Plants don't age in the same way we think of people aging. Age in people is a described on a chronological basis, where plants age ontogenetically. This might be framed as, the parts that have taken the most cell divisions to produce are the plant's oldest parts; so strangely, the most recent part of the plant (say, a new branch high on the plant) to grow is the oldest part of the plant. The youngest part of the plant will be found in the root to shoot transition zone. This juvenile part of the plant is also nearly always the most vigorous part of the plant. Plants pass through life stages until they end up at the sexually mature stage. At that point they are capable of blooming/fruiting. Whether they DO or not is complicated and not entirely understood. Blooming and other environmental reactions of most healthy plants are primarily influenced by day length (technically it's night length), but more than a few plants are triggered by other factors, like moisture availability, temperature, predation. Some plants even seem to have an internal 'alarm clock' that acts as a trigger to bloom. There are species of bamboo that bloom as infrequently as every 130 years and when the bloom occurs, all plants of a given genetic origin bloom simultaneously, en masse (all at once), and this occurs regardless of environmental influences. Now, that a plant is capable of blooms/fruit doesn't mean it will produce same, no matter how much we hope. The factors that limit a plant's ability to bloom are as complicated as those that trigger blooming. The plant's internal chemical messengers that limit blooming is first influenced by the plants ontogenetic age, but then by health, stress, stored energy reserves, a significant number of environmental factors, and sometimes seemingly no more than a built-in piqued obstinacy that can be more irritating than Justin Bieber or the Kardashians, if that's even possible. How do I get it to bloom? Keep it healthy and let it do its thing. You can search online - there might be some simple ways to coax it to bloom exactly whenever it feels like it. How old does it have to be? The only age important to plants is what growth phase they're in. They have to be old enough chronologically to have reached sexual maturity. This is also complicated because the (ontogenetic) age of the parent plant from which the propagule (that is now your plant) was taken has to be a part of the equation. Example - a hawthorn tree from seed needs to survive around 20-25 growth cycles to bloom; whereas, a cutting from a blooming hawthorn tree can be counted on blooming within a few years if its state of vitality has been generally good. Al

Tony2. It might be more helpful with a bit more information. Your profile indicates a zone 8 area but I am wondering more about your temperatures and humidity levels as well as plant location. The plant symptoms definitely are not virus or insect related in my opinion. The leaf edge burn would indicate a possible high heat and low humidity situation. The ability of the plants root system to supply enough water to the outer extreme leaf edges is the result but not necessarily the cause. The leaf edges are the last to receive moisture and nutrients within the plant. Possibly the plants are growing in an area that may be receiving reflected heat from surroundings. This does not mean you are not watering sufficiently but for some reason the plantÂs ability to take up the water is being limited. Plants growing in a restricted area sometimes produce root-bound conditions that might contribute to this occurrence. High transpirations rates are compounded by high temp and low humidity conditions. Burning leaf tips or edges would be a possible consequence. Excessive fertilization can potentially cause tender feeder roots to burn and limit the nutrient uptake. You may be looking at either a root problem or plant location problem or a combination of both. Hope this is helpful. Regards, Kent

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