2018 Peony Experiments - Move Mislabeled White Tree Peonies

Replanted White Tree Peony
I just had to sneak in one more project before the end of the year. This spring I tagged 4 of my tree peonies that are all white singles. Three of these were mislabeled tree peonies I bought on Ebay that I recorded in my 2018 Ebay Peony Seller Reviews. The last one was one of the tree peonies I got from Ali Express - very inexpensively, 2014 Chinese Tree Peonies from Ali Express. I couldn't just let these perfectly good tree peonies go to waste (just because they weren't the color I ordered), so I decided to reuse them as a border around the back edge of my woods behind my tree peony garden and along my garden path that leads to my outdoor covered swing. Some of these seem like P. ostii and there may be a P. rockii or two mixed in there as well.


White Tree Peony Being Replanted
Supposedly tree peonies resent being moved. So I guess you could say this might be an experiments of sorts. Since there of 4 of them, I might have a lot of built up resentment come spring, but I hope not. I'm hoping since I just removed 2 very large tulip poplars that were directly shading them, they will forgive me quickly and the additional sunshine will make up for any potentially severed roots. I tried not to sever too many roots, but a few of them did get - let's just say - "separated". I think most of them were intact. :-) I am anticipating that some of these may even bloom again this spring. I will let you know how they fare and whether I get any blooms out of them come spring.


White Tree Peony Roots

2018 Mulch for Peonies from Tree Removal

Free Mulch from Removed Trees
So I've been a little busy since I had the trees removed, 2018 More Light for Tree Peonies, Sweet Gum Ball & Poplar Trees Gone! I had a little something left in my driveway after they trees were removed, a giant pile of gorgeous mulch! Usually I am able to get a load of free mulch from someone's else trees, but this time I got a load of free mulch from my own trees. The largest pieces of the stumps were not able to be shredded. So those were hauled away to the dump, but the tops of the trunks and all of the branches were all shredded to leave me this beautiful bright colored mulch. I really took for granted how many tree were removed for all those loads of mulch I'd gotten in the past. They took out seven very large trees on my property just to create one load of mulch!


Free Mulch on Tree Peony Bed
So anyway I've been busily spreading my (kind of) free mulch all over my yard in whatever beds needed it most. I was able to cover my children's playground and the dogwood trees and planting beds around it, my intersectional peony bed, my Saunders peony bed, and my tree peony bed already. I have been using my gorilla cart to put the mulch out, and I still have a few loads left to put out. Hopefully I can finish putting it out this year. I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas (or Happy Holiday) and a Prosperous New Year! May your hearts be filled with the joy of the season, while we all look forward to the next (peony) season (Spring!) with great anticipation! Take Care & Warm Wishes - Adriana

2018 Planting Tree Peony Seeds from Luoyang China

Peony Seeds from Luoyang China with Garden Stakes
It took me a lot longer to figure out how to label these 2018 Tree Peony Seeds from Luoyang, China than it did to actually plant them. I did get them planted last week though, before our big snow, 2018 7 Inches of Snow on Southern Peony Gardens! (just in time, I guess!) I don't know what if anything they will do, but we shall see in the spring, if not spring 2019, then spring 2020, I suppose. I ended up laminating the photos of the seeds and attaching those to some copper garden stakes I had on hand. Since they didn't have an English name printed on them, I couldn't easily print a Brother label for them. Just in case they don't do much, I didn't want to have my husband go to the trouble of trying to figure out the translation for each of them.


Chinese Tree Peony Photo Garden Stakes
So what I did to create these garden stakes was first write a number on every paper and every plastic bag (1-20) so I could keep straight which picture went with which bag of seeds. Then I scanned in all of these tree peony photos in case I need to reference them later. Then I laminated each photo with some UV resistant laminating material. Then I used gorilla tape to affix each laminated photo to the copper garden stake. I'm kind of curious to see how these hold up. Even if these peony seeds don't do much, it will be an interesting experiment to see if the photos fade or not, whether the gorilla tape withstands the elements well, and how these "photo" garden stakes hold up outside.


