Karen - yes, it is good to be back again. Looking forward to seeing what is going on in other gardens.

Cate - Tree peonies do fine in zone 9. I have had good luck with Herbaceous and ITOH peonies also.

Debra - love the color of the Keiko and Takara.

This pink tree peony is the second to bloom this year. I bought this at Pay Less about 25 years ago and it has performed beautifully each year. I cut it back drastically 2 years ago since it was getting too leggy. The leftmost bloom is about 9 inches across.

Dianne, gorgeous color! Beautiful peony! I am glad you are lucky with all kinds of peonies in zone 9, I thought it was too warm for them.

Karen, here is the pink bomb TP fully opened.





Gong Yang Zhuang or Palatial Adornments/Pink Damask Dancer. First time bloomer. Planted in fall of 2013.

Gary, that is a beautiful tree peony! Well worth the wait.

I have my first bloom!! Paeonia x
smouthii

So lovely to see first blooms! Thanks for sharing! Snow is rapidly melting from the garden here, earlier than usually.

Thanks, Anya. I just hope we aren't going to get any more freezing temperatures. Most of my peonies have buds now.

LG . I am glad your bloom season has officially started. Beautiful shade of red.

Thanks Gary!! I'm disappointed that none of my tree peonies have bloomed.

Jin Zhang Fu Rong - about 8 inches across



My wonderfully scented hybrid



I have many others on the verge of opening. We have also had 3 days of showers/storms. The severe storms will hit in the next 24 hours. Respect Mother Nature.

Beautiful blooms, Dianne, Gary and LG!

Dianne, love the cool pink color of your tree peony. What a great testament to the longevity of tree peonies.

Your Palatial Adornment appears to get better with each year, Gary.

Congrats on your first bloom of the season, LG! I am very excited to see what is to come from all of your gardens!

Thanks, Karen.

Shimanishiki, first time bloomer. If you look close, you can see the white streaks on the outside petals. Otherwise, it isn't a true red, at least not for me.




This tree peony I planted last year and it was labeled purple. It is about 5 feet tall and loaded with buds.





For some reason all my pictures are sideways. Any way, best wishes for those in the path of the storms coming. They are talking about rain, hail, and high winds here. I think I figured out how to right the pics









Right behind purple is my birdhouse for the eastern bluebirds. It has 5 babies in it. They should fledge this week.

The purple tree peony at 530 pm



If you get tired of seeing these updates let me know and I will stop.

So sorry to hear about the storms hitting your area just when your tree peonies are blooming. I am glad that you are able to enjoy them today on a weekend. I hope you will get the striping on your ShimaNishiki blooms next year, but the red is still gorgeous. Wow, your "purple" TP is a robust grower! I wonder what height it will reach in 5 years. Eventhough it is not purple, the flowers are lovely and it has a great presentation of the flowers in that the flowers bloom way above foliage with long stems. I think it will make a wonderful parent with this quality. I would love to hear the updates on your flowers after the storms particularly those with excellent substance.

Edit to add that I am also very interested in seeing your bluebirds babies when they are available.

Gary we could never get tired of your updating pics. It is almost like being there watching them grow.
Glad to see smouthii bloomed. I purchased one for ABG a couple of years ago and it bloomed last year. I think it is clear of snow. Will be interesting to see when it blooms for us.

I have really backfilled with early species and species hybrids. Most have broken dormancy so am looking forward to their lovely simple little faces. Some bloomed last spring so assume they will repeat this year only bigger. The 'old timers' are still asleep. Lazy things.

I also never get tired of peony pictures!

Mary looking forward to seeing your blooms too! I checked today the garden, half of peonies are free from snow, I saw some pips of a few early bloomers, very exciting!

Hi everyone joining the party a lil late. Beautiful pic peonies they are so amazing and smell spicy.
I have tree peonies and shrub. Tree peony is 22 years old. I wonder how old that is in plant years?

Tree


Shrub

Gary, I love seeing your photos and reading about everything going on in your garden. I have bluebird boxes all over my property!

Those storms passed through my area on Saturday and Sunday. No real damage, but the high winds blew some peonies sideways. No stems broke, so I hope with the sunny day today they will right themselves.

Bumplbea!

Gorgeous tree peony and friend.
Glad you already have peonies blooming. Share away!!

Gary - it is always so exciting when critters make their home in our yards. Two years ago, I had a mama duck lay 14 eggs in my backyard and they learned to swim in my swimming pool.

The first of my herbaceous peonies bloomed April 12th - Burma Midnight



Closeup

And the first of my ITOHs bloomed Saturday April 13th.

Morning Lilac


Two days later, April 15th, most of the blooms have fully opened


I had originally ordered Singing in the Rain, but they sent this purple one instead. But, since it was so pretty, I didn't mind too much.