- A first cut may be made immediately after flowering
- The main cut: timing and cutting technique
- Not resorting to pruning shears at all or in a particularly radical way?
In contrast to the lower perennial peony, the tree peony can grow to a height of up to 3 m, sometimes even 5 m. The flowering shrubs can reach a lifespan of up to 60 years in a suitable location without replanting.
Tree peonies do not necessarily need to be pruned
A first cut may be made immediately after flowering
During each vegetation phase from spring to autumn, the tree peony goes through a veritable play of colors in the garden: First, the shoots appear with a reddish hue, before the leaves turn increasingly green. After the eye-catching flower, the star-shaped fruit capsules form, which gradually darken in color until they burst. Finally, in autumn, the foliage changes color again before falling off the bush. It is up to you whether you want to interfere with this natural course of the year. If you allow the seeds to develop, you can collect them in autumn and enjoy the decorative look of the fruit capsules. However, you can also carefully remove wilted inflorescences immediately after flowering in order to save the plants a lot of energy for seed formation in their growth budget.
The main cut: timing and cutting technique
You can encourage the flowering of your tree peonies if you consciously shape them once a year. The best time for this is autumn, when the foliage of the shrubs has already started to fall. You avoid unsightly branch stumps if you always start the cuts directly above an outward-facing bud on the branch. You can cut out shoots that grow inwards to ensure a more open and better branched growth of the tree peony.
Not resorting to pruning shears at all or in a particularly radical way?
When pruning the tree peony, you have a number of options:
- not cut at all
- targeted shaping
- radical pruning to a height of about 40 to 50 cm
As a rule, a radical pruning is tolerated relatively well by older specimens. Such a plant may also be necessary to free a tree peony that has been thriving at the site for a long time from an infestation with the dreaded gray mold.
tips
Tree peonies cut for the vase should be freed from their leaves at the bottom and re-cut about every two days. Then the flowers in the vase can show their best side for up to ten days.