Thanks Alana - I will do that.

Planted a Taiyo last year and had two blooms this spring. Today, among the ragged browning crispy foliage, I noticed FOUR buds coming up. Amazing to me after our exceptionally brutal summer. Ordered a Shima-Nishiki which should be delivered in the next couple of weeks. Fingers crossed it does as well.

MMmmmmmmmm...that's a nice one. You mean buds like it's going to flower again this year?

The buds will open next Spring. Budded out last January and I didn't know what they were. Here's last year's buds. Picture is a little blurry, but you can see them on the 'stick' of a trunk. I was soooooo excited to see the new ones today. Was concerned there wouldn't be any for this year because of the heat and because I don't often use supplemental water. But...

Now I understand what you mean New growth is always very exciting. You gotta come back when it blooms. It's such a lovely color!

It is gorgeous!

Ya got to love a peony, be it tree, herbaceous or Itoh.

Received my Shima Nishiki yesterday, planting it tomorrow. It has buds on it already.
Although only seven feet apart, it is going to be in shade more than the Taiyo. Hoping it does okay.

Supposed to look like this:

That is beautiful!

From my experience, tree peonies tolerate a bit of shade with no problem at all. I bet your will do just fine. I think a bit of shade also prolongs the bloom and protects the color.

Thank you! I am very excited. I wanted to try the Shima first, but it was always so expensive. A friend gave me a garden mail order gift certificate for Christmas that year, but they didn't have the Shima so I ordered the Taiyo. Last month, I found a site with half off the Shima, and well,... LOL

It is a little late for doing this but next year scout your nurseries for tree peonies to see which ones have them, if any. Nurseries normally have two times of the year that they reduce stock. First of June and September through October. If the nursery has any left and they are still alive you can often purchase really cheap. Some nurseries will discount even the sale price if you will take their stock off their hands.

For the adventersome starting in January look at the box stores such as Lowes and Home Depot for boxed grafts. At the stores here they are on wire racks on the bottom shelf?? They are sold as red, white, pink, and sometimes purple. However if you look in the bag there is generally a paper ribbon attached to the stem with the name of the cultivar. Plant the grafted plant so that most of the stem is in the soil rather than what is stated on the box. Depending on your weather conditions and how long the box has been on the shelf you can have a nice named price for around $10. This year with everything starting to increase prices it will probably be $16 or so but still cheaper than $30-50.

I receive a list of grafts for sale from a friend on the west coast having prices between $12.50 to $150 for new grafts. The $150 is for Autumn Harvest a hard to find plant.

thank you.

Shima Nishiki is in the ground. Ugly right now, ain't it?

I may be wrong but it appears in the picture that the graft is where the reddish stems are coming out of. If this is the case you need to dig and replant to put the reddish portion partly under the ground. I have found that if you put the whole stem except for a couple of inches left above the ground surface that the stem rots.

If you could post a picture of where the new growth is coming from it would be easier to decide if that area is the graft area or the new stems just emerged and were kept in the package so long that they bent.