Spring never comes soon enough. Beautiful avatar Tracey, which one is that?

'Pink Jazz' an OT lily bred by Dick Bazett of British Columbia.

I hear ya, spring can't ever come soon enough.

Beautiful!!

Bartzella
Amazed at the growth and flowering of this plant. First summer 12 blooms, second summer the plant had more than doubled in size with over 30 flowers!

An unnamed lavender Tree Peony



This red Tree peony had a name but lost it



Another lost label for this herbaceous peony.

Sounds like your Bartzella has perfect conditions there. All nice, but love your lavender tree peony!

I was happy that the tree peonies survived. Last year's winter (20010 - 2011) crushed them under 5 to 6 feet of heavy wet snow. The lavender on was knocked down flat but still bloomed on the old wood 2.5 feet from the roots and put up a fresh flush of new stems from the roots. So now it's a 3 - 4 foot wide plant. Have you ever heard of tree peonies rooting from the stems?

Thanks for all these wonderful photos. I especially want a tree peony. This is my one and only for now.

'Bowl of Beauty'

No Brian, I've never heard of tree peonies rooting from the stems, but then I've never had one break off like that. Maybe you'll end up getting an entire new plant from it.

Tee, 'Bowl of Beauty' is a nice one. Mamajack had a tree peony co-op on Cubits. Not sure if it's still open or not.

Thanks for the info, Chris. I'm hardly ever on Cubits so I appreciate the point in that direction.

Many tree peonies are actually grafted. They use herbacious peony to root the tree peony. It seems like 'Early Scout' is one root stock often used in commerce as a graft. So if you have something else coming from your tree peony that looks different, it often means your tree peony is not planted deep enough and the grafted rootstock is coming up instead of or in addition to your tree peony. This information came to me via peony convention in WI a few years ago. It seems like it speeds up the blooming process.

Good info, Tracey. I knew they were grafted onto rootstock but I've never had one so hadn't thought about planting depth. Same thing happens with roses. You get suckers coming up off the rootstock but it's generally easy to tell those.

The new growth from the roots of the broken tree peony is definitely still from the tree peony not the rootstock. I know they are grafted but they do have their own roots when first grown from seed so I was curious about the broken branches rooting as they are flat on the ground and barely attached to the root understock. Last fall the broken stems still looked healthy and strong with large buds for this coming years growth so I covered the branches with some mulch. I also covered the tips with a large pot to protect them from heavy snow ( who knew we wouldn't have any this year) and they still look strong and healthy. I guess time will tell.

OK, now I'm confused.

I think what Mags/Tracey means is that sometimes the nurse root (herbaceous root stock) if not planted deep enough will send up peony shoots of it's own. Thus, compromising the tree peonies healthy growth. If it looks like you have a regular herbaceous peony coming up along side of your tree peony cut that herbaceous peony shoot out.

Some additional info on tree peonies and grafting plus other sidebar topics. One of the better presentations.

http://www.crickethillgarden.w...

Ah, thanks, Diann. Grafted onto its own roots.

September was my last post. My gosh...

Doglover,
How beautiful all your peonies are!

Brian,
Your's are beautiful too!

Tee,
It's a beautiful ''one'' to have!

Tracey,
I didn't know tree peonies were grafted.Good to know!

Brian,
It will be interesting to see what grows this year. Rooting on the ground...

We did not have much winter. Thankfully there were enough cold days for the peonies and lilacs. We had very little snow and it's been in the 80's for over a week. Very unusual. We usually get one or two kite flying days and then it turns cold. We will cool down this week, but things are popping up all over. Our last hard freeze is in the last half of April. I'm praying it won't happen. We are also not getting any rain to speak of. I think I'll be pumping much water.

HELLO TO All,

ALOT OF MY PEONIES HAVE POPPED OUT OF THE GROUND WITH EVERYTHING ELSE POPPING UP ALSO. I HAVE ONE PEONIES THAT LOOKS TO HAVE SMALL BUDS ON IT THE WEATHER HERE HAS COOLED BACK DOWN. I HOPE TEMPATURE GOES BACK UP AND STAYS. I WOULD BE VERY UPSET IF VERYTHING GETS HIT BY BAD WEATHER !! !KEEPING MY FINGERS CROSSED FOR VERYONE!!

Sharon, I'm just north of you in Wisconsin and am holding my breath this morning too..... Everything is at least a month ahead of schedule this year. And it's 32 deg. right now.