How long from buds to flowers?

Tobyhanna, PA(Zone 5a)

Hi all,

I'm new to peonies (I have 4 plants started from bare roots three years ago) and this year is the first time they have set buds. The buds are relatively small (some pea sized) and some a bit larger. Some of the buds are starting to show color. My question is, at this stage about long before the buds will start to flower? A week, two weeks, more? Thanks for any info. :-)

Stamford, CT(Zone 6b)

It can be a month or more before you see buds. The buds that stay small will eventually dry up. Generally only the ones that are getting larger will make it to bloom.

Peonies are sort of "born" with their buds, so you can tell how many buds you will have from the time they are ten inches high You can actually see them before the leaves are fully unfurled. What you cannot tell is how many will mature.

The peonies are loaded with buds, and are at least 1/2 inch in diameter, like small to medium marbles. They have been that size for about 2 weeks now.

By the way, starting them from bare root does not mean nearly as much as how many eyes each root had. Each eye is generally responsible for each stem. When I see the little pips break through the soil in March, I figure that's approximately how many blooms there will be. However, some of the plants can have as many as 3 buds per stem. One of the Japanese peonies that had always been productive has a bunch of foliage but only has about 3 buds, so I don't know what happened to it during the winter.

There are more than 40 plants in our yard of which about 30 were planted by me as dinky little bare roots purchased at Costco about 6 or 7 years ago.The plants that did not flourish when the others did were moved about 3 seasons ago and are doing well.

Don't expect blooms if they don't get enough sunlight. I learned that the hard way. Also, we live on a well treed street. Where plants used to do well, it is no longer a great spot until we can trim the trees.
Marcia

Lexington, MA(Zone 6a)

http://www.paeo.de/

This is Carsten Burkhart's peony project that lists a lot of cultivars and information about them.

Today I can't seem to call up the peony bloom date URL that lists the common peonies with reference to the bloom date of Red Charm. It's done that way because in every region, there are different growing seasons. Most peony catalogs also classify their plants according to early midseason or late season blooming.

With these sources, all on the internet, it becomes possible to learn when a given peony cultivar might typically decide to bloom. You will also learn how weather conditions can make these plants decide to let-er rip earlier or later than you might predict.

This message was edited Jun 1, 2014 9:23 PM

Stamford, CT(Zone 6b)

Rosemary, thanks for the info. I love that variable "weather conditions." It's Mother Nature's joke.

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