I don't know what those are, but...

Your peonies are blooming already?!??!

Hi Oladon! Yes, in Kansas they sure are. Still not sure what kind of bugs these are. Have tried searching to find out but nothing looks quite like them. They disappeared the next day so guess I won't worry about it unless they reappear!

Hi Misty,

I don't know what they are either! isn't that helpful!!! The first one reminded me of a stink bug, but when I searched images I was wrong about that! Glad they at least went away for you.

Since I'm signed in right now I just wanted to stop by and say: HI! Glad to see you here again!

I hope the nasty weather that's been moving thru near you lately has missed you! It looked like there was some really nasty stuff not too far from you! Be ready to run for your tornado shelter!

Skybird

05.05.24 @ 1722 MDT

Misty I think the top one is an assassin bug or something similar. They are beneficial by eating eggs, leafhoppers, aphids etc. I’m also from Kansas but no peonies here yet.

The bottom picture looks familiar… kind of like a water beetle? If you see more I’ll dig deeper.

Thanks Melissa. I have not seen any bugs on any of my peonies since so guess it may have been a fluke. I'll keep an eye out though! What part of Kansas are you from? I am in the E portion, 60 miles south of KC. I've only had a few blooms on 2 plants. The one plant that had the most was one that I didn't plant but was a surprise when we were clearing out some brush! It's the largest too. My other plants were transplants from when we moved here. They are really small so guess they are still acclimating. I've been checking the light in the garden bed where they are as I've noticed my iris and the peonies are not blooming well. The SunCalc sunlight calculator tool says that area is only partial shade so that may be the problem. I may have to redo the bed and move these plants to a sunnier location. It's weird as I really thought this area was sunny when I originally made it. Perhaps the trees are leafing out more now or later in the summer the sun angle may change and hit this area better, which was when I initially planned the bed.

I am in nw Kansas. So quite a difference! I consider my irises partially shaded but they do well. Just got the first blooms on those yesterday. My peonies are getting close.

Oh right, very different weather patterns between the two! My irises have wonderful looking foliage but no blooms :( Only two have bloomed and one of those had a misshaped one and 2 buds never formed. These were also plants that I transplanted when I moved almost 2 years ago, but moved them from one temp spot to this bed a year ago. So maybe roots are still forming. Both the peonies and the irises were from plants that were doing very well in Colorado. The peonies though were babies from the mother plant so they may need more time to grow and mature. I have the iris knees showing so not sure why they aren't blooming if the partial shade isn't the issue - they do get direct sun in the late morning and some in late afternoon, filtered light in between those times due to the trees.

Yes peonies take forever to get big enough to flower! Send a picture of the irises. I’m curious!

Here are a couple of pics of my irises (maybe we should start a new thread, lol!).

This is the one iris that did successfully bloom. You can see the spent blooms as well as a seed pod starting on one (just noticed that!). It is located only a couple of feet from the other iris that didn't successfully bloom, as well as several other irises that never got a bloom stalk.

Here is a pic of the iris that developed 3 buds but only one partially opened (you can see the spent petals), and had only about 2 petals, and the other 2 buds never fully developed.

Besides too much shade, I read they could be planted too deep?

I’m not sure why the photo posted!