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What to Know About Planting and Caring for Chrysanthemums
Chrysanthemums are stunning, late-blooming shrubs that are surprisingly easy to grow and care for. They come in a myriad varieties and return year after year in beautiful blooms.
Peonies make fabulous additions to gardens and hedges for their extravagant, fragrant blooms and their lush, glossy, green foliage. With proper placement and soil care, these fragrant perennials will delight you for many years. In fact, many plants continue to produce their vibrant display for 100 years or more with very little care. Because of their beauty and longevity, healthy peonies symbolize good fortune and happy marriage.
There are three basic types of peonies. While all types produce abundant, fragrant blooms in a variety of colors and shapes, each has slightly different needs and appearances.
Herbaceous peonies are bush-like plants with thin and limber stems that often bend under the weight of their massive, plentiful flowers. They grow to about four feet high, and mature plants can produce more than 40 large blossoms at a time. Their foliage dies after the first frost.
Tree peonies are woody shrubs that can grow to ten feet tall. Their flowers are much larger than the herbaceous variety and display proudly on their sturdy, woody branches. They lose leaves in the fall, but their branches remain strong and intact throughout the winter.
Itoh peonies, also called intersectional peonies, are hybrids of the herbaceous and tree varieties and share characteristics of each. Like tree peonies, they produce many large, long-lasting blossoms and don’t require staking. Like their herbaceous parents, Itohs should be cut down to four to six inches in the fall—encouraging new stems to emerge in the spring.
If you live anywhere in USDA Hardiness Zones 3 to 9 (that’s a band that runs across the north side of the southeastern United States), you can enjoy many years of at least one type of these relatively carefree and prolific flower producers.
Peonies should be planted in the fall from late September into October for most parts of the country, before the first hard frost. You can plant them even later in warmer climates. Peonies that have been raised in a container can be planted as early as late spring or early summer.
Once your peony plant is established—two to three years after planting—you’ll begin to see the dormant plants emerge after the average daytime temperature is 65ºF to 70ºF. You can expect flowers to start blooming in April and continue through May and June. Each bloom lasts one week to ten days.
With all that peonies have to offer, it’s worth the time and effort to get them planted and placed properly the first time. Here’s what you’ll need to get started.
Choose a sunny location. Peonies love full sun but can do with as little as six hours of full sun per day. Dappled sunlight during the hottest part of the day will ensure that the flowers don’t wither.
Allow at least three to five feet of space between other plants, walls, and fences to allow for sufficient air circulation, and keep the area well weeded to eliminate competition.
To ensure that you grow happy and healthy peonies that will produce lots of gorgeous blooms for many years to come, follow these steps.
Prepare support for the large flowers on herbaceous peonies with a peony stake. Insert it into the soil over the plant when it is about six inches high. The plant will grow through the stake as it gets taller, and your blooms will stand proud throughout the season.
A few simple steps will help keep your peonies thriving for years to come.
Chrysanthemums are stunning, late-blooming shrubs that are surprisingly easy to grow and care for. They come in a myriad varieties and return year after year in beautiful blooms.
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