Copper Tree Peony Garden Stakes

2018 7 Inches of Snow on Southern Peony Gardens!

Snow on Southern Peony Gardens
Wow! We just got 7 inches of snow! I can't say I remember getting this much snow in a long, long time. I know we got 5 inches this January, 2018 5+ Inches of Snow on Southern Peonies!, which was rare. I also I don't remember getting this much snow in December before. This has been a high precipitation year for us overall, though. I'm sure all of the peonies will be fine since the snow is completely covering them. Almost all of my tree peonies are completely under the snow since they are so young and not very tall yet. Since the snow is so deep, you can't see any of the peony garden markers either!


Intersectional Peony Garden Under Snow

Snow on Bird Feeder
I just wish I could have finished planting all of my peonies before the snow, but alas, I have not. That box I ordered from the 2018 Adelman Peony Gardens Black Friday Sale 50% Off is still waiting to be planted. Since we're in North Carolina, though, this snow will likely all be gone by tomorrow or the next day. So I'm sure I'll have another opportunity to get them planted. I'm just hoping the ground is not too mushy to walk on and dig in. Since newly planted peonies seem to be most susceptible to root rot, I'm also hoping that our winter is not too wet that the peony roots rot.


Tree Peonies Under Snow

Snow on Trees

7" of Snow!

I'm really glad we got those big trees down (2018 More Light for Tree Peonies, Sweet Gum Ball & Poplar Trees Gone!) before this snow and ice storm hit. Our ground has already been quite soggy this fall (no drought this year), so this heavy snow and ice on these large trees is a recipe for disaster. The weight of this frozen precipitation can bring trees down quick. Remember that large oak tree in my back yard that got taken out by an ice storm 2 years ago, 2016 3-Trunked Monster Down = More Sun for Peonies? Several people have lost power in this storm already. I'm hoping we can keep ours on, but we'll see. I am trying to prepare for a power outage just in case... Stay warm out there!


Wood Rack and Blueberry Bushes Under Snow

2018 More Light for Tree Peonies, Sweet Gum Ball & Poplar Trees Gone!

Southern Peony Trees Removed
I can hardly believe it!!! The sweet gum ball trees are finally gone! I have been wanting those tree removed for years now! I actually had the money saved up since August, but I couldn't get anyone out here to do the work (since we had two hurricanes this year, most of the tree service companies are staying pretty busy). I finally got one of the guys who brings me free mulch to take the trees out for me. It ended up costing me a bit more, but they did a great job, were really nice, and super professional. At first I was only going to take down 5 trees, then 6, and at the last minute, I went for 7. I'm so glad I did because that last one was a really large sweet gum ball that continuously drops those hateful spiky balls into my yard. If they haven't found a way to stick my fingers or feet, then one of us is slipping on them about to fall down.


Tree vs. Crane

Crane Won!
Besides getting rid of the sweet gum balls (and the potential hazard to our house if they fell over), I now have lots more sun for my peonies, especially my tree peonies. I am so excited to see how they will grow now. I even took some extra time to make sure they were marked and protected before the crew began their work. For the tree peonies directly underneath the sweet gum balls, I covered them with 5 gallon buckets and hammered metal garden stakes into the ground around them to keep them in place. Then I wrapped the tops of the stakes with hot pink flagging tape. Several people told me I'd better dig them up and move them temporarily, but since I decided not to grind the stumps that were very near the tree peonies, I decided not to dig them up. I figured I'd probably damage them more than the tree people would.


