I would like some recommendations on nurseries. I went to a friends garden today, who has beautiful peonies. She does not divide hers - so can't get them from her.

I saw a beautiful one there two years ago, but was not in bloom today "Ellen Crowley"

and today, I loved "Roy Payton"

I searched online, came up with a Klehms co-op on DG - but Songsparrow no longer has these two on their website.

I bookmarked perhaps 10 nurseries that sold peonies 2-3 years ago - went to them today and all but 2 are no longer at that address.

Googling peony nurseries did not turn up much.

Suggestions on how to find these two?

Many of the nurseries rotate what is for sale each year, some have a three year rotation, some have more years. It depends on how many of them sell and how rapidly they grow.

Hollingsworth Peonies
Solaris Farms
Adelman Peony Gardens
Klehm's Songsparrow
A&D Peonies

Looking around at one of those growers will give you a root that will likely bloom the first year too.

Something that I use is to type the name of the plant I am looking for then check the nurseries that come up.

If that does not work I type in Carsten Burkhart and check his site for each peony I am looking for. Some of the plants you can click on the supplier of the information and be taken to their website. Not 100% certain but I believe it is Ray not Roy Payton.

Thank you for those recommendations. Some of them were the bookmarked ones I had that still worked - Hollingsworth, Songsparrow, A&D.

I remember that last year I found Ellen Crowley, but didn't want to order just one. Now I know, when I see it, get it! I have a couple dozen different peonies - some are family plants, some I bought so I know the names, and others a friend gave me but did not give me the name... she is not big on keeping names of her plants. But, all the ones I have, I don't have any of what I think was called "shocking pink" or something like that.

Dottie did give me 3 starts of one that she says spreads stoloniferously. It's bloom almost looked like a coral/rose color tulip. She IS good at keeping names, but could not find a tag on this one. I took a photo, but it turned out I had my camera set on vivid color - so color is all wrong.

I only have room for 3 or 4 more, so I have to get picky now!

Alana - thanks for telling me it is not Roy but Ray - I went back and checked my notes and sure enough, I wrote Ray. LOL I did try googling these two plants - but maybe I put in Roy - and didn't come up with much.

http://4peonies.com/ has Ray Payton for sale this year. Have never purchased from them but they have interesting stuff.

If just doing the name does not work as it did not for Ray Payton I added the word peony after the name.

Ellen Crowley is listed by the Fina's at Full Bloom Farm. I know them but have not been to their place. They were doing cut flowers also.
http://www.fullbloomfarmpeonie...


Adelman's has it some times but looks like not this year.

Wow, thanks so much. I did try searching with peony, peonies - maybe my Mac version of Google is not as strong as PC. Hmmm I always use Google, maybe I should look into adding a few other search engines to try when I am not having any luck.

I really appreciate this!!!!

Edited to add - I just looked at the link for Ellen Crowley - and I see that the wording I should have used was "SHARP pink".....

I checked the Hidden Springs Flower Farms site for species peonies, in my case the tenuifolia double red flora plena, and saw they would not be listed until April or until they were checked and counted. I sent them an e-mail requesting to be put on a reservation list in case the nursery would have some for sale. I received a reply within probably 3 hours tonight acknowledging my request and am now "on the list".

That is really going out of their way to accomodate a customer. I have ordered twice from them before and had excellent service. They have a relatively large selection of species peonies so anyone wanting some should give their on-line catalog a look.

I think Mr. Buchite is or was the President of the American Peony Society so he should know his peonies.

If I recall correctly, he gave a presentation at last year's peony convention in Wi. too. It's so nice when business owners are that quick and helpful. The passion these folks show for their peonies is not only phenomenal but contagious.

If I remember right, he was also one of the more avid peony collectors during the auction at the APS national meeting in Janesville last year.

Since posting this last spring, the same friend that I visited had to dig up a lot of plants. The county was to run a gas line right through the mixed perennial border. She called me and said she had at least a dozen different peonies for me! She never divides her peonies... But this was dig them or they will die. So she wiggled starts off for me. I still do not have Ellen Crowley.... But I don't think I have room for any more now. Will see how many come up in spring...

That sounds like great news for you Juli. Your Spring show might surprise you. What fun!

Where can you buy the species peonies? I used to get them at Seneca Hills, which is now closed, and wish I had puchased more.

Hidden Springs Flower Farm has a fairly large selection of species peonies but I just checked their website and they have none available for this year sales. Available next year and orders can be taken anytime. I think they will charge your cc at the time of order since you would be asking to reserve the plant for you. They say their species peonies are always quantity limited due to slow natural propagation.

http://hiddenspringsflowerfarm...

Thanks Jerry.