I like your garden, totoro. I like peonies very much, too, and they're suited to my conditions, so I've planted a good many, though most are still young.

Much of my garden, including the roses, consists of once-flowering plants. I go for layering with plants that bloom at different times of the year, and having plants that are attractive and interesting outside their season of flower.

I love how perfectly balanced your entire garden is, the colors are soft and romantic. I also have always liked peonies and the English roses give me the sort of look I want with repeat bloom. Your peonies looks wonderful in every way. It must be because we are in different zones, my Hawaiian coral blooms in early March when my roses are barely getting any leaves and I never get to see them together. I really would love to have them bloom together. Please keep sharing, your garden always looks perfect. A romantic masterpiece in color and design.

Your garden is perfection. I love the blend of plants and how soft and romantic it appears. My roses are a bit behind the peonies this year plus a lot of the peony blooms are looking a bit bedraggled from all the rain. Your garden gives me hope for next year!

Hi, Totoro. I've considered this question as well - thanks for posting. It's too late for me to get a photo this year (my peonies are finished up for the year), but I have the peony "Duchesse de Nemours" about three feet from my Lamarque rose. The colors are very close - a barely creamy white with a subdued touch of lemon in the center - and it seems to work nicely. I'm now thinking of what I want to add in the space between them. (There are heirloom daffodils in that space , but they are long gone by the time the peony and rose start blooming so I'd like something that I can plant on top of them.)

Depending on where you are located you will probably be disappointed if you expect them to bloom together. While I have a few peonies that are late this year and have not bloomed most of mine were finished by the middle of last week. The roses started blooming on Friday. I would suggest rather than hoping they bloom together plan on the peonies fading into the rose bloom season. Nature is not on human time so while you may have a season that they bloom together that may be a rare season.

In agreement with maifleur (and wish I weren't)

In east Tennessee, east of Knoxville, I can't depend on anything to bloom the same times year after year.

About a decade ago, I visited a huge garden in Knoxville, near Bearden, and it was on a south facing hill side. The roses were in full bloom. But there were long beds of peonies (I recognized the leaves) and there were NO blooms , not a one. I could see where the blooms had been cleaned off the stalks, but there wasn't a single latest blooming peony.

I love peonies and found some places where they fit my beds, and after five years I can guarantee that up here at 1100' I haven't had peonies matched with roses around them, blooming in sync more than once in six years. It just isn't a dependable thing.

Worst thing is that we've had three very wet years, and I've had massive tree growth, and several of my better peonies failed to bloom this year (plant leaves look great) but the trees leafed out earlier thisyear and buds were not made.

Great pictures Totoro! Your Awakening is magnificent!

stillantn do not give up. It may not be the trees that were the problem this year with lack of buds. It is something that seems to have happened this year in many of the areas of the world. While I have seen some reports of normal blooming those reports have not been widespread. I experimented for a number of years growing peonies in shade then realized that while the trees/shrubs blocked some of the sunlight if I looked straight up I could see the sky. Some were planted so that depending on the angle of the sun they received sunlight all day.

Wow! Canary Brilliant -- I had never heard of that one -- and roses! Who would have thought? (It's the Molineaux that makes the link, IMO.) Beautiful.

Your garden is wonderful, totoro. Beautiful and lush pairings of plants, so very creative.

It depends on where you live and your conditions. In my garden the peonies--the herbaceous ones of Asian origin, the most common kind--bloom with the once-flowering old roses. Mediterranean and tree peonies precede these peonies and roses but can overlap with the warm climate roses like Teas and Chinas, though it's not always the case. I just admire them on their own and along with whatever's in bloom at that time.

I have a peony border (second year), this year I introduced some roses and will probably remove more peonies and replace with roses. As much as I love peonies I need more flowers

Bouquet collected this weekend!

Gorgeous All! I intended to take some pics of mine, but rain got in the way and now they're all a mess. : (( Ceres, I like having roses with the peonies as the fading foliage stays fresh here all summer and the roses help support the heavy peony blooms. I'd just plant more roses amongst the peonies.

My herbaceous peonies are usually before my roses. Usually but not always. This year what I think is Mrs. F.D. Roosevelt (need to check my records) and rose Mystic Beauty bloomed side by side. The flowers were so similar that I had to stand close to them to know which was which. I don't have a lot of peonies and wish I had the space for more whether they bloom with my roses or not. I tend to grow the fragrant older ones that I remember growing up in Ohio but not all of them do well here.

My peonies bloom ages before my roses do. :)

Ceres - that's such a lovely bouquet!!

Totoro - I'm amazed that you can get your roses and peonies to bloom at the same time! Wonderful shots!

Totoro and Ceres, I also adore peonies. They are perfect companions for old roses! The fragrance can be so irresistible. Don't you just want to bury your noses is all that fluffy yum? You two must be in peony heaven right now--all those charming, gardenfuls and armloads of blooms!

