peonies and climate change
The hardiness and persistence of peonies have enabled them to withstand
difficult growing conditions through millennia.
But plant-adaptation is more gradual than
recent changes to local climate, subjecting perennial plants like peonies to
unprecedented stresses.
In northern New Hampshire an already difficult climate has become more chaotic and less predictable, with extremes in many dimensions: wind, water, ice, snow, temperature, and timing.
Informed by an article from the 2011 American Peony Society Bulletin, the Coos Riviera has been developing strategies to lessen the effects of local climate change on its peonies, especially at fall planting time. This article offers helpful information about soil, planting, fertilization, and mulch.