Peony

calamhr3LoVDv

I have a peony that wasn't pruned last fall.  It's early spring now and doesn't have buds yet, can I prune it?

clarke.brunt

I wouldn't describe what people annually do to Peony plants as 'pruning'. They are a 'herbaceous perennial', which means 'lives for many years, but dies down to the ground each winter'. So by winter, all you've got is dead stems from the summer growing season, and eventually new red-coloured shoots appearing from the ground. So it's never too late to remove the old stems - they're dead anyway. Or you don't have to remove them at all.

Then again, there are 'tree peonies' which I've never grown, where the above-ground stems remain alive, and pruning might be different.

I guess we'd need to know which kind it is, and with you using the word 'fall' for autumn, things might be different than here in the UK.

bertrand-mabel

Agree with @clarke.brunt . We have ones that die back each year and also have 2 different tree peonies. The latter aren't pruned back by us unless they have decided to grow across a path and then they are clipped back. These ones are showing signs of growth now but the others nothing.

calamhr3LoVDv

Thanks, I'll go ahead and cut out the dead stalks.

punkdoc

Unless it is a Tree peony, when you should not prune it, as @bertrand-mabel says.