Peony seeds

[Linda Tal]

I've just had a wander around the garden and now that the peonies have finished flowering they have left, what I think are hairy seed pods ???

Has anyone tried to grow them from this seed and if so, what do I do?

Thanks

Linda

[Linda Tal]

[Palustris]

If the seeds ripen and they often don't then eventually the pod will split open revealing a bright red interior. The seeds are the fat round black balls inside (if there are any). Sow them about an inch deep in normal seed compost, put them somewhere safe outside and leave them to do their thing over winter. Even sown fresh like this they may take years to germinate. Then grow any seedlings on and hope. they take about 3 to 5 years to flower.

[Linda Tal]

Not every easy then huh  ???

Thanks for the reply though Palustris

Linda.

[dandelion]

Hybrids may not set seed, but species will.  Viable seed is quite big,  the size of a a pea. Sow it fresh in autumn (when the pod splits open naturally) in clay pots sunk into the soil and leave OUTDOORS! During the first winter the seed will germinate and grow a root, but NOTHING will appear above the ground! After the 2nd winter the shoot will appear. I have once read that you can speed up the process by exposing the seeds to two chilling periods, but I haven't tried this.
I find them fascinating. I have had very good germination and now have various species of Tree peonies and herbaceuos peonies. The oldest are 4 years. No flowers yet; they grow slowly.  So they are easy, but only if you're patient ;)!

[Robert_Brenchley]

The fresher you plant it the better, and prepare to be patient. I put stuff like this in a cold frame I keep in the shade under a hawthorn; the only time there's any risk of drying out  is during the sort of weather we're having now. the rest of the year I can just forget it.

[Ceratonia]

Not every easy then huh  ???

As Dandelion said - easy, but you have to be patient.

I gave my son (then aged 2 or 3) the task of collecting the peony seeds in a bucket, to keep him busy. In May (now aged 5), he came and told me that he'd been "waiting for ages and ages" and now some of them had grown. Unknown to me, he'd poked a few seeds into the ground underneath a tree and they'd obviously gone through the requisite two winters.

[Linda Tal]

Right, I'm off to collect the pods and give it a go. 

Thanks.  Linda. :D

[dandelion]

Are they ready now? Have the pods split open? Mine aren't ready till the end of August at the earliest.
This is what they look like:
http://www.paeonia.com/assets/decoration/seed_pod.jpg

[Linda Tal]

No, they haven't split open yet, they're very tightly closed, so I'll leave them for a bit and see what happens.

Thanks.

Linda.