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The peony flowering season is brief but magnificent. Whilst their gloriously ruffled and fragrant blooms unfurl in a 'blink-and-you-miss-it' spring moment, the plant itself is a hardy perennial that can keep living and flowering for decades.

Fortunately, the plants don't appear to mind the UK's unpredictable climate. Novice gardeners need not be afraid either - Alan Titchmarsh says they're perfectly suited to those with a relaxed approach to gardening. If you fancy having your very own peony plants, the expert has outlined how growing them can be easy if you give the flowers two things they need.

Alan waxed lyrical about the beauty of these flowers in his book My Secret Garden.

"For me, they are prized treasures, not to be spurned, but to be anticipated eagerly, as although they may bloom only fleetingly, they are all the more appreciated," he wrote.

"These firework plants are the leavening of the loaf, a fleeting treat without which life would be all the poorer."

1. Don't bury peony plants too deeply

Growing peonies can be straightforward if you bear two things in mind, Alan said. The first concerns how deeply they should be planted, which is not very much at all.

He advised: "The most critical of these is planting depth. When committing a pot-grown peony to the earth, on no account bury it too deeply, for to do so will surely deprive you of flowers for many a year.

"The yam-like roots (massive, sweet-potato lookalikes) need to be only fractionally below the surface of the soil."

2. Stop splitting them up

Good news if you're not much of a gardener - Alan says it pays to leave them alone. Unlike other herbaceous perennials, the expert noted that peonies don't need to be dug up and divided every three or four years.

These plants and their enormous flowers aren't too demanding about their growing conditions.

Peonies just need to be positioned in full-sun with soil that is well drained.

As winter approaches its end in March, Alan suggested two things to promote blooms: a sprinkling of rose fertiliser and a mulch created from well-rotted manure or garden compost.

"Then, in April, when their almost prehistoric-looking shoots of red and maroon start to push up from the soil, you can wait with bated breath to see how many flowers they will produce."