Tree Peonies Protected During Tree Removal

Tree Peony 'Angel Emily'
Covered with a 5 Gallon Bucket and Flagging Tape
I guess I got lucky. It seemed to work pretty well. My tree peonies weren't very old yet. So they weren't too big to cover. I guess if they would have been even larger, I would have had to figure out something bigger to cover them with. Luckily they weren't too large, and all of the tree service people were very careful to try not to touch them. I also roped off my larger tree peony area with stakes and flagging tape to make sure they didn't step in that area. They kept out of it for the most part. I think a couple small twigs might have fallen in, but I don't think I lost any buds. A couple of my plant stakes did get pulled up, but that's not too big a big deal. All in all, I think it was a pretty successful operation, and I'm very excited to see how well everything grows next spring!!!


Tree Peony Garden Protected with Flagging Tape

2018 Strawberry Crème Brûlée Intersectional Peony at Spring Hill Nursery

I have been looking for 'Strawberry Crème Brûlée' Intersectional Peony for a few years now. I never wrote about it on here before since it was a sad story, but a reader of mine gave me a hint about where he had purchased some of his intersectional peonies - from a nursery in Canada called Select Plus Lilac Nursery. I placed a small order for three small intersectional peony roots, one of the varieties being 'Strawberry Crème Brûlée'. Sadly I never received my peony root order since the owner and proprietor of the nursery passed away before my order was scheduled to ship. :(


Spring Hill Nursery
Unregistered Intersectional Peony Offerings
That was in 2015. For some reason I just decided to search for 'Strawberry Creme Brulee' peony again this fall, and I found it at Spring Hill Nursery. I have ordered a couple peonies from Spring Hill Nursery in the past, a long, long time ago (2005), and the peonies I ordered seemed to be labeled correctly. So I thought I might take a chance on this one too. Intersectional Peony 'Strawberry Crème Brûlée' was hybridized by Don R. Smith, but it does not appear to have ever been registered. While I was poking around the Spring Hill web site, I noticed they had two other Itoh peonies I had never heard of for sale, 'Oochigeas' Itoh Peony and 'Pastel Lilas' Itoh Peony. I'm wondering if these two varieties are also Don Smith introductions that have never been formally registered with the APS. I guess you could say my curiosity got the better of me... I had to place an order. :P (If your curiosity is piqued as well, Spring Hill Nursery also has coupons out for $100 off $200. So find a small item to put in your basket with these to save almost 50% off.)

2018 Intersectional Peony 'Luxuriant' Arrives from Ebay

Intersectional Peony 'Luxuriant' Root from Ebay
The 2018 Intersectional Peony 'Luxuriant' on Ebay that I ordered last week arrived yesterday. The root itself, not just the variety, was luxuriant as well. This root was huge! It was advertised as a 6-7 eye root, but it actually had more like 8-9 eyes on it. It was quite long and quite heavy as well. The root measured over 10 inches, with a stem at the top as well, bringing the total length to over 13 inches. The root itself was quite firm, seemingly freshly dug. I'm hoping this one will establish quickly. It would be nice to get a bloom from this Intersectional Peony 'Luxuriant' this coming spring 2019, but we'll see. I'm guessing that might depend on what kind of winter and spring warm up we get around here.


Intersectional Peony 'Luxuriant' Eyes
The root was packed very well in peat, and not one piece of it broke off during shipment. It was shipped via USPS Priority Mail and arrived here within 3 days of shipment. The bright pink eyes on this root are very firm and full. It definitely looks ready to grow. I made it a nice spot in my intersectional peony bed, dug in a bit of organic top soil, a scoop of natural fertilizer and a small scoop of lime. I also mixed in the peat that it was shipped in, to add a bit more organic matter to the soil as well. Let's see what this beauty brings next spring...


