Why would you want to cut it back? The leaves make a lovely backdrop for your other garden plants while they are producing food to be stored in the roots for next year's growth.

It won't kill them to be cut back to the ground now but they do function like tulips--your peonies will be stronger and grow better if you leave them until fall. You can certainly deadhead if you don't want to collect seeds, that'll make them look pretty and they'll be a good backdrop for your summer flowers.

I just wanted to put a few annuals scattered in between them for color. I have them planted in front of spring blooming azaleas so now the area has no color the rest of summer. I should have put them in front of the roses. I may just wait and move a couple around so I can have the needed color when they are done blooming. Thanks

Moving them in autumn is a good idea. Peonies like a neutral to slightly alkaline soil at a pH of 6.5-7.5, while azaleas will do best in an acidic soil around 4.5-5.5. There isn't any overlap there, so these two aren't particularly good bedmates. Since roses are happy in the 6-7 range, you can easily keep both plants happy and healthy in the same bed.

Now I'm trying to think of something to follow the azaleas, but drawing a blank on this Saturday morning of a long weekend, when I rarely get even a two-day one! I need another cup of coffee and will return.

I have roses, daylilies, Annabells, oak leafs and camellias all in this bed even some encore azaleas so I get blooms at all diff times but one section gets no blooms when the peonies stop so I will prob move a couple and add a few annuals there that give all summer blooms or I could put some mini roses. Thanks a bunch, Judy