Good luck Ginny! Hope they will bloom next spring. It would also help the peonies alot if you add a tsp of bulb fertilizer when they start growing in early spring. Help to alleviate bud blast.

Well the white stuff is all over everything. Was bound to happen --- happens every year around this time

Ours came and went.
Now we are having a warmer spell, but it goes below freezing at night.
Still can dig so finishing my late bulb plantings. Should all be in by now , but it did not get done on time.

Feels like summer here still, need some rain! Or even snow!

I'm still waiting on a bunch of tulip bulbs to get here.....

Tulips do okay going in later, but daffodils ---not so much!
But since I have them,--- I might as well dig them in.

I looked for tulips to buy. Costco usually has bunches, but I guess I missed their big fall sales. I purposely avoided that section as didn't want to get sucked into buying stuff I didn't need. Didn't think of tulips. Drat. I was glad to see the snow. It is still on the ground. I am hoping that the moisture and somewhat warmer temps during the day will give all the plants a last chance to develop better tubers and roots. Finally got my Azomite out on the peonies first, then scattered what was left over on other stuff like lilies and iris. Now the long wait til next spring to see how successful the major upheaval will be. Have dahlias and lilies in the basement; lilies I had no place to plant (fairly small ones) and of course tons of dahlia tubers. And one uchida in a pot that I don't want to risk outside.

About how long can you see the flowers from the root?

@littlebin Um, don't understand the question but it might not have been directed to me.

Thanks, I mean how long it will take for the bare root to have its first flower? One year? Two years?

Oberon46 said:@littlebin Um, don't understand the question but it might not have been directed to me.

I have the same question littlebin. Will I get blooms the first year from bare root plant?

Littlebin and Legalily, it really depends on the size of the root you planted and your specific growing conditions if you're talking about peonies. The really small roots that typically come from Walmart, Home Depot, etc can take 3-4 years to bloom most places, I've had some bloom after 2 and some that still haven't bloomed after 5. Roots with 3-5 eyes and a nice sized feeder root can sometimes put up at least 1 bloom first spring if you good luck--most of mine don't bloom until the 2nd spring. Fertilizing with an organic bulb fertilizer and Azomite has improved the odds for me a bit. If you're wondering about what a good root size looks like take a look over the last few pages of this thread, those peonies from Brooks, Adelmans, Hidden Springs, etc are the ones that'll bloom first spring in most places. That's assuming you're planting in the fall for the next spring, I've only had a spring planted bare root peony bloom that same spring once in all of the years that I've grown peonies.

I had three or more eyes on each root and got them from John Scheepers. Looked pretty decent. We'll see what happens. Thank you

Make sure you post pictures if they bloom, Ginny! Especially from the sellers that we're not as familiar with, it's always good to see what their plants do!

Will do

You're going to love this one. I still had 3 peony BARE ROOTS to plant in my daughter's yard. In order to speed things up, since I have to drive 45 min to her house, I asked her to dig 3 holes where we previously marked and told her to dig down maybe six inches down and about 8 to 10 inches across to get a good start. She had not had time to do the digging so her significant other was over yesterday morning and offered to do it for her. Of course she said yes When I got there she forewarned me (he was gone by then) that the holes were a little larger than I requested. I should have taken a picture because there were 3 perfectly dug holes, perfectly round, and you could have easily sunk a complete 5 gallon bucket into each one We spent most of our time filling in all 3 holes before I could even plant the peony roots We got a good laugh on that one but she wasn't going to complain to him because she didn't want to have him tell her fine do it yourself next time

I actually don't think the holes were excessively deep or round. Typically they say '$100 hole for a $100 root." You could have added fertilizer, put a couple of feet back in then topped off over the root. Which I guess is what you ended up doing. But digging down that far makes it easier for the roots to grow, especially if you 'laced' the bottom with fertilizer/dirt mixed. The peonies should be great next year.

Looking at it that way Mary it makes more sense. She didn't have compost and we didn't have time to go get some (we both had other plans afterwards) but she did have good black dirt so the roots should be happy. We had previously added compost to the whole area before we started planting anything earlier in the summer so that should have been there when the dirt was dug out and mixed in.

Yup. You should have happy peonies come next spring

I got my order from Birchwood Farms this week. I was really pleased with these root divisions. The owner's name is Anna Kay, and she is great. She sends a bonus with every order. I will get these all planted today. And of course, I will post pix of any blooms in the Spring.