Intersectional Peony 'Luxuriant' Close Up

Intersectional Peony 'Luxuriant' Planted

2018 Adelman Peony Gardens Black Friday Sale 50% Off

Wow! Apparently I'm a little late to this party, but it looks like Adelman Peony Gardens is having a Black Friday Sale. I'm pretty sure I've never seen a sale like this before. They have 50% off all peonies left in stock: tree, intersectional, and herbaceous. There's not a lot left now, but still lots of good stuff. I'm not sure how many items there were to choose from originally (since it looks like the sale started 2 days ago), but it looks like they still have 28 varieties to choose from right now. Also not only do you get half off all roots, but you can also get free shipping if you place a $100 order or more, just use coupon code "freeship" at checkout. If you don't want to be out fighting crowds for deals this weekend, just stay in and order peonies instead. :D


Adelman Peony Gardens Black Friday Sale

2018 Southern Peony NOT Selling on Ebay

Southern Peony NOT Selling on Ebay
So this happened... Someone decided to use a photo of mine to sell something on Ebay (without my permission). I just wanted to make sure everyone knows this is not me selling peonies on Ebay. If I decided to sell peony roots on Ebay, you all would be the first to know! I have purchased one root from this seller in 2015, which is mentioned in my 2018 Ebay Peony Seller Reviews, but I am not yet certain of its identity. I sent the seller a nice note asking them to either give Southern Peony credit for the photo and add a disclaimer that we were not selling this peony or to take the photo down. If the seller does not respond, my next step will be to contact Ebay. Let's see how this one turns out...

2018 Tree Peony Seeds from Luoyang, China

Tree Peony Seeds fron Luoyang, China
So there's one thing I didn't mention much about my trip to China this year, the peony seeds I purchased! I got a few here and a few there. Most of the seeds I purchased were just outside the garden gates during my 2018 Southern Peony Visits Luoyang National Peony Garden 洛阳国家牡丹园 (North). The seeds in the tiny plastic zip bags are the ones that came from the Luoyang National Peony Garden. You can see the table they had set up to sell the seeds below. I felt a bit skeptical as to whether these tree peony seeds actually came from the varieties pictured in the packets, but for 1 yuan (17 cents) for 10 packets, how can you go wrong? So I bought two different sets of them. My guess is they may be all the same variety, maybe even herbaceous or p. ostii. Who knows? I must say I am very curious, though to find out. Of course, it will probably take me five years or more to see any blooms from these.


Table of Tree Peony Seeds for Sale

Woman Selling Tree Peony Seeds
The photo above it the woman who sold me the seeds. She told my husband (in Chinese) that she and her husband have their own peony farm. I have no idea if it is true, but it sounds neat. They were also selling several varieties of potted tree (and herbaceous) peonies in full bloom as well. I wish I could have purchased a few of those tree peonies to bring back home! They also showed us how to sprout the tree peony seeds. They just used a plastic water bottle with and inch or inch and a half of water in it. I'm not sure if they put the seeds in the fridge to get them to sprout their roots first or just sprouted both the roots and the leaves in the bottle. That was certainly wild. I wish I could have found out more about how they did it. Maybe I will try a few of my seeds that way just to see what happens. I usually don't have much luck sprouting seeds that aren't in the dirt. I guess I just haven't tried or practiced it enough. I usually end up with mold of some sort.


Peony Seeds Sprouting in Water Bottle

Chinese Tree Peony Seeds
Here are a few more close up photos of the seeds I purchased (front and back of the packaging). You can click any of these photos to see a larger version. I don't know what any of them say. I guess I need to enlist my husband to help me translate them. I just can't decide if it is worth the time and effort to do so. The last time I had him take the time to meticulously translate each and every variety (and make a separate label for each), 2013 Ali Express Chinese Tree Peony Seeds, none of them sprouted!!! (I've placed more than one order for Chinese tree peony seeds in the past, and the other one from Ebay did sprout, 2013 Chinese Peony Seeds from Ebay , 2014 Chinese Tree Peony Seeds Starting to Sprout.) So who knows what these tree peony seeds will do, if they even sprout (I hope so!), or what color they will be, but I am definitely interested to find out!


