How to Grow Peonies From Seed

Views: 23692 | Last Update: 2009-07-30
How to Grow Peonies From Seed - Provided by eHow
Growing peonies from the seed is done by collecting the blooms as soon as they turn to seed, placing them in moist soil in a plastic bag and keeping them in the refrigerator for the winter. Recreate nature when collecting and growing seeds with helpful... View Video Transcript

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Yolanda Vanveen

Video Transcript

Hi, this is Yolanda Vanveen. And in this segment I want to talk about how to grow peonies or peonies from seed. Now I've grown peonies from the root tubers. As long as you divide and it has some eyes, you can make a new plant. But you can also start them from seed. And sometimes it takes three to five to ten years to get a bloom out of a plant that's started from a seed. But it's worth the effort. And they're just such a beautiful plant. And they're fun to start from seed. Now you've got to remember in nature they come up and they bloom, then the blooms die, they make seed pods. Then that seed pod kind of sits there all summer long and then when the foliage and the plant dies in the fall the seeds pods go onto the ground and they get mulched themselves over the leaves. And then the next year they come up and grow. So in our gardens we always want everything to look so beautiful and we're always cutting everything out. So a easy way to grow them from seed is to just recreate the same conditions. And it's so easy. So you can see that this peony has made seed pods. And these will turn into roots and sticks and that's what will grow into another plant. So naturally they would grow onto the ground and grow into their own plant. So as I'm trimming them out as soon as they turn to seed I want to cut them down to the next leaf line and leave the leaves so I can enjoy those leaves through the fall because they turn a beautiful burgundy color. Now the seeds themselves, as you can see, will just keep growing. Now the trick is to recreate winter for them. So the easiest way to do that is to just throw them in a plastic bag with some moist soil, not too wet and not too dry either. And I put it in the middle of it so there's dirt all the way around it. And really cover it up and then just close that bag up so it pretends it's under the ground and throw that bag in the refrigerator until next January. And just ignore it. Now what I found is I want to recreate nature. So if I throw it in the refrigerator right now it'll go dormant right away. But in nature it's still going to be warm until October. So I still like to recreate nature. So right now in the summer time I'm going to leave it in the soil warm. I'm just going to leave it in my storage area, in my storage shed. In September, October when it starts cooling off naturally? I want to throw it in the refrigerator. Lets say November 1st or if it's earlier for you in a colder climate. And you want to leave it in the refrigerator for about three to four months so it thinks it's winter time. And turn around and plant that seed either in a container or right in the ground about two or three inches deep, not too deep. And you will find that it'll be lots of roots on those little seeds, too. They'll start growing in the bag. And so as soon as my peonies come up naturally, so not until March or April put them outside and they'll come up and you'll have just a few leaves the first year. A few more leaves the second year. A few more leaves the third year and eventually you will get blooms out of your peony seeds.