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Duchess de Nemours is a classic heirloom peony that brings timeless elegance to any garden with its pure white blooms emerging in late spring to early summer. This perennial cultivar reaches 24 to 36 inches tall and thrives in hardiness zones 3 through 8, making it accessible to gardeners across much of North America. Bred to be both deer and rabbit resistant, it flowers reliably year after year once established, attracting pollinators and butterflies while requiring minimal fussing. Plant it in fall for spring blooms, and you'll have a stunning cut flower and landscape staple that rewards patience with decades of performance.
Full Sun
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3-8
36in H x ?in W
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High
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White blooms unfold in late spring to early summer on sturdy stems reaching nearly three feet tall. This heirloom variety resists deer and rabbit browsing, a genuine advantage in landscapes where wildlife pressure makes gardening frustrating. Its long perennial life means you plant once and enjoy returns for decades, with flowers reliable enough for cutting and garden display alike.
Peonies have long served as cut flowers, and Duchess de Nemours excels in this role, with blooms valuable for arrangements and bouquets. In the landscape, it anchors flower beds as a permanent focal point, providing structure and seasonal color year after year. Its height and bushy growth make it suitable for mid-border placement where it can be admired from multiple angles.
No timeline data available yet for this variety.
Plant peony roots in fall for spring blooming, which aligns with the plant's natural growth cycle. Choose a location in full sun and space plants 48 inches apart. Dig a hole large enough to accommodate the root system without crowding, and set the crown (where roots meet shoots) just at or slightly below soil level. Water well after planting to settle the soil.
As a bushy perennial, Duchess de Nemours benefits from deadheading spent blooms in late spring to early summer, which tidies the plant and directs energy toward root development. Cut back the entire plant to ground level in fall after frost has blackened the foliage, removing all above-ground material to reduce disease pressure and keep the garden neat going into winter.
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“Duchess de Nemours carries the pedigree of a heirloom peony, a variety preserved and passed down through generations of gardeners. As a non-GMO cultivar of Peony lactiflora, it represents the classical peony breeding tradition that values stability, hardiness, and consistent performance over novelty. The catalog sources identify it as a heritage plant worth growing, reflecting the broader movement to maintain and celebrate proven varieties in modern gardens.”