Chinese Tree Peony Seeds

Chinese Tree Peony Seeds

2018 Intersectional Peony 'Luxuriant' on Ebay

When I saw the chance to pick up Intersectional Peony 'Luxuriant' on Ebay for a better price than I've yet to see on my 2018 Intersectional Peony Catalog Price Comparison List, I jumped. Also I have purchased from this seller, jackshouse2008, before. So I'm hoping this will be another positive experience as well. As you can see from my 2018 Ebay Peony Seller Reviews, I purchased Intersectional Peony 'Lemon Dream' from them in 2014, and it turned out to be correct. I featured some photos of that Peony 'Lemon Dream' in my 2018 How to Take Awesome Photos of Peonies (or Any Other Flower) article.


Intersectional Peony 'Luxuriant' on Ebay
I have never grown peony 'Luxuriant' before. So I am excited to try it. The coloring of it looks similar to intersectional peony 'Cora Louise', perhaps with a slight more tinge of pink. The petals appear to be more symmetrical and even, fewer of them, with perhaps more substance. You can only tell so much from a photo, but I am excited to take some photos of my own. Intersectional Peony 'Luxuriant' was hybridized by Roger Anderson and registered in 1986. I'm surprised it's not in wider distribution by now, since it looks like quite a nice intersectional peony flower.

I don't see another Peony 'Luxuriant' on Ebay from jackshouse2008 for sale right now, but I do see a couple other peonies. They are currently selling Peony 'Lemon Chiffon', which I highly recommend if you don't yet grow it. They are also selling Intersectional Peony 'Chief Black Hawk', which I do not yet grow. I'd be curious to grow this one since it is supposed to be quite dark in coloring, but the price is still quite expensive. So I have not yet tried it. They also have a Paeonia lutea 'delavayi' yellow peony for sale. I haven't had much luck with P. delavayis yet, but I would like to keep trying. Perhaps I will order this one in the future. They seem to grow so well in Austria, 2016 University of Vienna Botanical Garden Peonies, (almost as tall as me!), that I feel encouraged to try them again at some point...

2018 Ebay Peony Seller Reviews

Okay, so this article is about 3 years behind schedule, and while I have been procrastinating on posting it (due to wanting more information), I've finally decided that partial information is better than no information. I guess I will just update it later or create a new updated listing in the future as more information presents itself in my garden. I already see a need to reorganize the information by seller instead of by peony variety, but I will save that for a future article.


Mislabeled Intersectional Peony
(Sold to Me as Peony 'Lollipop')
In hopes that you may learn something from Ebay sellers I've purchased from over the years, I decided to create this reference for which sellers send the actual peony stated and which sellers do not - especially since an initial investment in a peony root can take years to show its true colors. Also if you have some direct experience with these same Ebay sellers or different sellers, please leave any concrete information you may have in the comment section below so that we may all benefit from our combined peony purchasing experiences.


Mislabeled Intersectional Peony
(Sold to Me as Peony 'Scarlet Heaven')

Review Key
✓	right	bloomed with the correct color and form
:(	died	died before blooming
X	wrong	bloomed with an incorrect color and/or form

