2013 Questions - Container Grown Peony Plants

I received this question from Karen in Zone 8:
"I've seen several container grown peony plants for sale in nurseries here in the spring. Is this advisable to purchase a plant rather than bulbs. If buying the plant is okay, should I grow it in the same container over the summer and then plant in the ground in the fall? I'm leery of planting a peony plant here in April as it normally has gotten quite warm by then and think the stress of summer wouldn't be good for it."

The question of whether to purchase a plant or a bulb is answered in the previous post 2013 Questions - Purchasing Peony Plants Versus Roots. As for the question of when to plant the container peony, that depends on how well you take care of your container plants. If you are like me, and you take care of your container plants when you have time, I would recommend planting your peony in the ground as soon as you buy it. However perhaps you are very meticulous and experienced container gardener, and you tend to your containers better than your garden. Then I would say that it would be fine to wait until fall to plant your peony in the ground.

Pink Single Peony in Pot on Deck
However I would not recommend growing your peony in the container permanently. I myself purchased a peony in a nice container years ago, thinking perhaps that it would be nice to have a peony blooming on my deck every year. Even with special care (peonies are my favorite flower after all), it continued to decline each year until it died. I'm quite sure that the peonies for sale in beautiful containers each spring are not grown to blooming size that way. They are most likely grown in super ideal conditions in the ground until they are full of buds and then stuffed into a beautiful pot, which may look nice on the outside, but it makes a sad home for a peony! Peonies actually grow very large roots underground which are needed to fuel those huge blossoms each spring. Zone 8 is actually a good zone for growing peonies. I would just make sure to plant the peony crown and eyes even with the soil level. You may want to check out my post 2012 How to Plant an Herbaceous Peony for pointers! Good luck!!!

2013 Chinese Peony Seeds from Ebay

Well it wasn't 3 days, but they did come pretty fast, considering they came all the way from China. The Suffruticosa Tree Peony Seeds from China I ordered from Ebay came yesterday. I also ordered a pack of pink tree peony seeds from Ebay for 99 cents (shipping included!) the day after I ordered the first set of Ebay peony seeds, and those came today. So they both arrived in 8 days! Not bad for coming from halfway across the world. I also noticed that the seeds packets came from different address in the same city (Huaian Jiangsu). That's interesting. :) Even the $2.50 seeds from Ebay came packaged as 6 separate varieties. The Ebay auction listing also tells me what color seed is inside of each of the six packages. I figured for that low of a price, all of the seeds would just be mixed together in one package. So that's nice that the different colors of seeds are separated. I can't wait until they grow and bloom. I'm so curious to see what will turn up! I'm sure the picture from the Ebay auction has been "enhanced". I've never seen a peony that blue. I'm sure it must be some shade of purple, which would be perfectly fine with me, since purple is my favorite color. :)

	P1 white P2 black P3 blue P4 green P5 pink P6 red
Tree Peony Seeds from China

99 Cent Pink Peony Seeds from China

2013 Snow on Peonies

It is supposed to be 64 today, which is amazing since I took this snow picture a week ago today. It has actually snowed a couple of times this winter. Last winter there was no snow at all, and the weather was especially mild. Even my energy bill can tell the difference. I used 30% more electricity this winter compared to last year! Even with the warmer winter last year, we still had an excellent show of peony blooms in the spring. So I'm curious to see what the difference the extra cold will do this year. Peonies need the cold weather to form the blooms. If your winters are too warm (or your peonies are planted too deeply) they won't get enough chilling hours to generate a blooming cycle. So with the extra cool weather this year, the peonies here should have an abundance of blooms! I'm looking forward to it.
Peony 'Hillary' in the Snow

2013 Suffruticosa Tree Peony Seeds from China

On a reader's recommendation (Steve), I ordered some peony seeds from Ali Express. I wanted a nice mixture, and one of the sellers, Linlang Department Store, offered seeds from 15 named tree peony varieties (Chinese names, of course) of all different colors. So I decided to order from them. They weren't 4 cents a seed, but I'm hoping for some nice seedlings. They ended up being 12 cents a seed for 100 seeds, so $12. I also ordered a pack of mixed color seeds, no named varieties, off of Ebay for $2.50 for 120 seeds. That's about 2 cents a seed. Who knows what I would do with all of those plants if they actually came up? Tree peonies aren't even my favorite anyway, but for more than 200 p. suffruticosa seeds for less than the price of one herbaceous peony root, I figured I'd give them a try. I'm sure not all of the peony seeds will come up anyway, but this gives me a nice chance of actually getting some plants and the opportunity to see how these Chinese tree peonies will adapt to and grow in my southern climate.
Chinese Tree Peony Seeds

2013 Questions - Purchasing Peony Plants Versus Roots

I received this question from Karen in Zone 8:
"I currently have no peonies growing in my yard, zone 8, Montgomery AL. My first question is should I even attempt to do this with our long, very hot humid summers and mild winters. I've seen several container grown peony plants for sale in nurseries here in the spring. Is this advisable to purchase a plant rather than bulbs?"

I would say that if you find a plant for sale in your local nursery, most likely the plant should grow in your zone. Most nurseries want repeat customers, and if they sell plants that don't grow well in your zone and just die, they're not likely to get to many repeat customers that way. Peonies will definitely grow in zone 8. The question of whether to purchase a peony plant or a bulb (which is really a root) depends on how much time and money you have. If you can wait a little and want to buy the peony at a lesser cost, buy the root, since the root will likely be cheaper. However it may take one or more years to see blooms depending on the size and condition of the peony roots. Conversely if you don't mind spending a little more and would rather see results sooner, buy the container plant. Usually you can find peony container plants in bud or in bloom, so you know you will have blooms this year and for many years to come! If you do find a container peony in bloom, you will also know exactly what color you are purchasing - which is not always the case with roots, which could get mixed up. Good luck with your peonies, and I'd love to see pictures!

Intersectional Peony in Container	Intersectional Peony Root