Looking at everybody's magnificent flowers I thought we need a new tread for humble gardeners of the North. We are just starting to see some development and dear rosy snouts in our back yards.

It was planted last fall from a tiny root of Etched Salmon - not sure which one of these as only one showed up yet. I was not sure if they were going to make it. So far it survived with all freezing ( at least -7C )and thawing spring.



Some action in planted last year Miss America which was potted to begin with.


Itohs - Bartzella, Cora Louise, Smith Family Yellow



Another super tiny root from last fall - I divided it into 3 pieces and 2 got one eye and the last one I am not sure what was it - some kind of rudimentary one ( did not show up yet ). Red single to semi-double NOID with great stems, early, long flowering and a little bit of fragrance. I thought it is Rosedale as it not high, but probably will need your expertise to clarify .

Cool Alex, I'm away from home but have lots of pics to post when I get back! Yours look like they're starting off nicely!

Mine are about at the same stage, maybe a little smaller. Cora Louise, Julia Rose, Miss America, Green Lotus, Carrara, Bev, Pink Hawaiin Coral. One that was a root left after the main plant was killed in 2013 that I think might be Coral Sunset. Lemon Chiffon, Garden Treasure, Mackinac Grand, Rosellette (strangly), Chocolate Soldier yet to show. Plus about four new ones and two fernies by the east fence so they don't get sun til noon at the time of year. Really need to move them.

Am still thinking of make a new bed by removing grass out front. Just a round one with tiers of block. DH shouldn't object as less grass to mow but then it is a pain to mow around the beds.

I think next time I plant a bareroot I am going to leave 1 cm of soil on the top - feel that 1 inch was a stretch too far in Toronto. Remember reading somewhere that depth should also correspond whether soil is sandy or clay and it should be less in clay which is what I have. Learning never ends.

The weather was treating us well in the last week or so and peonies are growing.
Old Faithful



Itohs - Bartzella, Cora Louise, Smith Family Yellow



Red NOID - looks good for both surviving plants



Red Charm x 2



Etched Salmon x 2

By the way, I just noticed that Etched Salmon leaves are coming out much lower from the soil than other peonies - I feel that it probably should have been planted more shallow. Does anyone has any experience with this one?

The one I was able to find online by Nick
https://northernpeony.com/2015...
I would say it looks similar to mine.

Alex, I can't wait to see your peonies grow and bloom! Keep the pictures coming!!

It is always difficult to grasp the fact that the Northern peonies are in full bloom when our peony blossoms are gone.

Mine are under snow again! Hopefully it will melt away over then next couple of days so I can remove all of the coverings by Saturday.

Aw Jerry, my heart bleeds for you. LOL Us Northerners are sitting here drooling over you warmer climate guys with your peonies. LOL It's a good excuse to do a road trip north to one of the Peony Meccas...

Adelman's is great by the end of May. Been there, done that and it was a blast, wind and rain included.

Well, here is my contribution. You can see why I don't post often at this time of year. You see one pip in frozen ground, you've seen them all. And Yes, that is frost on the ground.
Abalone Pearl

Athena

Bev

Cora Louise

Coral Sunset

Early Scout

Fernleaf Hybrid

Mr. Ed

Pink Hawaiin Coral

Roselette

Shimane Cho Juraku Tree

It looks like yours are around 14 days behind Toronto, Mary Stella. Was your tree planted last year? Yesterday received a message from one of our local peony grower saying my ordered Taiyo " With the continuous freezing and thawing our tree peonies did not survive the Winter " RIP. It was spontaneous purchase but I was expected to see it in person in a few weeks time....

That is so sad about the peony grower. They must have had a heck of a freeze thaw. We had that in 2013 and indeed many of my plants, not just peonies, rotted.

My tree was planted the fall of 2014, very late as I recall. He sent me an especially large plant and said he had to wait quite a while to get it (don't know where it came from) so the increased value hopefully made up for the lateness of arrival. It was indeed large. It is doing quite well and should form a nice beginning bush structure this summer even if it doesn't bloom yet.

I figured about two weeks or so lag time from you to me. The sun is out mostly today but the temps are only up to 68 in the sun. We had been getting over 70 for several days but still that blasted mid to upper 20's at night. It is holding up all planting outside, even in the raised beds except for well developed lettuce, pak choi, hepatica plants. They don't mind the cold. They even had a bit of frost on their leaves one morning despite the poly cover and are going strong.

I just pot-treated most of my peonies - very cold temperatures overnight.

Someone just told me we're supposed to have snow on Monday. Of course, I leave for TX this Friday so won't be here to protect my plants! I'll be checking temps and sunny days to see if I should gamble on just covering them for the entire week--if it's sunny and semi-warm though the covering can do more harm than good here because of the altitude--it'll cook the plants even if the outside temps are in the 50s or 60s.

Turned out that I was overprotective, but ! could have been much worse. Liz, I think 1 week of protection is stretching to the limit. Check whether it will be below freezing and by how much to decide.

I know, Alex! I'm not concerned about most but I do have a few that are very frost sensitive. I'm afraid I might have no blooms on Blonde Vision even if the nighttime lows get down to below freezing. Not supposed to have any snow accumulation but I've heard THAT story before.....

May be a huge plastic jar ( something like a gallon water bottle ) or glass cloche with some openings ( ! ) will do the trick? I am not sure how big is it at the moment.