Our weekend here had our temps nearing 60 F. After a few days of sunshine, milder temps (over the freezing mark) and then some rain, all the snow is nearly gone. Took a walkabout in the garden yesterday. Seems like 2 of the newly planted peonies are anxious to show themselves. These photos were taken yesterday, Sunday 1/13/2013.
I posted about one of them, Raspberry Sundae, and even after I added some additional soil back in December, it is still persistent to push up.


The other one that started to pop up was Festiva Maxima.


I checked 2 others (Coral Sunset and Duchesse de Nemours) that were planted at the same time but they are staying under for now.

Ours are warm and toasty under a cover of snow, but
it is nice to see the magic that is going on under there!

We hit in the low 70's two days this weekend here in Duluth, GA, and now it will be raining for the next few days, and colder temps are coming after that. I can't believe your peony pips are taller than mine, and starting to put out leaves in a colder zone. I guess that's Mother Nature at her best. I have 6 newly planted peonies as well, and they do have larger pips coming up than the older peonies that I have.

Annette

I'm concerned as we are expected to dip into very low temps (teens to single digits) early next week. Today it is snowing but won't get the big snowfalls we've had in the past couple of weeks. Hopefully it will be enough to cover them again.
Same here about older peony. No pips showing. I guess the saying is true ......the older you get, the wiser you get.

Julia, I hope that your plants got enough snow to protect them. Two years ago when we got 6-8 inches of snow in January and had one of our colder winters, the peonies bloomed really well that spring. Annette

Annette: We got just over 2 inches of fluffy snow so if it doesn't melt fast, hopefully they will stay covered up. They are forecasting that we will have lake effect snow every day next week along with the very, very cold temps.

I'm hoping to at least see one bloom from all the new ones but then again, wishful thinking.

I'm glad you got some snow to protect your plants, and that you'll be getting more. I planted 17 new peonies in the fall of 2011, and several of them bloomed last spring. Don't give up hope, these plants love the winter chill. You may be fortunate to see some blooms this year.

We've got some cold weather coming our way, with nights in the 20-30's, but we'll warm up to the 40-50's during the daytime. Annette

I checked the newly planted peonies today, that were planted on December 15, 2012. They are now starting to not just increase pip size, but grow. Lois's Choice appears to have a bud growing, and Cheddar Surprise has little leaves. It's going to get cold next week, so I'll be covering these plants with some pine straw mulch to protect them.

Now that is an anxious peony Annette. I have to go and look those up on the internet as I've not heard of the names before. Where do you typically get your peonies from?


The 2 inches of snow is gone again since yesterday was like another spring day. Poor plants are probably confused. Now we are in for the arctic blast. Already lost power this morning from the high winds but hopefully it stays on now because with the temps dropping so dramatically, it will be a very cold evening coming.

We are having about the same weather here. Two days of 50 to 60 with night temps now forecasted to be 10 to 15. A little mulch will do a world of good.

The new peonies that are growing were covered with pine straw mulch this afternoon.

Julia, when I first started growing peonies, I got them from GH Wild, and some in a box from SAMs. Of course these took several years to get to blooming size. I was a gardening newbie, and didn't know about the wonderful nurseries all over the USA that supplied peonies, I now know better. I've also gotten some from a co-op with the herbaceous peonies from Hollingsworth, and a co-op with tree peonies from Walters Gardens last spring. Our local nursery Pikes will also carry plants in the fall and the spring, and so do Lowes, and HD, but the latter 2 tend to have the more common peonies. Most recently, I got the last set of plants from Brooks Gardens.

I was at Pikes today getting garden supplies, and I asked them which peonies they were getting for this spring? They didn't know yet but told me I was to leave a wish list. I asked for Kopper Kettle. The plants that they tend to get are from Monrovia, and are beautifully grown. I couldn't believe they had Do Tell last spring.

I do have to say that I like GH Wild's prices, and they do carry a lot of the older, fragrant varieties. If you have the patience to wait a few years for blooms, they're an inexpensive source for peony tubers/roots. My Bowl of Beauty came from SAMs, and after 3 years in the ground, they put on a spectacular show every spring. These came 4/box, and Sarah Bernhardt came 3/box and are also finally blooming well. Annette

The peonies I brought from our old house one was showing a little red
The house had been built in 1915 and we lived there for 15 years so I wanted to take some with us. One of my kids childhood memories is peonies blooming so wanted to have that for the grandkids, (when I get some) the same peonies thier parent grew up with.
Im also growing more from seeds I bought,since I have time to wait.