Great plants Annette! Congratulations!

No sign of peony growht here in Toronto near the lake. We still have cold nights when the temperature goes to -5C.

Liz,

I am into tree peonies and the best spots in the garden are reserved for them. My garden is really small. Three years ago, I've started planted garden peonies more like groundcover. I would like them to look naruralized, so I try to plant "proven winners."

I bought two NOIDs in a sale. They were neglected in the nearby nursery, but they managed to survive. A friend of mine gave me my third NOID. Then I got one more NOID from a neighbour who wanted to get rid of one of her peonies. This lady did not speak English. She just told me I could have the peony and that I had to take it right away. The poor peony survived, kept buds and bloomed although it was transplated in June.

Other than that, I bought Festiva Maxima and Edulis Superba in a sale. I think I bought one more last fall, but I am not sure; I forgot Finally, two days ago, I bought bare root Sarah Bernard.

I've also got a totally neglected peony from another neighbour last fall, juts before the first frost. Hope this poor peony will survive.

As you see, these are more or less orphan peonies that I brought to my place. Anyway, I cannot wait to see if they will grow.

I will start a new thread asking you to help me ID the poor orphans Your help will be highly appreciated.

Still just one little pip in sight for now. I killed Guardian of the Monastery two years ago. And I simply don't have room to replace it. Really need to move Bride's Dream as it is in a hole and block from sun around noon, okay before and after. It had many blooms on it last year so perhaps I should just let well enough alone. It just kills me to see it sitting in a depression filled with ice and water way past most other things in my garden. Amazes me it has survived. Perhaps it is just surface and doesn't hurt the tubers. And it is a late bloomer so maybe it actually forms buds later in the spring after it comes out of its water bath.

Thanks @Jasmin! I have a few noid plants myself, that I love dearly! I also love the tree peonies, but seem to be good at killing them off. So far there only appears to be 1 loss this year.

Mary, I'm sorry to hear about your Guardian of the Monastery, so sad😔. I hope your Bride's Dream will be fine. Any signs of the ground thawing yet? It sounds like it did well last year, and hopefully it will be fine again this year.

So sad about Guardian of the Monastery. It's such a beauty.

So sorry for your loss of the GoM tree, Mary. It is such a beautiful tree! It is one that is on my wanted list for awhile and am patiently waiting for it to go on sale someday while I seek a perfect spot for it. Like Annette, I am not having much luck with tree peonies. I managed to kill one last year. I think that I had planted it in a bad location and it rotted and died. Last year, I thought I had almost lost my favorite peony, Alexander Woolcott to rot. It too was in a bad location. I was able to move it in time to a better location. It seems to like where it is now because I see the eyes double this year.

kousa said: ... Like Annette, I am not having much luck with tree peonies. I managed to kill one last year. I think that I had planted it in a bad location and it rotted and died. Last year, I thought I had almost lost my favorite peony, Alexander Woolcott to rot. It too was in a bad location. I was able to move it in time to a better location. It seems to like where it is now because I see the eyes double this year.

I also killed a tree peony last summer after transplanting it in. I think the location was fairly well drained, but have thought that perhaps I should have watered it more because the location was rather warm and dry. I also wonder whether the timing, in June, wasn't good, because that is not when they would be transplanted, ordinarily, but I had just bought it.

I think you are right. Planting the peony tree when it is not in the dormant stage is a huge risk. But I think the lack of moisture is what may have killed it. In my case, I was probably water it too much while it was in the pot and caused the root to rot. And when I planted it in hard clay soil, I even put it in greater risk of rotting. So it eventually suffocated and died. Tree peonies are finicky. I think they are much harder to grow than herbaceous.