Careful Peony Plantings Can Yield Years Of Blooms

Q. How do I care for peonies? For the past several years, many of the flower buds have dried up before blooming. Should I be feeding them?

A. The "dried up" buds may be a common fungal disease called peony botrytis blight. This disease causes symptoms like buds turning black, stems darkening and sometimes rotting all the way through, and leaf curling and blackening. When the leaves die down for winter, carefully trim out all the old foliage. When clipping, watch out for the new, emerging buds of next year's growth which will be just at ground level. Don't put the cut-off foliage in compost piles.

Peonies grow best in a well-drained soil amended with compost or other organic matter such as aged steer manure. Adding fertilizer once in the spring as the plant begins to grow will help, but choose a fertilizer with a fairly low nitrogen component, such as 5-10-10. Too much nitrogen fertilizer will cause leaf growth but reduce the flower production. Don't spread any animal manure over the crown of the plant; in fact keep all fertilizer away from the crowns. Do spread fertilizer around the plant about 6 inches to 18 inches away.

Fall is the best time to transplant and install new peonies. Be sure when planting that the crown - where their growing tips are - is not planted too deeply. The visible "eyes" or new growth points shouldn't be deeper than 2 inches below the surface. Peony growers agree that too-deep planting may lead to lack of bloom. And when planting peonies for the first time, be patient. The plant may require three or more years to come into good bloom. If properly planted, they bloom gloriously for decades in gardens without division or re-setting.

Q: What do I do about black aphids on my green beans?

A: Aphids are fairly easy to control. A strong spray of water from your hose will knock off many. These will die before they manage to get back on the plant. If that doesn't work, use a spray of insecticidal soap. This pesticide kills aphids, mites and other soft-bodied insects without hurting beneficial insects as much as most insecticides. For best results, be sure to spray the undersides of leaves, too.

Some gardeners grow a trap crop of nasturtiums. Since the black aphid like these flowers even better than beans, they will get infested, sparing your beans. Then you can tear up and dispose of the nasturtiums, ridding your garden of the aphids without using pesticides.

For a detailed discussion of all kinds of aphids, you may want to listen to DialExtension tape No. 1281. The DialExtension system is a tape library with a couple hundred gardening topics. The short messages are filled with useful information.

Dial (206) 296-DIAL (296-3425). Touch-tone phone users can call 24 hours a day; from rotary dial phones, you must call Monday-Friday between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. For a listing of the tape titles available, please send a self-addressed, stamped, business-size envelope to DialExtension/WSU Cooperative Extension-King Co., 506 Second Ave., Suite 612, Seattle, WA 98104.

Gardening runs Friday in Scene and Sunday in Home/Real Estate. It is prepared by Mary Robson, Area Horticulture Agent; Holly Kennell, Washington State University/King County Cooperative Extension agent, Susan Miller, integrated pest management specialist, and volunteer Master Gardeners.