PEONY FESTIVA MAXIMA (Bareroots Plant) 3-4 Eyes, Perennial Shrub.

‘Festiva Maxima’ is a tried and true older variety you likely remember from Grandma’s garden. The color is the purest of whites with occasional carmine-red flecks. The Peony is an extremely long-lived, hardy, shrub-like plant. Once they’re established, they’re as hardy and dependable as oaks, creating a fantastic season of bloom in your yard year after year. The spreading clumps form hedges. Peonies are a standard of the perennial border, both as specimens and in groups. Also effective as accents or herbaceous hedges along fences, sidewalks, driveways or walls. Flowers are extremely showy, and foliage remains attractive throughout the growing season, either alone or as a frame or backdrop for other flowering perennials. Excellent cut flower.

Planting Instructions: Easily grown in rich, fertile, medium wet, well-drained soil in full sun to part shade. Dig a hole large enough to encompass roots without bending or circling. Set the plant in place so the eyes (tender white swellings protruding from the crown area) are about 1 inch below the soil surface. Cover with soil to the original soil surface and water thoroughly. Add compost as needed before planting. If plants do not flower, possible causes include (1) planted too deep or too shallow, (2) too much shade, (3) late frost killed buds or (4) plant is too young or has been recently moved or disturbed. Large, fully double flowers usually need staking or other support because they tend to arch toward the ground in the best of weather and can be literally driven into the ground by a hard rain.