A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Plants and Flowers Forum Botanical assassination attempt, need help!

Hello, my name's Alicia and I only really have one plant in my flower bed right now, and I love that plant. I live in a condo association, though, and the landscapers mowed my beloved Peony to the ground today. It just peeked above ground around April 1st, I was keeping a photo-diary of its progress this year and this is a sad end to that, indeed.

I don't know what to do, will it live? Will it come back next year? Is there *anything* I can do to help ensure it will survive (e.g., cover the stem nubs with soil, pray...)?
Thank you, green thumbs, for any suggestions.. I'm sorry I had to join your community under such sad circumstances :(

First, protect your plant with a stake or two for the next assassination attempt. It is still early in the season. Your plant wants to live even more than you want it to. So you might see some recovery from it yet. Other than the stakes, no mounds will help it.

Oh, and I should have said welcome to TGH. We can be a fun group

Hi and welcome AliciaN.

Your peony will survive. My mom has mowed over hers a few times. You might be better off to put a stake ring around it so they'll see where it is but other than that you don't have to do a thing...don't cover it. You'll see some new growth starting from the base pretty soon.

welcome !!

Have you considered making a circuler mesh cage to fit over it? you could leave it around the little bush until it was big enough that the gardener could not mow it down. You could also have a talk with him. perhaps he didn't realize what he had done. if this is the case, without a barrier and or having spoken to him this might happen again.

Good luck !

Thank you, Junie, Tamara, and Jonni- I'm relieved that it will come back! I plan to stop by the nursery today (or home depot, or lowes, wherever I can find more peonies) and I'm going to make it excruciatingly clear that this is a flower bed. I'll put up a little fence around it, weed it (surely that didn't help matters.. there's clover around the plant) and put down fresh mulch. Since I like this one so much, might as well add more to the bed :) I'll definitely put up stakes as well, and I'm sure it says somewhere on here how to properly secure a top-heavy plant so it doesn't plop over under the weight of the blossoms.
Thanks again, everybody! Glad to be joining y'all and excited to learn more about gardening :)

Thank you!

I did call the association, right away. I already talked to the manager of the landscaping company, he didn't agree to pay for the plants (which includes an ivy they whacked down last summer :/ ) but he did apologize profusely and said he would take the guys over to my unit the next time they're out there and make sure everyone is clear that it's a flower bed and to avoid the area. By the time they come back, though, I'll have better marked off the area.

Time to see if the ends I found this morning can be rooted like cuttings.. I'm really fixated on saving this plant!