A 25 year old peony will have a large root so be prepared to dig a wide, deep hole in order to get it out of it's current spot. The plants need some time to settle in before winter… If you need to transplant peonies, the best time to do so is in the fall after they finish blooming and are approaching dormancy. If you have been moving things around in your garden and have some peonies, you might wonder if you find the little tubers left behind, can you plant them and expect them to grow. Planting in early fall gives peony tubers time to become established before winter. Every 10 or 15 years, you’ll need to thin peonies out, so the plants don’t get overcrowded and strangle one another out. The transplanted peony may not produce as many, if any, flowers as before it was transplanted. Preparing your peonies to survive winter is a simple task whether the plants are freshly placed in the bed or have been thriving there for years. Long-lived peonies require minimum maintenance when compared to other popular bedding flowers. But after 10 or 15 years, peony blooms slow down, and that’s the time for you to dig, divide, and transplant them. Peonies in containers exposed to deep-freezing temperatures will likely not survive. Peony Care - Dividing & Transplanting by Don Janssen, UNL Extension Educator. You can do it! Low temperatures however are required if the peony is to overcome seasonal dormancy. Wait until the heat modifies but give yourself enough time so the peonies root before winter hits: end of August - first half of September should be fine. When to transplant peonies depends on the results you want. The answer is yes, but there is an appropriate way of propagating peony plants that you should follow if you … Hence success will depend on finding the right balance. This is an excellent question, as peonies are shallow-rooted plants and require a six-week chilling period in the winter for buds to form. email this page to a friend. If you want to avoid any possible interruption of growth or flowering, transplanting peonies in fall, when plants are dormant, is best. As perennials go, peonies can be extremely long-lived, growing for up to 100 years. Peonies display their luscious flowers for a few weeks starting in spring. You can also tackle moving peonies in early spring before plants sprout (while they’re still dormant). If peonies are planted too deep, few, if any flowers will develop. You may hear that you can transplant and/or divide Peonies in spring. When transplanting, moving or dividing peony, replant the roots to a depth of 2 to 3 inches (5 to 7.6 cm.). Doing it after summer has finished is better because they are about to go into a dormant state and it gives them time over winter for their roots to bed in. Other reasons you would transplant a peony: you’re moving and want to take some of the plant with you. Peonies (Paeonia spp.) flower for only a short period in early summer, but these perennials can survive 20 years or more in the garden. They are deer- and rabbit-resistant too, so you can usually depend on peonies to put on a beautiful spring show with their enormous, colorful flowers. Or you want share your peony with a gardening pal. This isn’t the best time because they’re starting to wake up in spring. But because working early-spring soils can be difficult in all parts of these zones due to lingering winter cold, dividing peonies is best done during the fall after plants have lapsed into dormancy. Success with peonies in containers will depend on how large a container you can provide and what winter conditions are like. October is the best time to add new peonies to your garden or divide older, crowded plants. 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