Ebay Peony Seller Reviews
Peony	Seller	Year	Review
Adolphe Rousseau	Ebay - greenerpastures101	2006
Bartzella (Intersectional)	Ebay - mcgper1	2007	✓ right
Benjamin Franklin	Ebay - willowcreekgardens	2007	✓ right
Berry Garcia (Intersectional)	Ebay - bernard*sweety (Anna Snitkovskaia - Brooklyn, NY)	2014	X wrong - single hot pink root stock
Berry Garcia (Intersectional)	Ebay - irislady55 (Joni L. Renshaw, Joni's Dance-In-The-Wind Iris Garden - Tekamah, NE)	2015
Black Lotus (Hatsugarasu) (Tree)	Ebay - atskor8 (Svet Vasyl - Moscow, PA)	2014	X wrong - wrong tree peony white
Bowl of Cream	Ebay - luckybusya	2007	✓ right
Canary Brilliants (Intersectional)	Ebay - macao2000	2012	:( died
Canary Brilliants (Intersectional)	Ebay - bernard*sweety (Anna Snitkovskaia - Brooklyn, NY)	2014	X wrong - single hot pink root stock
Chocolate Soldier	Ebay - bigmikek	2007	✓ right
Chojuraku 長寿楽 (Longevity Music) (Tree)	Ebay - garden*breeze (Garden's Breeze - Mount Tabor, NJ)	2016
Coral Fay	Ebay	2004	✓ right
Coral 'N Gold	Ebay - mr.greengenes1	2007	✓ right
Coral Sunset	Ebay - nielsvnoort2c2z (Niels L. Van Noort - Woodland, WA)	2015
Dinner Plate	Ebay - luckybusya	2007	✓ right
Dr. Alexander Fleming	Ebay - willowcreekgardens	2007
Duchesse de Nemours	Ebay - luckybusya	2004	✓ right
Flame	Ebay - superchukcha	2007	✓ right
Fragrant Jade (Xiang Yu) (Tree)	Ebay - hungsupplysolutions	2013	✓ right
Golden Wheel (Huang Jin Lun)	Ebay - beautifulpeony	2007	✓ right
Goldmine (Huang Jin Lun)	Ebay - hirtsgardens (Hirts - Wadsworth, OH)	2016
Hanakisoi 花競 (Floral Rivalry) (Tree)	Ebay - hirtsgardens (Hirts - Wadsworth, OH)	2016
Houki 芳紀 (Charming Age) (Tree)	Ebay - hirtsgardens (Hirts - Wadsworth, OH)	2016
High Noon (Tree)	Ebay - hirtsgardens (Hirts - Wadsworth, OH)	2018
Hillary (Intersectional)	Ebay - ricknken03cw	2007	✓ right
Impossible Dream (Intersectional)	Ebay - atskor8 (Svet Vasyl - Moscow, PA)	2014	X wrong - wrong itoh yellow
Joannna Marlene (Intersectional)	Ebay - garden*breeze (Garden's Breeze - Mount Tabor, NJ)	2015
Julia Rose (Intersectional)	Ebay - ricknken03cw	2007	✓ right
Kamata-nishiki 鎌田錦 (Tree)	Ebay - atskor8 (Svet Vasyl - Moscow, PA)	2014	:( died
Kamata-nishiki 鎌田錦 (Tree)	Ebay - orientalpeony (Yongdong Wu - Upper Malboro, MD)	2016	✓ right
Karl Rosenfield	Ebay - willowcreekgardens	2007
Kinkaku (Souvenir de Maxime Cornu) (Tree)	Ebay - atskor8 (Svet Vasyl - Moscow, PA)	2014	X wrong - wrong tree peony white
Koukamon 皇嘉門 (Floral Gate) (Tree)	Ebay - garden*breeze (Garden's Breeze - Mount Tabor, NJ)	2017
Lemon Dream (Intersectional)	Ebay - macao2000	2012	:( died
Lemon Dream (Intersectional)	Ebay - jackshouse2008 (Therese Sprauer - Brooks, OR)	2014	✓ right
