Question
LIG, I  think I've found the answer!

I started flopping through the pages of Rodale抯 Complete Garden Problem Solver and found the following (my comments are in parentheses):

PROBLEM: Buds do not open, or they open partially (yes). Brown edges or streaks mar light colored buds and flowers (yes).

CAUSE: Flower thrips (Franliniella ritici). These extremely tiny, narrow-bodies insects and only 1/20 inch long.  Young thrips are lemon yellow.  Adults are light brown with orange undersides.  Thrips hide deep inside peony flowers and are almost impossible to see on plants without using a magnifying glass.  If you suspect that a flower has thrips, pick a damaged flower and shake it over a clean sheet of white paper.   If thrips are present, they will drop onto the paper and will look like dark specks.  These pests injure only peony flowers (which explains why my stems and leaves look wonderful) and their feeding can ruin the flowers.

WHAT TO DO:
Destroy infested buds and flowers.

Use insecticidal soap, following directions.

Keep plants adequately watered and mulched to keep soil moist but not soggy.

Apply loose, organic mulch to attract beneficial spiders.

Attract other beneficial insects by planting  nectar and pollen plants, such as alyssum, yarrow, and scabiosa.

Purchase lacewings and beneficial nematodes from mail-order suppliers, and release these beneficials in the garden.

Actually, I think, LIG, I will use my baking soda and insecticidal soap, and that should take care of it.  It's so exciting to know what to do.  Thank you so much for helping me to get there.


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Followup To

Question -

Hi, it's Donna again.  Thank you for the great answer.  Happily, it is not the dreaded botrytis, although we, like you, were drenched repeatedly - at one point for nine days in a row.  My peonies were planted in an island bed, 36 inches apart on triangles in full sun, and have great air circulation.  I fill in with lilium candidum (great disease indicator!), species tulips (LOVE Lady Jane) and Angelique, japanese anemones, alliums and seed grown annuals and tender perennials (cynoglossum, verbena bonariensis, nicotiana alata) so the peonies are the queens of the show while blooming, but the bed is interesting later. And, no (thank goodness!) the leaves and stems were not involved.  Indeed, since I cannot bring myself to disbud the plants for larger individual flowers, I am actually getting secondary bloom on most of my peonies. So I think that what I had was a fairly wimpy fungus, and I should consider myself fortunate.

I love your comment about spraying as much as you need to feel better - you truly understand the gardener's brain.  I will take your advice and use my baking soda product next year, applying it at weekly intervals, and much earlier.  I realize now that I waited too late to begin. I also realize that I was carefully spraying other plants, like my lilies and crabapples, and that they are unaffected.

I so much appreciate what you do. You state correctly that there is a great deal of misinformation out there.  The joy you bring to what you do is palpable, even in a written medium.  Take care and happy gardening.

Donna


Answer -
Donna, expert after expert I speak with either wants to drop the matter with the word Botrytis or doesn't want to raise any other possibility of Fungus.

It does not have to be Botrytis.  There COULD be another Fungus with the symptoms you describe that does not have the other symptoms you mentioned.

This problem still appears to be Botrytis.  

But I am continuing to check the smartest Peony experts I know.  Because this is not one of those plain vanilla answers.  I will let you know more when I hear something.   I do believe we are working with a fungus here.  We need to know the name to be able to pick a counterattack.  Stay tuned.

Answer
I was just wondering how this Peony problem was coming along, Donna, and I wanted to follow up. When you have a free second perhaps you could give me an update.  With Global Warming we may be getting this critter up here some day.

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Frankliniella tritici - Very interesting, Donna.

This is just a perfect example of why I should keep my mouth shut when out of towners come up with questions that are out of my field. I am a Long Island Gardener for a reason - and we don't have this in my part of town.

So I have looked up this species of thrips. The common name for Frankliniella is "Florida Flower Thrips".  They love Roses (esp. white ones) and Citrus flowers.

University of Florida says: "The thrips feeds on the thick fleshy petals, pistils, and stamens of the flower, and then the affected parts turn brownish-yellow, blacken, shrivel up, and drop prematurely."

Sounds like you have a textbook case of Frankliniella, Donna.  

Good detective work.  I stand corrected.  Hate being wrong - but I'm very glad you straightened me out.  Live and learn.

If those beasties ever make it to the North Shore, I'll be ready.

Love those Rodale people.

Thank you for writing, Donna.  Keep in touch.