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Are Ants on a Peony Bush Bad?

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May is the month for gardeners in many temperature zones to enjoy peonies. With the spring peony blossoms, however, come the ants. Are ants on a peony bush bad?
Poor ants. They get such a bum rap every spring! When I was a child, there were so many ants crawling on my mother’s “Festiva Maxima” peony in our Long Island garden that I nicknamed peonies “ant bushes”.  Ants swarmed the buds and flowers each spring, making it impossible to cut the boughs and bring them indoors – unless I wanted an ant farm, which I can assure you, I did not.
So what gives with all those ants on peony bushes? Let’s get one thing straight: ANTS DO NOT HARM PEONY FLOWERS!  They don’t eat the leaves, the buds or the flowers. They won’t hurt the plants. They’re totally harmless.

What they are seeking is the sweet, rich nectar that flows from peony buds and flowers. They sip the nectar. And that’s it.

They’re just going about their job, folks. Nothing to see here. 

Peonies in my garden.

Want to bring your peony flowers indoors without a bunch of hitchhiking ants? Here’s a simply trick I learned from an organic gardener friend. Use your garden hose with a sprayer nozzle attached and squirt the buds and leaves with water. Then shake them upside down to shake off as many ants as you can. Sometimes the spray will damage the flower heads, but most of the time you can simple knock off the ants. If you’re really concerned about ants coming indoors, then enjoy peony flowers outside and don’t use them as a cut flower. Or buy a silk one. That’s what I have gracing my dining room table today…an arrangement of silk peony flowers.  This way, the ants stay outside and I enjoy beautiful peonies indoors and out.

Can you tell how much I love peonies? More in my garden.

A win all around, I’d say.
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