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.