One of the peony sources that I really appreciate sells antique (and sometimes quite rare) varieties: https://oldhousegardens.com/. Old House Gardens also sells antique irises, narcissus and other bulbs, daylilies, etc. More great rose companions to extend the season of bloom, and many of their plants are intensely fragrant! Carol

Still Ann, iI lost a bunch of peonies due to tree shade. But others survived the shade. I think some are wimps (Elsa SASS) but others are more vigorous like Florence Nicholls.

Redbird, maybe plant salvia between them? My Salvia Caradonna blooms before others with peonies.

CeresMer, what is the name if the pink peony in your bed?

Kes, I think I have admired FDR in a catalog in the past. Maybe I should get it for my front yard where roses are not allowed since I miss Mystic Beauty which was lost to RRD.

Carol, I will check out that website.

I must have relatively late blooming peonies because mine overlap with roses every year. Sandra Bernhardt is my last. The funny thing is that I tried to buy earlier peonies to have blooms before roses but those peonies always make me wait.

Does anyone have any suggestions for early blooming peonies that they like?

Totoro: Thank you for the salvia suggestion. Salvias do quite well here so that might work very nicely.

HI @totoro z7b Md, I believe mine are sarah bernhardt peonies, I bought the bulb from HD two years ago. Last year I was so sad that they didn't flower that I bought two grown peonies at HD and planted them. This year, the two mature peonies had around 14 buds on them and the bulb ones maybe 2. some didn't flower at all. I think I will dig up some of the ones that didn't flower and plant them again. In the middle I have a Lychfield Angel from DA and saving some spots for a Evelyn rose. This is my only garden bed that I can plant tall plants so the peonies better start flowering or they will get replaced lol.

Ho tall does you Judge the Obscure gets? I wan tot get one for the front of the house but I can't have tall plants there. she seems huge on your pictures!

Florence Nicholls bouquet

I had already cut at least 10 blooms off FN before that bouquet and still this was what remained.

Salvia Caradonna

It took some of mine 2 years to bloom and even then they were very small and not mature. Last year they were great but this year one of them is even more improved and beautiful. They are fantastic and can take time to grow enough to flower. As I am sure you know do not plant deeply.

Peonies are not the flower of choice for instant gratification. The first season after planting is usually flowerless everywhere that I've planted them. The next couple years are but a whisper of what they will become. Beside that, bad weather can ruin a bloom. But it is a flower for the ages. There are many centenarians among peonies. I remember my grandmother's peonies that bloomed around Memorial Day in Ohio. Now some of them bloom in my sister's garden.

On a different note, come on, people! Pictures and sources???!!! This is yet another obsession that I don't need and you're making it way too easy.

I like Adelman and Hollingsworth for peony sources ;)

If you want rare or hard to find do not use Old House Gardens they are a wholesaler and not a grower. oursteelers mentioned two good sources but Hidden Springs Flower Farm is another. Be aware that both Adelman's and Hidden Springs on line catalog goes live most years in late December. Harvey at Hidden Springs sells out the rare ones normally in less than a day when it goes on line.

Some peonies take up to 7+ years from planting to first bloom. My Mackinac Grand took 9 years.

CeresMer peonies do not like to be disturbed. More often than not I won't get blooms if I've moved them since their last bloom cycle. They also don't like for their tubers to be buried too deeply. So you might just want to sit tight another year and see what you have.

I love roses and I love peonies, but my peonies are in a bed by themselves on the side of the house that gets morning shade and hard afternoon sun--which roses typically hate. The peonies are really a here for cutting and bringing into the house. Between temperature swings and hard rains that make them droop into the soil I find them really difficult to incorporate into a garden scene. But I do love them in the house! Here's my very last one of the year:

beautiful! @totoro z7b Md love the white one, and what a blooming machine! ok, mine are on their second year, I got carried away and planted 13 of them on my first year in our house. Now, that I have 2y of gardening I want more roses for the longer bloom season. I have one climber on its second year that is blooming so well. All my David Austins are just babies. I love roses and peonies together. I'm also planting lavender, chives and Salvia to this bed when $$ allows, I spent all my budget on DA roses this year!!

CeresMer your bouquet is really beautiful!

I love the bouquet and the peonies, and remember being swept away as a child by the fragrance and apparent interior glow of the big 'bomb' type -- regretfully I do not have room, but I want everyone else to keep growing and cherishing these magnificent creations.

I agree that they really are rather difficult to incorporate into the garden scene, as noted above. Russell Page used to set aside a section (by the entrance gate to a house, say), IIRC, just for peonies and iris.

But these pictures tend to prove this may not be true -- at least about the Itoh peonies, which seem to blend in rather well. BTW is Florence Nichols fragrant? Asking for a friend.

BTW, I wanted to share a curious fact I recently learned about peonies. Herbaceous peonies form their flower buds underground in the year previous to flowering. This is the reason why they resent disturbance so much. According to Matt Mattus, if you want flowers on your peony you should coddle it the summer previous, and do not disturb unless the plant is dormant -- if at all. He writes:

"Understanding how a peony grows, will help you understand why autumn is often suggested as the best, if not only time to move them. Peonies are essentially woodland plants - they form their buds in the previous year, just near the surface of the ground where the large, woody roots are showing.