Lollipop (Intersectional)	Ebay - atskor8 (Svet Vasyl - Moscow, PA)	2014	X wrong - wrong itoh yellow
Love Affair (Intersectional)	Ebay - bernard*sweety (Anna Snitkovskaia - Brooklyn, NY)	2014	X wrong - single hot pink root stock
Mother's Choice	Ebay - mcgper1	2005	✓ right
Mr. Ed	Ebay - hostagardens	2007	✓ right
Nymphe	Ebay - superchukcha	2007	✓ right
Old Rose Dandy (Intersectional)	Ebay - macao2000	2012	✓ right
Paeonia delavayi var lutea ludlowii (Tree)	Ebay - dogwooderitternet	2013	:( died
Paeonia rockii (Tree)	Ebay - zwan2392 (Zuncai Wang)	2013	✓ right
Paula Fay	Ebay - mr.greengenes1	2007	✓ right
Petticoat Flounce	Ebay - bigmikek	2007
Pink Firefly	Ebay - hostagardens	2007	✓ right
Pink Jazz	Ebay - luckybusya	2004	✓ right
Prairie Charm (Intersectional)	Ebay - vasyl_svet (Sergei Snitkovskiy - Brooklyn, NY)	2015
Prairie Charm (Intersectional)	Ebay - orientalpeony (Yongdong Wu - Upper Malboro, MD)	2016
Raspberry Firefly	Ebay - greenatlatl	2007	✓ right
Red Double Fernleaf	Ebay - hanskaflowers	2006
Red Dwarf Single Fernleaf	Ebay - bigmikek	2007
Reine Hortense	Ebay - luckybusya	2005
Scarlet Heaven (Intersectional)	Ebay - macao2000	2012	X wrong - wrong itoh old rose dandy?
Scarlet O'Hara	Ebay - mr.greengenes1	2007	✓ right
Sorbet	Ebay	2004	✓ right
Shimadaijin 島大臣 (Island Minister) (Tree)	Ebay - garden*breeze (Garden's Breeze - Mount Tabor, NJ)	2016	✓ right
Shimanishiki 島錦 (Island Brocade) (Tree)	Ebay - garden*breeze (Garden's Breeze - Mount Tabor, NJ)	2017
Taiyo 太陽 (The Sun) (Tree)	Ebay - tyebrook (Samuel Saunders - Lovingston, Virginia)	2016	✓ right
Tom Eckhardt	Ebay - hirtsgardens (Hirts - Wadsworth, OH)	2007
Tria (Tree)	Ebay - atskor8 (Svet Vasyl - Moscow, PA)	2014	X wrong - wrong tree peony white
White Phoenix (Feng Dan Bai) (Tree)	Ebay - easyplantingli	2013	✓ right
White Phoenix (Feng Dan Bai) (Tree)	Ebay - hungsupplysolutions (Henry Hung, Hicksville, NY)	2016	✓ right
Yao's Yellow (Tree)	Ebay - orientalpeony (Yongdong Wu - Upper Malboro, MD)	2016	✓ right
Yellow Crown (Intersectional)	Ebay - mcgper1	2007	✓ right
Yellow Heaven (Intersectional)	Ebay - bernard*sweety (Anna Snitkovskaia - Brooklyn, NY)	2014	X wrong - single hot pink root stock
Yellow Waterlily (Intersectional)	Ebay - craftygalinmi (Kathy Carrigan, Lacy Creek Growers - Vermontville, MI)	2015
Yumi ?? (Possess Beauty) - Yellow Doodle Dandy (Intersectional)	Ebay - atskor8 (Svet Vasyl - Moscow, PA)	2014	X wrong - wrong itoh peony prairie charm?
Yumi (Possess Beauty) - Yellow Doodle Dandy (Intersectional)	Ebay - garden*breeze (Garden's Breeze - Mount Tabor, NJ)	2016	✓ right

