In my experience, I have planted peonies in the spring only from potted plants or stored roots (stored in soil in the garage). They were successful eventually, however, one must be very careful to not plant too deep. I have rarely ordered from catalogue or seed stores as they usually don't grow their own and the roots are often dried out and unhappy by the time they are shipped. :( I have well over 200 peonies in my yard and have only about 3 that I have not ordered directly from the grower. I have lost about 4 in 7 years and only one from a grower (which was a very small root). What particular peony are you interested in? Maybe one of the growers carries it. :)

Ginny

Oh they do Ginny. But I only have room for one and was going to order a couple other perennials to make it worth my while. I've had good results with Lindenberg's plants. My only issue with them is they don't give any notice of when they're shipping, so I have to be diligent about checking my mail (post office).

I have planted peonies in the spring. Box stores put them out with all the other spring perennials and I have succumbed a couple of times. Not sure if it was the size or lack of quality (or the fact that they were the WRONG ONES! LOL) but they were slower to establish. When I dig peonies to give away I always do it in August.

I'm not sure if I would mail order a peony in spring. I'm leaning towards no.

My first six peonies I planted in this yard were from Costco, purchased and planted in spring. I had no trouble with them and they happily bloomed the following year. I wouldn't hesitate a spring planting from either potted or bareroot, but I wouldn't expect any blooms that year, either. If you've had previous good experience with Lindenberg's plants in the past then I can't see why a peony would be any different.

Now, about the Itoh peonies, I think I would prefer a spring planting, just knowing that they've put down some good roots before winter set in would leave me a little more at ease.

I often have picked up peonies from Lindenberg's in the spring. As I also am from the Brandon area, I simply go down to their retail store.

The peonies have, in the past, had nice sized roots and have done well for me.

Brenda

Thanks all, It's 2 for and 2 against. But Brenda's personal experience with Lindenberg might just tip the scales for me.

On an unrelated subject, I'm getting virus warnings from AVG on some of garden web forums. This is not reassuring to me. Is anyone else having the problem?

Well mine was a waffly no so you can discount mine. Not sure about the virus warnings - sometimes there are security certificates or something out of date and it means nothing. Sometimes message boards can have virus attacks from hackers but I don't know for sure that that has ever happened on GW. It's fairly primitive.

Quite a few years ago there was an attack of sorts when our email addresses were harvested and we were all being sent horrible porn pictures in our email. You couldn't even highlight the email to deleted it - highlighting it would cause the pictures to open full screen. After that the webmaster tightened things up a lot here, hence the "My Page" now.

And i love peonies and have ordered them from mail order places and planted them in spring. So far so good! :)

Well I went and did it. I ordered Sword Dance along with a few other perennials. It is a Japanese type peony. Here's hoping all goes well.

Congratulations! I have 2 Sword Dance plants and they are beautiful, prolific bloomers here! Are they bare root or potted?

Ginny

That's good to hear, Ginny. I'm assuming they'll be bare roots.
I probably should have waited as we have a trip towards the end of April, and maybe I could have just picked up something, but I hated to let another year go by without getting a peony.

One of the blooms from Sword Dance spring of 2011. It was so rainy here that it was tough to get out in the back 40 to take pictures. Bugs were bad and lots of mud! I got this one toward the end of the bloom season.:) It actually looks darker, more red, live.

Ginny

Thanks Ginny, that's a beautiful bloom. Red shows up like that on my camera also. Would you say the Japanese peonies are as hardy as the regular old varieties? I almost ordered Leto also. Anyone have it?

I also have Leto. She blooms a beautiful almost pure white here. Japanese and Chinese peonies are some of the hardiest and oldest. :) If you like Leto, you would probably like White Sands. She is a very heavy bloomer, smells heavenly, and increases to a rather large plant in only a couple of seasons. Very much like Leto and Yellow King (have that one too).Peonies, like every other flower, are so addictive! And they live like forever! Once they are established and start blooming, there is nothing to compare to The King Of Flowers! :)Well worth the investment!

Ginny

You are quite the enabler Ginny! But there's nothing better than first hand experience for a reference, especially when there's so many to choose from.

This is Yellow King last season. A little bit pink on the guard petals, almost blush. Supposed to be an early bloomer so this was at the end of the bloom period. White Sands blooms early too. :) I'll have to take lots of pictures this season.

I just love to enable my fellow gardeners! I haven't bought a peony for 3 years but will put my order in at Parkland today. Bob has some really beautiful new ones. That is about the extent of my garden budget this year. :)

Ginny

You are a girl after my own heart Honalee! :-) I love it when all the time invested in getting the little ones hooked on gardening pays off as they get older. My daughter (now an adult) has conceded defeat at resistance. My girlfriend in MN called me up so excited because her 3 year old grand daughter called her up to tell her the snow was gone and it was time for them to get busy planting. Music to a gardener's ears.

Well it is almost time to go out to the back forty and uncover all my peonies. It's snowing right now. :(

I just finished up most of my orders for new kids this fall. Oh boy, I think I will need a back hoe in the yard! Or a new back anyway! And I may have to learn to like eating grass! That's about all I will be able to afford! And I will have to go and graze at the neighbours since my yard will be all in flowers! I sure need a farm. <:>Ginny

Ginny, I've been following your posts about all the peonies you've ordered. You amaze me! Here's me struggling with a decision to order just one. You must have laughed when you read my post! How big is your yard? Do you grow other perennials?

North53~ Well, I do have a big yard, 75 x 155. Makes for lots of room to fill with flowers, trees, vegies and other growing things. And I do grow other flowers too. I guess I am multi addicted!

I have almost 500 different varieties of bearded iris with more coming. I also have about 300 different daylilies at last count, many asiatics, heucheras, hostas and assorted other perennials. And 5 dogs! More to share. :)

And I didn't laugh when I read your post. I do everything I do to the enth degree. Doesn't mean everyone else has to. :) You picked a handsome peony in Sword Dance. BTW, I apologize for mislabeling the picture I posted above. That one is actually Spiffy and not Sword Dance. I realized that last night when I was going over my planting scheme in the back 40. I do have Sword Dance but he is tucked in the middle of the garden. I'll get a picture if I can this season. :)

Ginny