Peonies, cherished for their large, often fragrant blooms, are a traditional highlight of the late spring and early summer garden. These long-lived perennials come in two main forms: the herbaceous type, which dies back to the ground each winter, and the woody-stemmed tree peony. Their enduring popularity means they often form the centerpiece of a landscape. Maximizing their impact requires careful planning through companion planting. This practice involves strategically selecting other species to grow nearby, ensuring the overall health of the peony and maintaining continuous aesthetic appeal in the garden bed.
Peony Care Requirements as a Foundation
Successful companion planting begins with understanding the peony’s specific environmental demands. Peonies require a location that receives a minimum of six hours of direct sunlight daily to produce abundant flowers and maintain strong stem structure. Soil conditions are equally important, necessitating a rich, loamy medium that is consistently well-drained to prevent root rot. These plants thrive best in a slightly acidic to neutral pH range, typically between 6.5 and 7.0. Adequate air circulation around the foliage is necessary to deter fungal issues, meaning companions should not crowd the parent plant.
Companion Plants for Foliage Coverage
One of the primary motivations for choosing companions is masking the peony’s foliage after the flowers fade in early summer. Herbaceous peonies, in particular, often develop sprawling or discolored leaves as the season progresses, which can create an unsightly gap in the garden. Selecting plants that mature later and possess a sturdy, upright growth habit is the solution to this aesthetic challenge. Ornamental grasses, such as Panicum virgatum (Switchgrass), offer fine-textured blades that provide a vertical counterpoint and grow tall enough to screen the lower peony leaves by mid-summer.
Deep-rooted perennials like Russian Sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia) are excellent choices because they do not compete heavily with the peony’s shallow root system for resources. Russian Sage provides silvery foliage and small, late-summer blue flowers, distracting the eye from the aging peony leaves. Annuals such as Nicotiana (Flowering Tobacco) can be tucked into the spaces between peonies, providing height and continuous color from mid-summer until frost.
Another effective option is Baby’s Breath (Gypsophila paniculata), which forms a voluminous, cloud-like mass of tiny white or pink flowers. This plant’s airy structure effectively softens the density of the post-bloom peony foliage without suffocating it. The goal is to use plants that achieve their full visual presence just as the peony is entering its less attractive, post-flowering stage.
Extending Garden Color Through Timing
Maximizing the garden’s visual impact involves selecting companions that bloom sequentially, ensuring continuous color before and after the peony’s relatively short flowering period. Early-season bulbs are ideal for preceding the peony bloom, emerging and completing their life cycle before the peony canopy fully develops. Daffodils (Narcissus) and tulips (Tulipa) provide vibrant color in early spring, their foliage fading back conveniently as the peony begins its ascent.
Conversely, late-season perennials are necessary to carry the color palette forward once the peony petals have dropped. Garden Phlox (Phlox paniculata) provides large, fragrant flower clusters in mid-to-late summer, drawing attention away from the dormant peony. Similarly, certain varieties of lilies (Lilium) offer striking, upright flowers that bloom during the height of summer, providing intense vertical contrast.
Sedum (Hylotelephium spectabile), particularly the ‘Autumn Joy’ variety, is another reliable choice. It develops flower buds throughout the summer and bursts into deep pink or reddish color in the fall. Focusing on these staggered bloom times guarantees the garden bed remains a point of interest for nearly six months.
Avoiding Harmful Competition and Disease
Strategic placement involves identifying species that should be kept away from peony roots to prevent resource competition and disease transmission. Peonies are highly sensitive to root disturbance, meaning aggressive growers that demand excessive water or nutrients should be excluded from the planting area. Large, shallow-rooted trees and established shrubs are problematic because their dense network of feeder roots will quickly outcompete the peony for available moisture and soil minerals.
The primary disease concern for peonies is Botrytis blight, a fungal infection that thrives in humid, stagnant conditions. Consequently, any companion plant that creates a dense, moisture-holding canopy directly over the peony crown should be avoided. Maintaining good air circulation is a proactive measure against Botrytis, making overly dense or sprawling groundcovers poor choices near the peony base.