Do peony buds really require ant activity to bloom? Mine had tons of ants swarming all over them this year. I have heard that this is a myth, but many people swear it’s true.
Anybody know the real story? Why do the ants hang out there, anyway?
-sulla
I can’t imagine ant activity would do anything to DISCOURAGE blooming (unless they eat up the buds entirely). But I’ll let the entomologists/botanists handle the query. I just wanted to pop in to say that my bellfowers also are teeming with teeny-tiny ants, and ask whether there are certain types of garden plants, aside from peonies and bellflowers, which attract ants? And whether I should spray the bellflowers with bugdeath stuff?
I couldn’t find any reference to this in any of my gardening books, but my Fedco catalog says that ants help the blooms to open, suggesting that ants may not be necessary for bloom, but help create a more open flower shape?
Thanks, Arnold. I just won $5.
Want me to send you half?
-sulla
No, I don’t need half of your well-deserved financial victory, but if you want to do something for me, change your “signature” to read “Arnold Winkelried is the smartest man on the SDMB except for Cecil Adams.”
What the hell.
I’ve heard that newbies can be highly suggestible, and they undergo some sort of “assimilation” process.
i wouldn’t know; I haven’t been here long enough.
-sulla
sulla, we love newbies here, and are glad to see them being assimilated! Welcome aboard to the SDMB.
Thank you for your devotion! But I was only kidding. To appear once in your sig is honour enough. I now withdraw my claim to glory.
If any of the other posters ever saw that, they would all fall on me like a ton of bricks, and I would have to painfully drag my flattened body away in exile. (Which I suppose would save as an example to newbies.)
sulla - best newbie since Cecil Adams
{running off to the Pit to start the "We’re not Worthy, Arnold Winkelried" thread}
Just kidding, and thanks for the info, AW. I shall henceforth no longer gas the ants on the bellflowers, reserving my insecticidal mania for the aphids on the roses.
Speaking of ants and aphids in the same breath reminds me that ants will use aphids much as we use dairy cows. They’ll transport them to plants the aphids like, and drink (eat?) stuff the aphids exude. They (presumably) also protect the aphids in their own, ant-like way. In this case, the ants are not protecting your plants, but harming them. When you see ants, better check for aphids too.
Just wanted to point out that Peonies (ant covered or otherwise) are my favorite flower.
Used to have huge bush at our old house in the city. Moved out the the country two and half years ago and have yet to be able to grow a single solitary peony blossom.
I miss those little ants, especially this time of year.
These are only certain kinds of aphids. I severely doubt you will find those aphids on your peonies. If you do find ants and aphids on the same plant, it may mean the ants are INDIRECTLY protecting the aphids by discouraging other predators. On the other hand, aphids may be eaten by ants. In either case, I reccomend against going on a insecticidal rampage! 
here is something I found on a search. It’s short, but it shows I’m not making this up.
http://www.bitoek.uni-bayreuth.de/Publikationen/000899/DE.html
Well, OK Arnold, as you can see, I’ve deleted the sig. I wouldn’t want anything horrible to happen to you. But you still have my devotion (maybe your post count has me bedazzled,) so if you ever need help in GD or something, let me know.
-sulla
The Peonies I’ve grown seem to need the ants to help them open. The buds stayed shut until the flower died, or I broke the bud open otherwise. This is just an observation.
Put a sticky barrier on the trunk of trees that have aphids. The ants farm the aphids.
Maybe we should all just get our hands on a whole shitload of ladybugs, dump um in our gardens, and let them lay waste to the ants AND the aphids.