Gardener Plants 'Dead Stick' in Yard—Ends Up Growing Peony Blossoms Bigger Than Their Face

Whether it's a monstera with root rot or a perennial shrub that got too much sun, avid gardeners know how rewarding it is to nurse dying plants back to health. One such gardener took to Reddit to share their recent success with rescuing a plant that looked completely dead.

The poster shared an image of beautiful pink peony blooms surrounded by blue forget-me-nots on the social media platform with the caption: "A 'let me see if I can rehab that dead stick before you trash it success story!' Took a couple of years, but these tree peony blooms are bigger than my face!"

The Redditor replied to comments, saying that the stick transformed into "a slow-growing plant, or maybe it was just really stunted, but it's coming around finally." In another reply, they wrote that "I was not very hopeful, but it wanted to live."

Herbaceous peonies, also known as bush peonies, have soft, green stems that die and fall back to the ground each winter, emerging again from the roots in the spring. On the other hand, tree peonies, which the Redditor grew, have woody stems that persist above ground throughout the year, similar to a shrub or small tree.

Martha herself is a fan of the tree peony. In 2023, she posted about her tree peony garden on her blog, saying that "there are very few plants that can compete with a tree peony in full bloom."

"Unlike the more common herbaceous peonies, which flop over if not staked, tree peonies bloom on graceful woody stems," she wrote. She added that they prefer partial shade with three to four hours of sunlight and that they typically only grow to be about 4 or 5 feet tall.

Tree peonies grow best in climates with hot summers and cold winters like those in the Eastern, Midwestern, and Western U.S. Martha confirmed that tree peonies are very slow-growing and will not produce new growth if pruned. "The only cutting should be to remove any dead branches," she shared in her post.