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How To Prune Peonies So They Grow Big And Bright!

Want to know How To Prune Peonies the RIGHT way? Here is a quick and easy guide to pruning your peonies, so they grow bright and healthy!

Plants are at the heart of everyday life for millions of people. We plant them, we water them, we grow them and we out our love and affection into them.

Many people believe that plants and gardening are not only pretty but good for people’s mental health. Therefore, it is important that you keep your plant as healthy as possible for as long as possible. 

Sometimes this can mean pruning your plant.

Whilst pruning a plant may seem like a bad thing it’s actually necessary for ensuring it stays healthy. If plants grow too big or get tangled in other plants then this can be harmful to them.

Pruning allows the plant to not overextend itself and to grow in a more natural direction. This is important for ensuring that the plant lives as long as possible. 

Use quality pruners to help you carry out your pruning tasks swiftly and easily!

One plant that might seem at first difficult to prune is peonies. Cultivated in many countries for centuries, the peony is one of the most well know types of flowers available.

Though they are well known for their bright and evocative colours, peonies can also have a tendency to overgrow which can be harmful to them. Therefore, they need to be pruned and pruned in the right way. 

The question that might be leaping to your mind is – how to prune peonies without harming them? Well, this piece will answer that question for you. 

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Why Do Peonies Need To Be Pruned? 

As mentioned above, peonies needed pruning because overgrowing can be harmful to the plant. This is because the plant may overgrow itself, meaning too much of its energy is put into one part of it rather than the plant as a whole. 

It is also important to prune peonies because they are susceptible to certain diseases such as peony wilt, a fungal disease that causes the leaves and stem of the plant to wither away and can eventually cause it to die.

As peony wilt can begin to take root in the autumn before truly becoming a problem in the spring it is important that you prune your peonies well. 

Place your peonies in beautiful hanging baskets which can be hung and displayed almost anywhere and everyone!

If properly pruned, then peonies can live for a very long time – some plants are recorded to have lived for a hundred years or more thanks to being well looked after!

Pruning your peonies will not only help them but any other plants nearby. If the peonies overgrow then they may inadvertently strangle the development of other plants by taking sunlight or ground from them.

This can stun the plants development or even cause them to die. This is why pruning is not only good for your peonies but good for all the other plants in your garden. 

Give your peonies organic plant food to boost the bulbs and bloom!

How To Prune Your Peonies 

Now that you know why it is important to prune your peonies, it’s time to look at how you prune them. Pruning them may seem at first like a complex process but once you have done it several times you will think almost nothing of it. 

Firstly, measure the stem of each peony plant from 2.5cm to the length that the stem has fully grown. This allows you to have an idea of the right length for your peony plant to be.

Once you are sure of the distance from the 2.5cm length of the stem to the full extent of it, cut the peony until its stem only measures 2.5cm. 

This ensures that your peony plant is able to properly grow later in the year.

Stems that vastly overgrow the 2.5cm mark usually end up growing larger and larger until they are not only untameable but also a hazard to themselves and to other plants. 

If you are uncertain as to the right length from 2.5cm to the end of the stem, then the next best thing is to cut every third stem.

This is important because even if some of your other stems are too long, by cutting one out completely this will allow the other stems to have more of a chance and for the plant to not become too big. It is when the plant overextends itself that it becomes a danger. 

Note– If you want to make your green fingers happier and your life easier, you can use this affordable 83 piece ultimate gardening set to help you repot like a pro!

Other Plant Care Tips 

It is also worth considering when examining the stem to be pruned whether the plant should be moved at all during colder weather. This not only depends on whether it is in a plant pot but also whether or not it is in the ground.

Whilst peonies are strong and reliable plants, they do also have a tendency to be overly affected by bad weather. 

This means that to make sure that they aren’t harmed by the bad weather you should consider moving them. Whilst uprooting a plant might seem like a bad idea or something that you shouldn’t do, often it can help the plant. 

Replant your peonies in porous terracotta pots for healthy better root growth!

As long as the process of moving the plant to somewhere where it might get more direct sunlight is done delicately, it will be okay and may in fact help the plant. 

Why Grow Plants In The First Place?

You might wonder, given all the effort that is involved with pruning and caring for plants, why you should grow them in the first place. Some people have often said what is the point of putting so much effort into something that doesn’t respond to you? 

Growing plants can not only be a therapeutic activity it can also keep your mind active. By focussing on ensuring your plants are healthy it can keep you mind going and has in fact helped some patients with dementia and Alzheimer’s. 

Equally, growing plants is good for the environment. It means you are contributing to the well being of the planet and helping it continue to flourish and repair itself when faced with the threat of climate change.

The pretty and evocative color of plants such as the peony bely a much starker truth – that for all our sakes we must invest in and look after nature because if we don’t do something we and our children will regret it in the future.

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