Free Printable Peony Calendar 2027

About the Peony

The peony is one of the oldest garden flowers we have. It was grown in China more than a thousand years ago, first as a medicinal plant and then, by the Tang dynasty, as the flower of emperors - tree peonies were planted in the imperial gardens at Luoyang, painted on silk and celebrated in poetry as the "king of flowers." The plant traveled to Japan, where growers bred the simpler, more open forms still called Japanese peonies, and reached Europe through monastery gardens and botanists' collections. The name comes from Greek myth: Paeon, physician to the gods, was said to have used the root to heal wounds. In America the peony arrived with the settlers and became a farmhouse staple - the big bushes by the porch steps that outlive the house are usually peonies.

Kinds of peonies

Most garden peonies are herbaceous: they die back to the ground every winter and return each spring from a thick root, living for fifty years or more in the same spot. Tree peonies are woody shrubs that keep their branches through winter and carry the largest flowers of all, sometimes ten inches across. Intersectional or Itoh peonies are a modern cross of the two and bring the yellows and apricots that herbaceous peonies could never manage. Within those groups the flower shapes range from single, with a ring of petals around a golden center, to the huge, dense bombs and doubles that most people picture when they hear the word.

Colors and bloom time

Peonies come in white, cream, every shade of pink from blush to shocking, coral, red, deep wine and, in the newer hybrids, yellow, lavender and near-purple. Coral varieties fade as they open, from salmon to peach to almost ivory over a few days, so one bush can look like three. In most of the United States the season runs from late April in the South to mid-June in the North, and a single plant blooms for about a week to ten days - which is why gardeners plant early, mid and late varieties to stretch the show to six weeks.

Growing them at home

Peonies want full sun, good drainage and patience. Plant the roots in fall with the buds no more than two inches below the surface - planted deeper, they will grow leaves for years and never flower. The first year gives a few blooms, the third year gives a proper bush, and after that the plant needs almost nothing: a ring of support so the heavy flowers do not fall in the rain, a cut to the ground in autumn, and a spot where it is left alone. They do not like being moved. The ants you see on the buds are not a problem; they are after the sweet coating on the bud and leave once the flower opens.

A few things you may not know

Cut peonies in the "marshmallow" stage, when the bud is soft to the touch but not yet open, and they will keep for a week or two in the refrigerator, wrapped dry in paper - florists store them this way for months. The peony is the state flower of Indiana. In the language of flowers it stands for good fortune, a happy marriage and honor, which is why it is the most requested wedding flower in America and why Chinese New Year decorations are full of them. And a well-sited peony can outlive the person who planted it: bushes over a hundred years old are still blooming in old farm gardens across the Midwest.

More peony printables on this page

This page grows through the year. As we add new peony printables - planner pages, bookmarks, wall art, gift tags, holiday sheets - they appear here as new sections, so the address stays the same and everything peony lives in one place. If you would like a particular peony design, write to us at [email protected].