Back to the Garden: Next Year's Garden Starts Now
By James Daw
People who know me know that I am not really a big fan of lawns. I have never seen a patch of lawn yet that couldn't be improved with a flower bed or two. If you're going to plant a flower bed why not make it a bed of perennials? They aren't always as flashy as annuals, but they are nevertheless quite beautiful, and since they come back year after year you save yourself the expense of annuals (which are frequently grown with non-organic, bee-killing pesticides before they even get to you) you will be able to look forward to repeat performances year after year.
There are many plants that make a beautiful and hardy perennial bed here on Long Island--daylilies (of course), irises, and phlox can be seen throughout the Willistons but, for me, nothing makes for a better perennial bed than a bed of herbaceous peonies.
If you live on Long Island, you’ve certainly seen herbaceous peonies blooming in late May and June. If you have never tried planting them you can be excused for thinking that a plant that produces such enormous, beautiful, intensely fragrant flowers just has to be impossible to grow but, in the case of peonies, beauty is also relatively easy, and very tough.
Peonies are pretty close to being a bulletproof plant. They survive extreme frost, their roots go deep so they are relatively drought resistant (although you do have to water them), and they live for a very long time. Because they are so top-heavy with flowers, you need to give them some support when they are in bloom, but that can be done in early spring, when the first leaves begin to show. The plants will then grow into the supports. Most garden centers sell circular peony frames, and good ones will last as long as the plants. As a bonus, the herbaceous varieties die back every fall so if you plant them along your driveway, once you have cut down the dead growth you have a very convenient place to put the winter snow.
With peonies the initial preparation is everything. If you do it right, you will have decades of beautiful flowers to show for an afternoon’s work. You have to dig the beds deep (eighteen inches to two feet is not too much) and you must do a very thorough job of improving the soil. Use lots of compost, and maybe an inch or two of topsoil at the top of the bed. When you plant the new plants be sure to plant them shallow, so that the pink buds you will see on the dormant plant are showing (that’s where the topsoil comes in handy). The roots will be long on a quality plant, so be sure that they can go down into soil that you’ve broken up and enriched. You can also plant spring-flowering bulbs, such as crocuses and hyacinths among the peonies, and they will bloom before the peonies begin to grow in the spring.
Peonies can be found at most nurseries, as well as big box stores, but I think the best ones come from the garden catalog houses like White Flower Farm. With peonies you get what you pay for--we planted a bed of peonies from a catalog house in the late 80's, and it has come back year after year.
One point worth keeping in mind is that these thoughts only apply to herbaceous peonies. The other variety, tree peonies, are also long lived, extremely hardy and very beautiful but, if you plant them, whatever you do don’t cut them down in the fall. It will be a long time before they grow back.
