Damage to peony blossoms

20 years ago

Last year, most of my peonies lost their blossoms before they opened - only little black shrivelled nubs were left. This year, they all have lovely big buds on them, but tonight I found that some of them have been attacked, with the outer layer partially eaten. They had black ants all over them - do the ants actually do the damage, or do they 'farm' some other pest that eats the buds?

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Comments (6)

shrubs_n_bulbs
20 years ago
Normally, I would expect black shrivelled buds were caused by botrytis, a fungal disease. Ants are common on peony buds and not necessarily a sign of any problem. They may also be interested in aphids or scale insects but neither are major problems on peonies. I would hazard a guess at slug damage from your description but hard to be sure.
lori_londonuk
20 years ago
Out of curiosity, does anyone know why ants are so attracted to peony buds? I've noticed before that my peony gets ants crawling over the buds (which don't appear to do very much damage). Yesterday I went to Audley End and noticed many peonies had ants on their buds there, too. I've never noticed aphids on the peonies - I suppose I might miss them but then again I've never noticed ladybirds around in that section of the garden, either.
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anyanka
Original Author
20 years ago
Thanks for your input. I haven't seen any slugs on the peonies (I slug-hunt most evenings), nor any aphids! Last year I didn't spot the damage until all the buds were gone - wouldn't the botrytis have shown as a greyish mould, though?
shrubs_n_bulbs
20 years ago
The ants come to the peonies to get nectar. It is thought that they are beneficial in controlling some pests on the peonies. They are not necessary for the buds to open, as is often stated, and you will still get flowers even without the ants.

I agree that botrytis doesn't look much like the buds are being eaten. It doesn't always look like a greyish mould though, it can just cause the buds to blacken and die. I don't have any better ideas. Very tall bunnies? Very short deer?
irishguy
20 years ago
I have grown Peonies for years, even successfully moved some from my old house to my new one and they are blooming like mad. The ants are not a problem at all they are attracted to a sticky sugary substance produced by the Peony when in bud. This year I had poor performance from 'Bowl of Beauty' and one of my asian tree peonies. I think the peculiar winter and spring we had this year (in Ireland and in England I think)caused problems for Peonies. The Warm period in January caused early growth and then the late frosts put pressure on the plants damaging the more tender buds. Peonies dont like to thaw out too quickly so never plant them where they get early morning sun this damages the buds. As for physical damage to the buds, this is peculiar in this part of the world, there can be damage done by Scarab beetles in other countries but I dont think we have them here, in fact in all my years I have never seen any insect damage on Peonies. Is it possible that birds are damaging the buds, pigeons and starlings are often attracted to flowers for a bit of variety in thier diets! Also consider little hands, i.e. children attracted to the big buds peeling back the petals etc yes this happens. I would be interested in hearing a little more detail on the type of damage you are seeing. Happy gardening.
anyanka
Original Author
20 years ago
Thank you! Following shrubsnbulbs' suggestion that it sounded like slug damage (although I never caught the little blighters at it), I put pellets round the peonies; lo and behold the damage stopped! The flowers are now wide open and beautiful; lots more than last year.

We do get a lot of birds in the garden, too, so perhaps the damage came from bluetits or sparrows picking off the ants.

No little hands in our household, just teenagers and hounds!

By the way, I also posted a question on the Peony forum - got one answer only, said it might be raccoons... now that would be worth sacrificing my peonies for...