Mulch removal alert on your peonies in USDA Growing Zones 2 to 4! If tulips are about 6 to 8 inches high in your gardens or neighbors gardens, its time to remove 1/2 of your mulch and the other 1/2 in a week or so. Here on our peony farm, which is USDA Growing Zone 4a, all our mulch is off our peonies. It is imperative that your remove your mulch from newly planted peonies otherwise the roots will rot out due to the soil not being able to dry out. Every year we receive communications from a handful of customers that say ‘our peony never came up’. The first question we ask them is ‘did you remove the mulch from your newly planted peonies last spring’? ‘NO’
If you are a local customer, with the rains that we’ve been receiving over the past couple of days, might we suggest you remove ALL your mulch…now! This also may affect other areas too so be vigilant in removing your mulch now based on the rain you may be experiencing.
Oh the joy of spring! The lovely scent of hyacinths are permeating from one of our beds. Can’t wait for the scents of peonies to permeate the air around our beds and fields!