Peterson varieties are certain singular subvarieties of flag manifolds, naturally admitting one-dimensional torus action. Starting with a natural basis for the equivariant homology of a Peterson variety, we construct a dual basis in cohomology and show that the structure constants of the cohomology ring are positive with respect to this basis. We also discuss the sense in which the fundamental classes of the Peterson varieties exhibit a stability analogous to the stability of Schubert classes, and how this can be used to streamline various calculations in the Schubert calculus of Peterson varieties. This is joint work with Rebecca Goldin and Leonardo Mihalcea.