Peonies

[housethatbuiltme]

Can I ask for some advice please from anyone experienced with peonies.

I am a first time gardener and clearly naive but this year I planted my first garden, I added 4 peonies (2x ruba plena & 2x alba plena).

I thought peonies where evergreen as our last one we inherited seemed to be (guess I got confused by the different types) and I'm now at the point of not knowing what's normal as all 4 plants are doing completely different things.

The first one looked like it snapped or had been stood on, it went brown and mushy and the stem is completely hollow. It looks completely dead, slightly worried it has rot or is that just how they die back?

The second one the leaves all turned brown and dry and it looks like a plant dying off for autumn but when I trimmed it it completely different to the soft mushy one instead being hard, dry and thick woody stem.

The third, the upper half of the leaves have died and lower half look fine, looks like its half way through dying off maybe.

The fourth looks healthy, green and alive same as it has all summer.

Is any of this normal?
Are they mean to rot away or turn woody or stay alive?

I reckon the mushy one has had it, and has rotted away. Read up about peonies on the RHS website and do what they say with the other ones. In spring, you'll soon find out if they are okay.

What is the soil like? Peonies don’t like to be waterlogged so maybe that’s what caused the mushy one. Healthy peonies die back at this time of year. You’ll know if they’ve survived winter if you see new dark red coloured shoots in the spring. Good luck 🤞

Yes my neighbour peonies and they go back to nothing almost in winter

Yours are herbaceous peonies and die back each year. I have noticed the peonies are very variable as to how they die back, even same cultivation, in the same place. As long as the roots are firm, they'll be fine. There are tree peonies and intersectional peonies which are shrubs but aren't evergreen.

Have a little look at soil level.
healthy peonies will be showing red buds round about now.
Make sure not to cover them over as they need the cold.
I’d leave them all and see what comes up in the spring. They may surprise you.

Hello, thank you for the responses.

I had a look at them earlier while weeding and planting some other plants and the 'woody' one and the half alive half dead one both have a little red 'eye' poking out near there base, the live looking one that still has all its leaves has more of a mound heaped over its base so no obvious eye but I don't want to dig into the dirt and disrupt/damage anything but the brown mushy one doesn't look like it has an 'eye'.

Is the eye suppose to poke out in November?

Ive tried googling it and somethings say its a good sign and to leave it and others say it will die from the cold if they are poking out and they should be 2 inch below the soil.

Next year's shoots poking out now is completely normal. They will be fine and shouldn't be covered.

Also, Peonies don't like to be too deep. The crown should be just below the surface so don't go heaping mulch on top.