if they were greenhouse grown.. and you shocked them outdoors ... then they will lose their leaves ... or there was a frost or freeze ... or the shipping did it ... or they were simply cheap poor stock ... regardless.. life is in the buds .... and even if they lose every leaf.. if the buds are viable.. they will prosper ... and only time will tell that.. water deeply.. and then do not water again until they need it.. figure that out by inserting your finger .... a good cover of mulch will really help in the heat of summer... you have time to figure out if they will live.. before you need to do that ... do NOT fert them ... spraying water on leaves does little or nothing for a plant ... it usually cant hurt.. but it isnt going to be some miracle ... and i doubt that had anything to do with leaf loss ... as you say.. its only a matter of time.. to see if they live.. but not necessarily meaning death ... who did you get them from.. and how are they rated by the various watchdog sites??? when did you get them .. how were they packed.. how did you hold them over until planting.. how did you plant other than tilling... more specific facts please ... good luck ken

Yes, looks like transplant shock. Even if you water a lot, the roots aren't established enough to bring the water to the leaves and they dry up. And they can't resist the sun, so they burn. I would simply remove the burned leaves. You could shade them a bit or even mist them to cool them off and prevent them from losing internal moisture. And lay off the MG. MG is great for annuals and tomatoes, but for roses, organic slow release fertilizers are better. Once the roses are established, you can give them MG once in awhile for a boost, as long as they have other food available.

Alex is right about over mulching and over watering causing issues. You certainly don't want to put several inches of degradable mulch directly over your peonies. Some kind of wood based or pine straw mulch will work better to keep the roots cooler, though. Just make sure as has been stated above to keep the mulch back from the stems. I live in CO, we're considered high desert, and only water during the hottest parts of the summer, maybe once a week. A lot of my peonies look similar to yours right now! The ones planted in the last year typically go dormant earlier than those fully established. Once the leaves are mostly brown just cut the stem down to a few inches and leave it for the year. You won't cause your peony to put out new growth by watering this late in the summer but you certainly can cause root rot by overwatering. Peonies are perennial, they go dormant every late summer/fall. It's nerve racking to watch them wither the first few years--I still worry about mine every year even though I've been growing them now for decades! If you think of their habit more as a bulb that is perennial in your zone it's easier to understand their growth cycle. If you are a gardener that fertilizes you can use an organic bulb fertilizer on your peonies. I'm not an expert on fertilizing but have used BulbTone on mine the last few springs and falls based on another respected peony grower's recommendation and I have had better and more blooms because of it. I think it's Hollingsworth's updates that recommended doing the same immediately after flowering as well. That's another thing I'd recommend--go onto the big online grower's sites--several have blogs that you can follow and almost all have lots of peony growing recommendations. You can learn a lot by reading all of that info--I typically go back through all of them during the winter when we're under several inches of snow and I'm missing summer! There is some conflicting information out there but everyone is the same on the basics for growing. If you're unsure about a recommendation it's typically best to consult experienced gardeners in your immediate area as things that work for me here in CO wouldn't work for someone further south with a lot of humidity, etc...

Just to let you know again, spider mites can't be seen by your normal eyesight. They're microscopic! University of Florida describes them as 1/50th inch long. The female is 0.4 millimeters. You can't "see" spider mites, literally! But just because you cannot see them with your plain eyeballs, doesn't mean it's not on your plant. Your leaves show the most common spider mite symptom. I would advise you not to ignore the very high likelihood of spider mites on your plant. Your organocide will only kill adult bugs on contact but any eggs that are on your plant will not be affected. You'll have to keep spraying until you take down every last bug going through their adult phase