Hello, I am new to this site, and new to having peonies. My wife brought home three peony plants (each with a stalk, multiple branches w/ leaves, and a small thick root) from a friend's house the other day. Our soil is relatively heavy and I had just used up all our peat moss earlier in the day transplanting a rhododendron that she bought. We didn't know anything about peonies, but figured it wouldn't be good for them to dry out overnight (couldn't get more peat until the following day) so I put them in a vase of water overnight. Got more peat moss the next day, mixed a good amount into the soil, and planted them with the root section several inches deep. (Read a few pages about transplanting peonies that day, realized it wasn't good for them to have sat that long, but also saw they shouldn't be planted very deep, hence only several inches deep.) As they were rather tall (maybe 1.5-2 feet) I put a couple stakes in the ground and wrapped a zip tie chain around them and the stakes to help support them. This is the 3rd day since planting them and each day they are looking worse and worse. They are drooping quite badly now. I watered them after planting them, and then again yesterday. We've had quite hot weather the past several days - upper 80's, low 90's. I saw on another page yesterday that it might be wise to cut back some of the foliage in this scenario, but it wasn't clear on the specifics. So, I'm wondering if I should be cutting some of the foliage, and if so, just the leaves, or the branches as well? Should I be shading them artificially? They're getting probably 8-ish hours of son a day right now. I've included a picture from this morning.
