WHAT has happened to my peonies?

[woodstock3]

they were coverd in buds when we went on holiday. when we got back two are out in flower but the rest are all weirdly sort of wasted away inside the bud - there is powdery white mildewy stuff at the point where the bud meets the stalk and the flower has sort of died inside it. anyone had this?

Peonies can be temperamental and the recent wet weather may have been enough to make the buds shrivel, but it does sound like a fungal disease. It might be peony wilt: the RHS has a factsheet here - www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0600/peony_wilt.asp.