This past weekend we planted 100 roots of one of our favorite perennial flowers-- PEONIES. It was a gorgeous day for it and we've certainly been lucky with this sunny and warm early November.
Let's start with a few definitions first so we're all on the same page.
Perennial: enduring or continually recurring. Aka, plants that come back year after year.
Annual: occurring once every year. Aka, plants that grow only for one season.
Peonies are perennials and should continue to grow and bloom for many, many years to come. They do well in our Iowa environment and bloom in the late part of the spring / early part of the summer.
So how did we plant them? What was our process?
1. We placed an order for peony roots from an Iowa peony farm months ago and they recently arrived, fresh dug from the ground. Peony roots can be sourced a variety of ways, but we try to purchase from other Iowa growers when it's possible! This also means these peonies should be well adapted to thrive in our environment.
2. We dug 100 holes, 3 feet away from each other with 6 feet between the rows. We chose not plant into landscape fabric and instead mulch around the plants this spring.
3. Then we soaked the peony roots in water for about 30 minutes. They were so fresh we weren't worried about them being too shriveled up, but we decided to soak them anyways.
4. We planted our little hearts out! Each peony got planted with their "eyes" up and only a couple inches deep.
5. For the next few weeks, we'll give them some water...unless we get a little rain in the forecast!
It will take a few years for us to start cutting off of them, but it should be a worthy investment! We can't wait.