HERBACEOUS PAEONIES

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 121, 15 February 1935, Page 18

HERBACEOUS PAEONIES

Transplanting Time There are various opinions as to the best paeony transplanting time. This, is easily understood, because the. paeony has two special seasons of root activity—late summer and early autumn, and early spring. The plants are so inactive in mid-winter that they can only be transplanted with grave risk, but now you can move them with every hope of success. If your paeonies are exhausted or unhappy, lift them carefully, cut off the perished roots, and where there are six or more crowns, divide. Three crowns per plant are quite sufficient. Indeed, if you have more, there is danger of overcrowding. The root stock beneath the flngerlike crowns is so solid and tenacious that you can’t divide it by hand. Having divided, replant in rich, deeply-dug soil, taking care not to allow the roots to assume actual contact with manure. Spread them out evenly without the least squeezing, and just cover the crowns with finely pulverised soil. If necessary, water thoroughly immediately afterwards to promote the rapid formation of new fibres, and re-establishment before winter. An exhausted paeony is a plant which makes a great tuft of leaves, but produces no buds, or very few. Most of the latter dry up before opening. An unhappy paeony is one that never takes on the rosette habit, but throughout the season produces leaves in desultory fashion. Very often one set of leaves is dying back when the other appears.