• A towel or a tarpaulin

• A pruning saw , or a prophylactic mallet and an old chef ’s tongue

• A tool that scrape in a tight space , such as a lino knife

1. Dig out and prepare the peony

Wipe down your tool using an alcohol - stifle paper towel or tatter to kill harmful viruses or fungi that might be lingering on the tools . burn the plant ’s stems to about 8 in tall , and excavate around the plant ’s drip line . ( The drip line is equal to the diameter of the in full opened foliage . ) shovelful work , but digging fork lessen root breakage . Get under the clump , and lightly pry it upward . Once it come loose , utilize the root as handles to ease the clump from the background . Freshly dug roots are unannealed , but do n’t vex if some break off .

Wash the malicious gossip off the paeony , and get the works sit under a moist towel or a tarp overnight . This name the beginning softer and easygoing to cut .

2. Visualize the divisions

The next Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , cut down the stay radical lengths so that you’re able to intelligibly see the paeony ’s eyes and roots . The eye are the pink conical bud on the crown of the plant , which grow into base and , potentially , into prime . You ’ll need to keep ample roots on each division . If there are too many eyes on just a second of beginning , the works will be unbalanced and will struggle to survive .

3. Cut it up

Using a pruning saw or a rubber mallet and an old chef ’s tongue , hack through the tough dower of the top as you make your first cuts . A cut down the middle is a good path to begin . lightly pry the pieces aside .

At this decimal point , you necessitate to resolve how many divisions to make . It all count on what you want : a maximum number of little plants or a few larger plants .

You may want to keep these as two large half . They will take a year or two to reelect to mature efflorescence but will likely put out flowers the spring after sectionalization . If you divide the plant into more than two , make certain each division has at least three eye and a 6 - inch duration of roots to sustain it . Plants this small will likely not bloom the following time of year and will take a few age of growth before they return to normal florescence .

4. Clean off rot spots

When you are satisfied with the number of divisions you have made , strip them up . Use a scraping cock ( photo , above ) to remove black - hogwash lesion ( pic , proper ) . Or use hand pruners to all prune off roots that are more rotted than not . prefer modest roots over honest-to-goodness , fatter ones to encourage growth .

5. Consider depth when replanting

Herbaceous peonies prefer full sun and well - debilitate soil . Their eyes should be no more than 2 inches beneath the filth , or else they may have trouble emerging in outpouring — if at all . If the weather is dry , weewee once a week in their first spring and summer to get them off to a inviolable start . In cool climates , mulch with leaf to foreclose frost heaving in winter .

Tip : Dispose of old peony leaves , stems , and roots away from the garden . Leaving them to decay in the garden or compost good deal have harmful fungus colonize and spread further .

Dan Furman is a second - generation peony grower at Cricket Hill Garden in Thomaston , Connecticut .

Photos , except where notice : Antonio Reis

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