I wanted to warn people about a practice I see as very common on Etsy for the Peony genus. My understanding is that a quality Peony should have three rhizome sections and three to five eyes. What I am noticing on Etsy is that sellers are cutting plants down to just one rhizome, often very small and with only one or two eyes coming out. I think this is a genus that is better purchased from a specialty Peony grower.

Great advice! Thanks for sharing your experience and I'm sorry if you have gone through this first hand. It's a shame that these dodgy practices are commonplace on platforms like Etsy and eBay. These sellers are clearly more concerned with their financial success than our success with the plants and their practices are predatory on inexperienced plant purchasers and border on scamming. Unfortunately in all of this peonies can end up getting a bad rap instead of the sellers.

NMay said: Great advice! Thanks for sharing your experience and I'm sorry if you have gone through this first hand. It's a shame that these dodgy practices are commonplace on platforms like Etsy and eBay. These sellers are clearly more concerned with their financial success than our success with the plants and their practices are predatory on inexperienced plant purchasers and border on scamming. Unfortunately in all of this peonies can end up getting a bad rap instead of the sellers.

I actually do not think that most of these Etsy/eBay sellers have bad intent. They are simply not Peony experts. They are resellers trying to make a buck, and in the process they are violating best practices for the Peony genus without even realizing what they are doing.

I have privately heard many complaints about Etsy sellers. I have learned the hard way to only buy from established peony sellers that grow their own stock. They will stand behind what they sell.
You can search this Peony Forum and see threads that show the roots actually received by individuals and get an idea what quality roots the sellers send.

I've been away from the forum for far too long, trying to catch up! Just wanted to say that peony storage roots vary greatly depending on variety. A good division of one variety might have 3-5 eyes attached to 2 or 3 storage roots, another division might have a single very large storage root with 3-5 or more eyes and that's fine.
I've made my share of questionable plant purchases from Etsy, some have been worthwhile, others not so much. Only a couple have been peonies and I don't think either survived long enough to know if they were the right variety or not! It's a shame, places like Etsy allow the home gardener a place to sell plants to support a plant habit or add a bit of income, certainly a need in a lot of households in our current economy. I think I'll probably continue to make some purchases there but only with sellers that are willing to provide information about the roots they sell to include pics before a purchase is made. Doubt if I ever order another peony from Etsy though or any other plant with very specific diseases associated, like knowing they're coming from clean sources!