Does anyone have any hints on how to get peonies to flower? I live in Oz
and within a radius of about 25 kms there are a number of us who are all
having absolutely no luck in getting peonies to produce flowers.

The plants grow lushly and in most cases flower buds appear but they just
don't flower - ever. Some of us have been trying for the last 20 years and
have patiently mucked and watered and composted and watched them settle in
but even up to 10-15 years later (whilst still in the same position) the
blasted things have failed to flower. Settling in doesn't seem to be the
problem and since most of us have several peonies in varied locations (full
sun, some shade, full shade etc) we are reasonably sure that location isn't
a problem.

Water also doesn't seem to be a problem (at least until last couple of years
when drought has hit but even then we all have irrigation systems and as
only one of us lives in town where watering restrictions exist we all have
plenty of water to pour on even if that is a constant job).

I know that peonies do grow and flower well in lots of areas of Australia
and even in the wider region around ehre that gets coverage by our local
radio and which lies beyond our local vallies. The climate here is hot in
summer and cold (down to -10C) in winter so we aren't trying to grow them in
temperature conditions where they won't flower as teh temperatures where
they do grow are similar.

Our topsoil here generally tends to be very shallow (about 20 cm would be a
good depth in the virgin state) but several of my fellow gardeners live on
farms where there has been over a century of good gardening practices
followed and the soil is very, very good.

We have all racked our brains for years so we are desperately seeking help.

When I asked the question on the local gardening guru's radio show he
couldn't identify any lack of care based on the information I provided. The
radio station was promptly innundated with call from those smartys who could
get peonies to flower saying how simple they were to grow and how easy it
was to get good flowers (rich soil, lots [but not too much!] muck, regular
deep watering, full sun etc, etc, etc ad nauseum - didn't the sods HEAR what
I said about my regime! It was exactly as the successful growers described
but no luck!

Anyway, as a result of asking the question on radio many local people
recognised my name and we then all realised that we'd all been vainly trying
to achieve the same thing for such a long time. We have all put our heads
together to compare notes but again to no effect in the past couple of
years. I am wondering if there is some mineral or essential element missing
form our local soil that could perhaps be present elsewhere within a 100km
radius.

Any clues anyone? Please?