Why Plant Peonies in the Fall?

Every year as summer begins winding down, we start hearing a familiar question:

When is the best time to plant peonies?

For bare-root peonies, the answer is simple:

Fall.

Here at Mountain Flower Farm, our annual peony harvest begins as the plants enter dormancy. We dig and divide our roots in fall and ship them directly from our Vermont fields so they can be planted during the natural dormant season.

There's a good reason generations of peony growers have planted this way.

Peonies Have a Natural Annual Cycle

By late summer and fall, a peony has already spent months storing energy underground.

As temperatures cool, the foliage begins shutting down and the plant enters dormancy. Above ground, very little appears to be happening.

Underground is another story.

Fall gives newly planted roots an opportunity to settle into their new location and begin establishing before winter.

When spring finally arrives, the plant is already where it belongs and ready to grow.

Fall Planting Gives Peonies a Head Start

A fall-planted peony doesn't need to simultaneously cope with transplanting, rapidly warming temperatures, new foliage, and approaching summer heat.

Instead, it gets a quiet establishment period.

Cool soil temperatures and generally reliable fall moisture create excellent conditions for newly planted roots.

By the time the first shoots emerge in spring, the plant has already spent months in its permanent home.

Bare-Root Peonies Are Easy to Plant

You don't need an enormous hole.

You don't need elaborate fertilizers.

And you certainly don't need to baby peonies once they're established.

Choose a sunny, well-drained location and prepare the soil thoroughly before planting.

Position the root with its pink or reddish buds—the "eyes"—facing upward. In our northern climate, we generally want those eyes approximately 1–2 inches below the finished soil surface.

Then replace the soil, gently firm it around the root, and water thoroughly.

That's about it.

One caution is important:

Don't plant peonies too deeply.

Peonies planted deeply can grow beautiful foliage year after year without producing the flowers everyone is waiting for.

Prepare Your Planting Area Now

You don't have to wait for your roots to arrive before getting started.

Late summer is actually an excellent time to decide where your new peonies will live.

Look for a location with:

Plenty of sunlight
Good air circulation
Excellent drainage
Enough room for the mature plant

Remove perennial weeds now. Improve drainage if necessary. Prepare the soil while the weather is pleasant rather than trying to do everything the afternoon your box arrives.

For growers establishing larger peony plantings, planning ahead becomes even more important.

Lay out your rows. Think about spacing. Make amendments where needed.

When the roots arrive this fall, planting becomes the easy part.

Don't Wait Until Fall to ORDER Your Peonies

This distinction is important.

Fall is the time to plant peonies. Late summer is often the time to order them.

By the time we're actually digging roots here in Vermont, many of our most sought-after varieties have already been reserved.

Our annual inventory begins selling months before harvest. As the season progresses and we complete our final field counts, we occasionally release additional roots—but quantities become increasingly limited as digging approaches.

If you're planning to add peonies this fall, choosing your varieties now gives you a much better selection than waiting until planting season arrives.

You're Planting More Than Next Year's Flowers

Perhaps our favorite thing about peonies is their permanence.

Plant a vegetable and you may harvest it once.

Plant many annual flowers and you'll start again next spring.

Plant a peony in the right place and it may still be flowering decades from now.

Some old peony plantings survive the gardeners who planted them. They remain around old farmhouses and abandoned foundations, flowering every spring as a reminder of somebody who gardened there generations before.

That's part of what makes planting peonies different.

You're not really planting for next spring.

You're planting for the springs that come after it.

And fall is the perfect time to begin.

Mountain Flower Farm peony roots are freshly dug from our Vermont fields each fall and shipped directly to gardeners and growers around the country. Browse our current fall root availability and reserve your varieties before harvest begins.