Last year I bought two peonies - Sarah Bernhardt and Peony Sorbet. One I left in the pot it came in, the other I put into normal potting compost by mistake. When is the best time to re-pot these plants into John Innes No. 3 and how do I deal with the one currently in the wrong compost?
I see that no one has responded to your inquiry, so I shall say a word or two: February and March are what we here deem as the "rule-of-thumb" planting period for peony's. I gather that you will grow your peony's in containers then? I have never grown them in containers; however, I would imagine that transplanting or planting-out would generally have the same rules. You asked about "when" to do it, so I will limit my comments to that. I hope that you will have good luck with them. I assume that you know the basics of planting this lovely flowering plant so I expect you to have great success. Bonne chance, mate.
@Sjoerd yes, I will grow my peonies in large pots with good drainage. They are not tree peonies. I believe that the basics of planting peonies are that they don't like to be moved and any disturbance to the root ball and eyes may mean it might not flower for a year or two, . With the one still in its original pot that's easy as I can just put the contents of the pot into a bigger pot so long as the soil is at the same height. With the other one, I need to try to take the compost back to the root ball so that I can transplant it into Johnn Inness No. 3.
Hi Kazza , What do you call " normal potting compost " ? I only ever use MPC. I find it easy to replenish food supplies etc afterwards
@Kminster Normal potting compost MPC. https://www.diy.com/departments/verve-compost-125l/1635294_BQ.prd
put your plant in the freezer for 48hours, you can then take it out and move it into better compost while frozen, we freeze the plant so it wont feel a thing.LOL is the one in normal compost doing badly? will the transplant shock really be worth it?
As I only have a small garden I only have the space to grow peonies in pots. However they are large pots.
Yes, this is the one or should I say two. There shouldn’t be too much shock and its only the one that was planted in the wrong compost. You can move peonies, but they don’t really like it.
Thank you @Petronius , these are the types peonies I bought last year https://www.walmart.com/ip/Bloomsz-Sarah-Bernhardt-Peony-Roots-3-P/43332904 https://primrosehallpeonies.co.uk/product/paeonia-lactiflora-sorbet-peony-sorbet/