Can you share your experience buying from this vendor? Do you have to file or pay for a phytosanitary certificate? How much was shipping?? How were the roots? And how did you pay for the transaction? Would you recommend this vendor?

I'd like to reserve judgment until I see what comes up this spring, Karen. I ordered from them the first time this year. They send all roots going to CONUS in bulk to a big nursery, forget where it's located, and she divides the order up and sends it out. Shipping and import duty added 50% to the cost of the peonies for me. I paid through PayPal, there's an option to go to a spot that shows a paypal address in the same area that you sign in to the Peony Shop. If you go through paypal and link to a US bank account there's no currency exchange fees. The euro was fairly weak against the dollar when I ordered so my total US was just over $400 for 16 peonies.

My first impression of the roots wasn't incredibly positive, they looked like they'd been travelling for a while and none were the size I was used to getting from Adelman's or other US sellers. I've had some roots surprise me, though. If the roots grow as well as the others from US sellers this spring I'll probably order from them again, if they don't I'll just window shop from their site and drool over their videos...I copied and pasted my order below so you can see the charges....

1 Paeonia "Avis Varner" - € 13.00
1 Paeonia "Callies Memory ~ Itoh Hybrid" € 13.00
1 Paeonia "Caroline" - € 11.00
1 Paeonia "Eskimo Pie" - € 15.00
1 Paeonia "Festiva Powder Puff" - € 15.00
1 Paeonia "Jadwiga" - € 7.00
1 Paeonia "Jan Van Leeuwen" - € 8.00
1 Paeonia "Mackinac Grand" - € 13.00
1 Paeonia "Marie Lemoine" - € 9.00
1 Paeonia "Pietertje Vriend Wagenaar" - € 12.00
1 Paeonia "She's My Star" - € 23.00
1 Paeonia "Smouthii" - € 11.00
1 Paeonia "Vogue" - € 11.00
1 Paeonia "White Emperor ~ Itoh Hybrid" - € 75.00
1 Paeonia "White Frost" - € 21.00
1 Paeonia "Wladyslawa" - € 7.00
16 Subtotal € 264.00
Discount 0% € 0.00
Shipping Cost € 72.00
Phytosanitary Certificate Cost € 0.00
Boiling Disinfection € 0.00
Import Duty 10% € 26.40
Total Value & Currency € 362.40

Mary, did you have the same experience or did they mail yours directly?

Thanks very much for that, Liz! Did you get 3-5 eyes as advertised? Was the size of the roots half that of US vendors? Please let us know how the roots grow this spring. They have some seedlings that are really awesome looking but not available for awhile.

I don't know how the tubers transited to be honest. They looked okay to me when they arrived and were planted immediately. My freight was over $100 but they took care of the phyto cert, and eventually donated the whole lot to the botanical garden fully refunding what I had paid. I didn't realize you had ordered from them much less so many. I see your freight was much less than mine but that makes sense considering where you live relative to where I live. Like you, time will tell. Come spring it should be interesting to see how the roots fare. Same with all that I ordered; some from Adelman's and some from Hidden Springs. The last few (three) were replacements from Adelman's for some that failed to thrive from those planted fall of 2015. Mostly their plants did well, especially (surprisingly) the tree peonies, all of which bloomed. They have been moved from the research plot out to a regular part of the garden in various beds, including one right in front of the little office. The new greenhouse building (quite fanciful in form) which faces south is potentially a spot for some future tree and itoh's. I surely hope they make it as they would really help to promote our peony collection. Guess I need to order the 2016 GM winner 'Eliza Lundy' I think?? We only are missing three tree peonies from that list. Waiting til we see if they will indeed thrive and bloom here before ordering those last three. Spendy to have something that won't work here. Maybe last year (this spring) was a fluke that they did so well. Hope not.

Thanks, Mary! It was very generous and so wonderful of the Peonyshop to donate all the plants to the botanical garden. I would be very interested to follow the progress of their plants at the garden in the next couple of years. I hope all the plants that you planted will do well. The Peonyshop does offer some peony varieties not available in the US.

I was particularly interested in many they have that are from the 1800's. Seemed appropriate for a botanical garden. Some were also rather rare here. Hidden Springs quite often offers some of the more difficult to find ones also.

Agree with Mary on http://www.hiddenspringsflower... they have a great selection and healthy plants. The owners are more than happy to talk with you, one of the owners Harvey used to give talks to our Master Garden group...very knowledgeable. I ordered a bare root Patricia Hanratty from them, first time ordering peonies via mail order. Really nice root structure with 7-8 eyes! The entire root was the size of a volley ball! Highly recommend them.

I wish I'd taken photos of Peony Shop's roots now! They did all have 3-5 eyes but the feeder roots were smaller than those from most of the other growers. I marked all of my roots so I'll know which ones do well, I'll report back specifically on the Peony Shop ones. Hope they do great, you're right about their selections, Karen!

I was going to order from them, but ordering only a few meant the shipping, sanitary certificate and money exchange were too much for me. They do have some rare ones and the Itohs are not so expensive there.

Too bad your in Canada, Caroline. I would suggest we order together, have it shipped to you, being closer then trans ship to me. But it being live plants, doesn't Canada have their own phyto thing going on. We would split the entire order to your door, then I would pay the postage from you to me.

Some day I will have to get a large group together and then order.
Think that I will wait to see how my present peonies do.

Let's see how the plants perform for you, Mary and Liz. Maybe we can organize a group buy from the Peonyshop next year. Wonder if they will offer a volume discount?

Good point. If you ever do that, keep me in mind. I think someone tried to get that off the ground earlier this year but the dollar amounts were getting astronomical, like hundreds of dollars each. Gotta be a less expensive way. Maybe I could ask Joshua (at the Peony Shop) if he has any recommendations. I think the repackaging was part of the sticking place. It would be quite a job for the first person to 'take possession.' I would volunteer but I would be about the last person possible to initially receive the shipment. Hmmmm. Wonder if they could be shipped over the pole. That would land it in Anchorage. But that would disadvantage everyone else as they would have the postage from here to waaayyyy down south. Although it is cheaper going south than going north. Going north is kinds of a one way trip.

Oh my yes they do. If we could settle on say several that we all want that would give us the 'more than 2' price. It really drops when you get to say 10 but that is of each kind, not all together. Hmmmm. Guess I could ask about that.

Their individual root prices were very good on most things. I agree with Karen--let's see how they do this spring. If the growth is at least typical of that from the big growers here I'd definitely be interested in a group buy, especially if the shipment could come directly to one of the group. I think part of my ambivalence toward PS is that it seemed to take a long time to get here after I saw that it had left their facility.

Wonder why it takes them so long to process and ship the roots? I sure hope they will be starting to offer some of their seedlings next year. Wow, would love to have their double pink p. tenuifolia someday. They will probably price it at $500 a piece. This is one of those times that I wish I win a big lottery jackpot.

I wonder what the deal was on your shipment Liz. FedEx picked up my order on the 21st and I had it by the 27th, (maybe earlier, I would have to check) and that is coming across the USA and up to Alaska.

I think the person who was the intermediary didn't get it shipped out right away. Karen, I'd noticed that they had some really pretty seedlings. Don't know which I'd rather have--theirs or Nate Brehmer's! PS also bought up a lot of the Sunny Boys available in the states, expect to see them for quite a large price as well.

Southern Peony posted about PeonyShop
today.

I can't wait to see how the roots you got in the Fall do for you, Liz.

http://www.southernpeony.com/2...

Me too, LG. Mary ordered from them as well for the botanical garden.