Liz, you're going to love Zuzu. :)

My order from Swenson arrived today.

Diana Parks

Solange

Raspberry Charm

Coral Sunset

The Fawn

Rosedale

Back of Rosedale

Pink Hawaiian Coral

Old Faithful

Green Lotus

Back of Green Lotus

Additional Green Lotus rhizome.

Norma Volz

Bess Bockstoce

Joker

Etched Salmon

Etched Salmon and Bess Bockstoce

Henry Bockstoce

Coral Charm

What a great collection you have there, Lily! You'll love all of them. The roots look pretty good. I can't wait for mine to come. I have 4 coming from Swenson.

Thanks, Diann! I've had that one on my list for the last year or so but decided to purchase ones that I couldn't find in the states. Your pictures are beautiful, I think I'm going to love Zuzu, too!

Lily, you have a wonderful selection! I hope you get lots of blooms first year! I'm looking forward to seeing the pictures!

Isn't it crazy how different some of the roots look from seller to seller? Didn't Alex have Old Faithful from La Pivoinerie D'Aoust as well? Think I'm going to refer to that one as LaP from now on so I don't have to keep looking up the spelling.....

Mine was from Parkland perennials, Liz. I noticed the difference with Etched Salmon as well, but the price was slightly different too.

Thank you Karen and Liz. With all of these beauties to look forward to, I am dreaming of spring already.

Sorry Alex, got the 2 mixed up! I ordered from both but haven't gotten the box from Parkland yet. It'll be interesting to see if you think there's any benefit to planting the larger sized divisions--I haven't but then we've had a few really extreme springs. I'll definitely divide the larger roots now if possible before planting. Since I ordered too much my sisters are getting really lucky with peonies this year!

I'm right there with you, Lily! I've just started re-mulching my flower beds, still have quite a bit to move, and I'm cutting back the peonies that have browned already. They're still getting a bit of supplemental water but that'll stop soon, we normally have sprinklers blown out around the beginning of October. Hoping that I can get everything tidied up and peony cages put in place for my spring really bad weather abatement project to try to get some early blooms next year!

I can relate with ordering too much, Liz. I got carried away with Bannister's sale. And it is great that Neva will ship my order in October. I haven't done much in my garden. I need to move some hostas because we cut down two big trees in our yard. Some shade plants need to be relocated also. I have been visiting local garden centers in search of Japanese maples with fine leaves (dissectum) that my husband want. Waiting for them to go on sale. I picked up a couple of grape vines to replace the vines in my arbor per my daughter's request. I am also hoping that I can get everything moved and planted before the white stuff shows up. I am planning on taking a couple of days off from work to do my gardening.


The 4 pots of High Noon were already planted. I used them as foundation planting. I original purchased 1 pot but went back and picked up some more. The three pots in the bottom pic are not planted yet. Hoping to get them planted this weekend and move some plants.

That's great Lily! You gave those Lowes ITOH peonies a very good home!

That is also what the lady said at the counter. She gave me a good price on the one ITOH at the bottom pic. All of them are tree peonies except for one. I wish the Lowes or HDs around here has TPs and Itohs but they don't. These are from a nursery by me. The two Itohs I posted in the other thread are from another nursery.

Received my rosea yesterday and planted it today. Very good roots, for a fern leaf, packed in a generous amount of what appears to be a peat moss mix. Mixed the peat moss into the soil mix. The raised bed is only 8" deep so I planted the roots horizontally due to the way the eyes were located. This complete my collection of species fern leafs with rosea, lithophile, single red, and double red, plus some double reds and single reds of unverified origin.

Hi Liz,
you had a great idea about comparing root sizes from different suppliers and next few year development online, so we will find out in 2 or 3 years!

Personally I would rather divide the roots right away when purchased or transplanted than to wait another few years and use enormous effort to dig and divide them. IMHO best transplants are with 4-6 eyes and nicely developed root system ( 4-10 medium sized spreading roots - something similar to my divided Red Charm or first division of Florence Nicholls). Praying to peony gods helps sometimes as well.

Jerry, indeed your rosea has very good roots and has lots of eyes. How I like seeing roots from Adelman's. The cleanest and neatest!

Those were nice roots for species fern leafs. More than ample eyes for a good first year. $30 was a very good price also.

, Jerry! It is a bargain. Some places sell them at $50 or more a pop. Can't wait to get mine. It is coming next week.

Here are my roots from Adelman peonies.

From left to right: Rozella, White Frost, P. Tenuifolia Rosea, La Perle


Here is close up of P. Tenuifolia Rosea

Nice roots, Karen! I noticed that Adelman roots are longer and they look growing sideways. I guess they divide one clamp into 5-6 pieces? Yet I wonder if they use any special equipment for digging them out and their soil should be really good not to damage those gigantic roots?

Thanks, Alex. They divide them in a way that the roots can be planted sideways. I see large eyes on them so hopefully I will have at least 1 or 2 flowers on them. These are nice roots but they certainly are not as huge as the roots that you receive from Parklands and Select Plus. The ones that I ordered from Select Plus were huge but they were itohs. Itoh roots are usually large.

In my experience eyes are what matter more than root mass. I have had larger roots with the same or less eyes than Adelmans, and when it comes to first year blooms, the ones with the most eyes have the most blossoms.

Last year I had a smaller root system and 5 eyes from a Swenson order peony and I could not believe how many blossoms it had this spring!

Received a Swenson order so far. And just got word Fina Gardens that their package is on the way. Can't wait. Lemon Chiffon