"You will see these buds by late summer, if you peek near the surface of the ground. This early prep is one reason why one is often told to not plant peony roots deeper than how they were planted originally, and why mulches which are heavy such as wood bark must be used carefully, or pulled away front eh crown of the plant. It's this intersection between what is above the ground and below the ground, which is important. One does not want buds forming too low under the ground, nor have their woody roots extending too much above the soil."

According to what Don Hollingsworth told me peony buds erupt at least three years before they emerge from the ground on most peonies. The first year unless you know what you are looking at you would not consider it a bud. It appears as a hard bump on the surface more like a root fiber.

In Sweden rocks are used for mulch because they have found that wood bark or chips will cause rot and fungi. Most just use the type of rock that is road gravel in most of the US.

With Matt Mattus's comment about peonies being woodland plants makes me wonder what his source of information is. If they were woodland plants most would need woodland conditions to do their best and not full sunlight. Read Hong if you want to know more about suspected origins of peonies.

I wondered about that, too. Japanese ones are woodland plants (if I were starting over I would have planted those), I understand. But my impression was that many of them were native to mountainous areas.

Wikipedia says of herbaceous peonies: "During summer, renewal buds develop on the underground stem (the "crown"), particularly at the foot of the current season's annual shoots. These renewal buds come in various sizes. Large buds will grow into stems the following growing season, but smaller buds remain dormant. The primordia for the leaves can already be found in June, but the flower only starts differentiating in October, as the annual shoots die down, completing its development in December, when sepals, petals, stamens and pistils are all recognisable."

Ceresemer, my Jude is about 6 ft tall.

Monarda, FN has a mild fragrance. Moonstone is stronger and also has that blush pink tint in the early stages. Not as prolific as FN though.

I dislike how my peonies flop as well, especially on top of The Faun rose. I have on order these half circle flower hoops from Gardeners Supply. They come in different heights depending on the height of the peony. I think these will be easier to store than the full circle ones.

Pink Hawaiian Coral is the only one that does not flop.

I got FN and Moonstone from A&D peonies.

Wow guys thank you so much for all this info. I will leave them alone and be careful with the mulching. Mine are second year, so I guess still babies. I did plant too many so I need to remove some come fall... I don’t have any good pictures of the rose + peonies because I cut every peony once they are ready. I just love to have them inside. they did flower at the same time tho, maybe cause the weather just started warming up for us here in NJ

I love cutting the peonies too. My son complains when I cut the flowers for inside saying that I made the garden look too “ tan.“

Last of the peony rose shots. Sarah Bernhardt fades to a blush pink.

I also really like the these half hoops for holding back garden plants.

Peony, rose and cat mint

here you go! Peonies (late blooming ones) and roses look fabulous together imo, in garden or in a vase.

Beautiful! Which pennies are late-blooming

Vaporvac —- usually the very doubled and ruffled ones are later blooming. I suggested this because late blooming peonies would flower at approximately the same time as your roses’ first spring flush in late May /early June, whereas the early blooming ones, albeit pretty all the same, wouldnt bloom together with roses.

Among the late blooming peonies I really like Sarah Bernhardt (light pink), duchesse de nemours (white), Shirley Temple (nearly white), and maxima festiva (almost white and as shown in the above pictures).

Vaporvac,

Most of the peony catalogs state the period of bloom for each cultivar; early, early-mid, mid, mid-late or late season. Usually late peonies are pale, white or pink, and double although there are a few dark exceptions. I think that the pale coloring is the contribution of P. lactiflora in their breeding. A few peonies have rose fragrance. My mother had a pink one which I think may have been Hermione. I've been looking into peonies this year and will probably be getting a few more from A & D and a few other nurseries.

Cath

Peonies bloom at different times. There is a definite order by type and cultivar which I cannot recall at the moment - tree, intersectional (Itoh), species, and early, mid and late season herbaceous. You might want to check with your favorite peony nursery. It would definitely be worth dealing with a specialty nursery. They know so much more, and have so much wider a range of cultivars. Here in California the bloom ranges from mid April to early June, and they have just finished up.

Many, possibly most, perennials are once bloomers, though peonies have an especially short season IMO. I still find them worth growing, and happy plants can live for decades, even up to 100 years.

Here is one of around 50 that I have scattered around my six acres.

Frank

After seeing these wonderful pictures, I would like to try some peonies aside my roses. Say the rose is 4'x3'. What is the best spacing?

Living in SoCal most of my life, it was my dream to grow peonies. When we moved here, I planted peonies anywhere I could stick them. Now, I am in the process of removing a few every year. both herbaceous and tree.

In the 25 years we've been here they only bloomed with the roses once, last year. It looks like they will again this year. But, their blooms always coincide with our spring rains and wind, so they never look good. I've brought bucket loads inside, but that leaves the garden bare.

I'm replacing most of the peonies with roses.

Here are Abe Darby and Evelyn dwarfed by peonies (from left) Red Charm, Angel Cheeks, Bride's Dream, and White Frost.

Lovely! I'm just sad that we can't smell them.