Thank you, Anya. I'm near Santa Barbara. My house is in Orange County. The Santa Ana wind was so bad this morning, it blew everything in my garden down. All the corn plants were flattened.

SoCal, I'm glad you aren't there and are not in any danger.

Your view is spectacular. I hope everything goes smoothly and you return from vacation to a unaffected home.

SoCal, take care. I hope your home is ok. Stay safe out there.
Very nice view.

SoCal, so wish we could join you in So Cal because we had unusual cold temps of 28f for 2 nights and everything looks so sad! I don't miss the fires though and hope your house and yard stay safe and you get some real relaxing in.

I keep going back and forth on buying more peonies, especially tree peonies. I want the really early blooms, but I am not sure how to work it so that I can see the blooms, without having to go out in the cold! The Itohs that I got from the nursery seemed to have done fine in pots, and other people here have gotten tree peonies to do okay in pots, so maybe I could move them close to a window while they are blooming.

Thanks Annie, but the mandatory evacuation is now lifted, I was going to book to stay in Santa Barbara for 2 more days, but now I don't. Believe it or not, we're sick of lobsters or the food around here, lol.
We want to go back to simple food.
On a serious note, I got 2 emails that 3 itohs are coming. I need to go home and plant them.

The temperature here was 49 degree this morning, it should be good for the peonies. Some of the eyes are exposed, will see how they do next year. I'm somewhat hopeful.
On other news, the fire is 32% contained, but the wind is down from the ocean so I can smell the smoke now.

Thanks for the updateSoCal. I'm glad that the smoke isn't blowing your way.

I hope you can get everything planted soon so you can rest.

Thanks LG, it's 46 degree in the morning here, but my Mackinac Grand was burnt recently by the wind. The tip of one of they big eyes is brown. I'll see how it will be doing this year. But I'm finally cleared out my corn bed, they were flattened by the gusty wind. I also dumped out my compost bin, getting ready to plant my peonies today.
On other news, the fire is 51% contained. According to the news, timing and building code helped starve off disaster. That's all I know, I don't have subscription to read that article.

Love it when building codes save houses and plants!

Guess I am trying tree peonies since I just order one. Now I need to decide next year, if I get the 3 more I have been thinking about. The color variation on the tree peonies is wonderful...my husband likes that so maybe if I can find a place for them.

SoCal, why is there a bud on MG above ground? It's an herbaceous peony.

I'm following Top, I expose the eyes for the winter chill. Only this one has problem because it was planted recently before the fire. But my Shirley Temple is doing well, even with the exposed eyes.

As I am thinking about what I want for next year, I started wondering how tree peonies and camellias would look together. I don't even know if the bloom times overlap, but I'm in the thinking stage.

If I got a red chinese tree peony, would a red camellia look good with it?

Anyone have both tree peony and camellia blooming kind of close together?

I do but my camellia is fall blooming!

I don't have any, but my cousin sent a picture of his in a pot and it's beautiful.

I have a nice old Fall blooming camellia that is loaded with buds. Of course it's going to freeze tonight.

I have planted two red Spring blooming camellias; if I notice that they bloom during woody peony season I might move them. Thanks for the idea.

SoCal, can you possibly post the picture?

Annie, it was deleted, that cellphone was out of memory.

Okay, thanks anyway.

Hiyamakki,
I was needing a east coast plant and stumbled upon plantdelights.com having Molly the Witch peony for $30, they are sold out right now but look into them. They are a botanical garden, so seem to be reputable.