Good morning Swenson Gardens bloggers! Becky here and thought I would spend some time with you. If you haven’t been following our Facebook page, here is a taste of what I’ve been posting as of late. We’ve received numerous inquires on how to plant bare root peonies. The first step is to identify which way does the root go into the hole? Yes from time to time gardeners have planted their roots upside down thinking the stems come out of the roots. No, the stems come from the eyes. You will notice in my picture the two different types of bare root peonies that we sell. One being a garden peony (from our website those are noted in our Garden Varieties, Distinctive Peonies and Collector’s Peonies pages) and two, the ever popular Intersectional Peonies. The recent orders pertain to USDA Growing Zones 2 – 5, so this post is for you. The eyes should be 1 1/2″ to 2″ BELOW ground level on all garden peonies! You will not see the eyes/crown/last years stems on the garden peonies as they will be under ground level. Make sure in your excavated hole that the roots are placed on a tamped down base in direct relationship to their ground level position i.e. 1 1/2″ to 2″ below ground level. Intersectional peonies are much easier to plant as the red rubber band is your ground level. Just make sure the ROOTS are at the bottom of your hole and the red rubber band is at ground level. More posts forthcoming on moving peonies, digging peonies and dividing peonies. Please be patient as we have been very busy trying to get our first shipment of peonies out! Happy planting bare root peonies!
