My Peonies are dying.......!!!!! (flowers, landscaping, growing, bugs)

[sasie123]

First I thought my peonies had Fire Blight........now I think it is Leaf Blotch. The top of the leaves looked burned out, but no Sheppard's hook. And it started in August. So I downloaded information for both, however, we have had a terrible, terrible summer with temperatures from 90 degrees up to 100, and humidity up in the nineties. So I am leaning toward Leaf Blotch because three days in a row, I was unable to water them.......and it was during those horrific days of high temperatures, so I am assuming it could have been the lack of water..... and the stress,.....anyway,

What I need to know is what I can spray on them.....? Realistically speaking, as much as I hate to use products that are not organic.....the reality is that many of them do not work, on either one of these diseases, as I tried it last year.

I am unable to show you any photographs. Your comments are greatly appreciated, and I thank you in advanced....

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

Peonies die back every year and then come back in the spring. I'm not an expert, but I had some old ones in the landscaping of an old house I bought in WA state. I would bet that you could just cut them back to just a few leaves, keep them moist and then let the winter take it's course. I bet they come back just fine in spring.

[Zoisite]

I doubt they are actually dying and I think you should leave them alone. If it really bothers you just cut them all right back to the ground but I don't think you should go spraying a bunch of stuff of any kind on them. They should come back okay next spring. It was probably heat stress effected them and not any kind of disease. The same thing happened here. From early June onwards we had 12 weeks steady of no rain and daily temps into the high 90's or more and the leaves on all of the peonies started turning ugly red and brown within only 3 days of the temps rising so high in June. They went into shock and stayed that way all summer.

Except for the big Shasta Daisies all of the other plants and trees here had gone into shock by mid July, even the hardiest of them, all stopped growing, stopped producing flowers or fruit and all of them changed their leaf colours because of the intense heat this summer and they have all stayed that way right through to now. I know it was the heat that did it and certainly not from lack of water because they were getting water every day.

Now that it has finally started to get back to normal seasonal temperatures and we've been getting a little bit of rain and cooler evenings, guess what ..... they are coming out of shock, are perking up and standing upright all bright eyed and bushy tailed again, even the brown, wilted, drooping peonies ..... just in time for everyone to start dying back and start dropping their leaves for autumn.

On the bright side - not a single thing anywhere in the gardens got even a hint of powdery mildew on it this summer.

.

[Hollytree]

Agree with the above posters- don't spray anything on them. Wait to see how they do next year.

[AZgarden]

My peonies look just like yours. There are no bugs and there is nothing wrong. Leave them alone and they will be fine.

[Izzie1213]

Around the middle to end of August mine start their downhill to fall. I cut them back about halfway with some big shears, just looking them off. But the leaves do start showing their age then.

[STLgaltoo]

I dislike peonies...flower is pretty but the leaning mess drives me crazy. And the ants! Glad mine are in the middle of the yard. I dont worry about them . I don’t sculpt boxwood either. Prefer letting them grow naturally.

[NC211]

The ants actually open them up to flower. Take out the ants and they’ll struggle. Learned that the hard way two years ago, got it right this past season.