2018 Greensand, Vitamins for Peonies?

Organic Green Sand

After answering a question from a reader about fungus in my 2018 Question Growing Peonies in the Deep South, Dealing with Fungus article, I received a comment via email from another reader suggesting that greensand might be helpful to prevent/retard fungus. I was hoping that reader would add the comment to the article, but it doesn't look like they ever did, so I just added the comment to the post myself. Anyway I decided to purchase some to see if it would help my peonies. Greensand seems to contains minerals like potassium, iron, magnesium, calcium, phosphorus, and lot of others. So maybe it is kind of like vitamins for peonies. I'm not really sure since I've never used any in my garden, but I'm curious to see what it can do. I tried to find a local source for the larger bag, but it didn't seem to be very cost effective to order it locally. So I ended up purchasing it on Amazon. Do any of my current readers have experience with Greensand? Have you ever used it on your peonies? If so what results have you seen?

2018 Brooks Gardens Final Peony Root Sale 25% Off Everything

If you just *need* one more root (or a few) to sneak into your garden beds before spring hits, Brook Gardens appears to be having a great "final sale" to close out their season - 25% off everything. It looks like their Final Peony Root Sale of 2018 will last through the end of November, but there's not much time left in November. So you need to make up your mind quickly before the sale is over. One thing that's great about having a more Southern peony garden is that your ground is not yet frozen (unlike some of our Northern neighbors), so we definitely have the opportunity to take advantage of these last minute peony sales and still have time to get them planted this year.


Brooks Gardens Final Peony Root Sale 25% Off
Another great thing about this sale is getting an opportunity to pick up some intersectional peonies for a lower price. If you missed the 2018 Song Sparrow 25% Off All Itoh Peonies sale (which is now over), you have one more chance to pick up some intersectional peonies on sale. Intersectional peonies are very reliable increasers and bloomers here in our warmer climate, and they are quickly becoming the stars of our Southern Peony garden. Intersectional peonies are often priced much higher than traditional herbaceous peonies, 2018 Intersectional Peony Catalog Price Comparison List. So this is a great opportunity to try a few new varieties (or purchase your very first intersectional peony). :-)

2018 Transplanting My First Tree Peony

P. Rockii Lavender Tree Peony Bud
It was past time to move the first tree peony that I'd like to watch. That peony, a very vigorous pink-lavender P. Rockii peony is featured as the first peony in my recent 2018 Southern Peony Seedlings article. I've never moved a tree peony before, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I've always heard that tree peonies don't like to be moved. However I'm hoping this one won't be hurt since it is still a young plant and not fully established in its original location. I was a bit surprised to see that this tree peony still had some green leaves, as almost all of my other tree peonies have already died back. The first thing I did before I tried to dig it was create a planting hole for it. I also added a bit of EcoScraps fertilizer in the hole. I never fertilized the P. rockii tree peony seeds when I planted them. So I'm curious to see what this peony can do with some extra food and more sun. I decided to plant it in a nice, sunny spot right next to my bird feeder.


P. Rockii Lavender Tree Peony Tagged for Watching

P. Rockii Lavender Tree Peony Leaves

P. Rockii Lavender Tree Peony Planting Hole
I tried to be very careful when digging it out, especially since it was very crowded (and I mean very) in original location. I put the original seeds in my peony seedling bed about 2-3 inches apart when I originally planted them. (I know, I know - that is too close, but I wasn't even sure if they would sprout or not since I'd previously not had much luck growing tree peonies from seed.) It's a wonder these tree peonies are able to grow at all, much less bloom with that much competition. However this particularly vigorous seedling was the tallest of all its siblings, and it had pretty much figured out how to beat the system. It had sent out a very long lateral root that was actually taller than the plant itself. The root was growing past all of the other sibling tree peonies out of the peony seedling bed. I tried to get all of it out, but it looks like I still lost a bit of the root at the tip.


Digging P. Rockii Lavender Tree Peony

P. Rockii Lavender Tree Peony Roots

P. Rockii Lavender Tree Peony Root Length

P. Rockii Lavender Tree Peony Stem Height
The root actually ended up being even longer than the tree peony was tall. The root (what I got of it) was 30" long! So that means it would have been even longer if I hadn't snapped the end off. The tallest stem was 28.5" tall. I'm curious to see how tall this tree peony grows with time. Since the hole I dug for the root was not 3 feet wide (or larger), I decided to dig a trench for the long lateral root next to my planting hole. Maybe that's not the best solution, but that's what I decided to do. I don't really have the time or energy to dig a hole that big anyway! I am really, really excited to see what this tree peony can do next year. I also planted a newly purchased tree peony 'Leda' that I just decided to purchase this fall from Song Sparrow near it. It won the APS Gold Medal in 2014, but I never bought it until now. I am curious to see how these two tree peonies compare as they grow...


P. Rockii Lavender Tree Peony in Its New Home

Transplanted P. Rockii Lavender Tree Peony