Tree Peony

I moved into my house two years ago and inherited  a Tree Peony ( I think) it is about 5ft high and a large bush, since I have lived here I have never seen it flower, last summer I thought it was but nothing came of what I thought were buds. I dont know what I should be doing with it! cutting it back? leaving it to do its own thing? feed it? protect it?

any advice garden experts - thanks enthusiastic novice

 Is it possible that the buds are catching late frosts? Tree paeonies can be damaged by early morning sun on frozen buds. Mine flower and are on pretty poor soil and don't get fed. I think they do better with some shade, that helps with the frost on buds thing as well. I only prune if something breaks or dies back. I don't protect them in any way, they're hardy, we had minus 13/14C here last winter and plenty of flowers.

Give it a mulch of compost and bark over winter and give a good fertiliser feed in early spring. It needs lots of sun (prefereably full sun) to give a good show of blooms. I only had a handful of blooms last year, but what tends to happen is it sulks one year then blooms like mad the next.

Does anyone know how long I will have to wait for a newly planted tree peony to start flowering?   I planted one in the spring of 2010.   The leaves look healthy but no flowers yet.

I grow these from seed and reckon on 4 or 5 years before I get a few flowers. Then another year or two before there's lots. Don't know how old they are when garden centres sell them though so perhaps not much help.

gardengirl6 wrote (see)

Does anyone know how long I will have to wait for a newly planted tree peony to start flowering?   I planted one in the spring of 2010.   The leaves look healthy but no flowers yet.

Did you buy it bare root or with in a pot? I bought mine bare root, added bonemeal and good compost and it flowered (if one flower denotes flowering!) by June, so 3-4 months. Is yours in full sun, with fertile soil? The trick is also not to overwater. They droop in spring/earyl summer because of temperature differences and not due to lack of water! Easy to confuse.