We have had 2 perfect days for waking peonies from their winter nap. 75° with bright sun. My babies are beginning to come around and show themselves.

You're going to need a bigger fernleaf bed by next spring, Jerry! Looks like they'll probably all be touching by the end of this growing season. That is going to be absolutely beautiful, the individual plants blooming now already are. Congratulations! And all of that growth, from tiny pips to blooms, in under 30 days! Peonies are amazing.....

Even though they grow slowly, they will begin to touch within about 3 years. I will be 77 by then so I just may let them form a beautiful flowering carpet. The two singles in the front are '09 transplants and seem to have stalled a bit in their spreading. They could be divided and yield probably a dozen more plants but I like the larger bushy types.

Jerry, your plants look great! I can't believe that you live so much farther north than I do, and you already have blooms. Your fernie blooms are beautiful.

You've also got better weather than we do, it's been raining for 2 days, and we've barely reached 60 degrees today.

We have had more than our share of cold weather but we missed most of the heavy rains. Forecasts ahead are for normal late April weather. I find it hard to grasp all the foul weather hitting the Southeast.

My first double FL bloom for this year. Pics taken late in the day so they are not the best of quality. I narrowly averted a major problem today when I looked at their bed and saw all the newly planted doubles had their bloom stalks wilted and bent over. A quick watering with a MG fertilizer mix may have saved them. Raised beds with mixed soils dry more quickly than grade level soil and we have had extra warm, dry, sunny days for awhile. The new peonies have not developed the necessary root system.

Gorgeous blooms Jerry! Good thing the plants recovered with the watering.

Jerry, noticed I have a tiny double red fernleaf bud today!! Looks like a single stalk about the size of 1 in your picture from March 28th, only an inch or 2 high right now. Merry Mayshine is bigger than that one and looks to have a bud or 2 also. Think I might have lost my single fernleaf, though. It was a teeny root, not surprised but disappointed. I plan to post a bunch of pics this weekend, I'm off work Thursday through Sunday so will work outside a lot, haven't had time to get out much the last few weeks.

Colorado appears to be nearly 2 zones colder than here. I would not worry or take any action until it becomes much warmer. Add some water if the weather has been really dry for some time.

It's raining tonight, of course! I watered for the first time this spring yesterday! I wasn't worried about the slow growth but am excited about seeing growth on my first fernleaf, so very happy that it survived the winter. I'm used to the slow-starting spring here, as long as I see swelling pips by this time in the spring I know they survived! I'll be posting flower pictures after everyone else's have faded. To me, you guys are my early, early season blooms and I'm your very, very late season ones!

So true Liz, so true

Pic of P.tenuifolia ssp.lithophile in case anyone has never seen this particular fern leaf. The blossom is smaller than a regular single fl and the leaves are more finely cut. Anxious for it to mature into a larger plant.

Double FL and a shot of the FL bed.

Those FL's are lovely. Mine have finally broken dormancy. Last instead of first but they are in a colder part of the yard. I don't think mine are true fern leaves. Cuz they have leaves not fernies. Will keep an eye out for some this year.

Beautiful blooms Jerry, the plants looks so healthy!

I'm not the world's largest peony fan but those red single fern leafs are among my newest favorite plants! A local grower has some and as they're just coming on I'd better have him put my name on a specimen or three or they'll all be spoken for.

I am sure I have posted this previously but the place to obtain the true fern leaf peonies is http://www.hiddenspringsflower...

If there is such a thing, these folks are 100% true to the peony business. The species single fernleaf, P.tenuifolia, sets seeds and can be used to expand a garden over time.

Harvey is a really nice person. It's fun to go up to his open house in the spring.

Hi Jerry! This is the first peony to bloom for me this year but is a cheat; 1 of the 2 I bought a few weeks ago from a local nursery. Does it look like P. Tenuifolia as it was labeled or do you think it's a hybrid? Doesn't really matter, just want to label it correctly once I plant it this fall. Thanks!

The leaves, in relation to the flower, appear to be a fern leaf. It may or may not be the species P.tenuifolia but I have several divisions from one I had purchased about 10 years ago which was the single fern leaf but is not the species type since it does not set seeds. Normally, the common fl hybrids have a much larger leaf, somewhere between the finely cut fern leaf and a herbaceous leaf. My Early Scout is a good example of a fl hybrid.