If you can gently rub the soil where you planted the hostas, you might be able to find some pokey eyes. Dig around those.

Your only choice might be to put those peonies in LARGE plastic nursery pots with a couple inches around their root balls. When the hostas poke up, dig them up, and plop the peonies in the hole, w/o disturbing their roots.

Both of these plants (hostas and peonies) don't like to be moved, but that doesn't mean that they can't be moved. People move them all the time.

-Babka

You can really do either....move the hostas and plant the peony, or pot the peony and move everything in the fall.

First, I've never had any hosta skip a beat that we moved before it came up. I just take my time to find the root ball in the soil and carefully dig it out. They've always come up in their new home as if nothing happened to them...and for that reason, it's my favorite time to move them. You can usually spot them in the soil from either last year's foliage, and stems....or in the case that you cleaned up well, they will show little "hairy" brown plant matter at their centers from last year's eyes. Gingerly dig farther out than you think you need to, to discover how far out their roots are going before you put a big shovel in. Once you know how far out they go, you can circle around that line quite easily.

Regarding peonies....they actually do not like to be moved in the spring. I always wait until fall to plant/transplant a peony....but mine are never bareroot and you must plant yours now either into the pot or in the ground, so you may as well put them in the ground where you want them. IF they were in a pot right now, I would advise waiting to plant the peony until the fall. However, the bareroot situation sort of forces you to go ahead and plant now. ( People do this all the time with great success...that's why peony are often sold bareroot, even in big box stores.)

If for some reason you decide to pot them, it is no problem. I have grown peonies in pots and overwintered them in the backwoods...they do fine and have been 100% neglected in those backwoods. They are a very tough plant. I've even had them grow up from a tiny piece of root left somewhere in a near empty pot.
I recommend that you go over to the peony forum and study how to plant them. If peonies are planted too deeply, they can take years to bloom. I've even had some that didn't flourish at all for years, because they were planted too deeply. Hopefully your vendor shared planting info with you, but if not, go by the standard peony planting instructions on the peony forum.

Great opportunity to move your hostas! Let us know how it all goes.

Can your soil be dug at this time? If the soil is dry enough and unfrozen then you can move the Hosta without problem. I don't know how big these clumps are but you are going to have to estimate how big the root zone is for each clump you dig. As Babka mentioned you can find the dormant eyes by scratching away the top soil. Dig the entire clump intact and keep as much of the soil on it as you can. Of course, you should have pre-dug the hole(s) into which the Hosta are going to be placed. Water, water, water, and then keep watering regularly. I assume your soil drains well enough. If not you should amend it beforehand.

BTW, what kind of Peony "specialist" sells bare root in the Spring. AFAIK, Peonies should be planted bare root in the Fall and from pots in the Spring.

Steve

wait a week????

if properly planted.. the pips should have been above ground all winter... so you need to dig it up anyway ...

pot up the peony for a week or two.. they arent going to sprout all that fast ... let them soak up some warmth and moisture in the mean time ...

i cant even begin to tell you.. how much damage i have done.. poking and scratching around ....
ken

Thanks for your help. I think I know enough now to find the hostas safely. Last years photos gave me landmarks, too. As soon as it stops raining and dries out a bit I will get on it. I had already decided last summer that they needed to be moved, so I might as well do it now.

I have seen those "hairy" brown things as mentioned by MaryB before in other beds, so now I know they are the hostas and not something else.

Ken, IâÂÂm not sure what you mean by âÂÂthe pips should have been above ground all winterâÂÂ. You mean the hosta eyes? Or the peonies?

I think this peony breeder was there just because it is a different market, and a way of expanding awareness of their products . When I went to check their website to get more info on what I bought (like photos for my files) , the listings basically said, âÂÂNot offered now, check back in the fall.â What they had at this show was just a fraction of the varieties shown on their site.

the little bullets .. the hosta buds.. are called pips ... and they should not be underground...

they are attached to the crown .... which is supposed to be within the first inch of soil ... the roots below .... thats the 3 parts of a hosta ...

the pips start elongating on petioles.. and then the leaves unfurl above those ...

i am sure someone might have a handy pic of the proper planting depth of a hosta ...

ken

I see. It's just all covered by mulch.

Yeah, we are really stalled by the rain...and now snow again this morning. I've been wanting to seed some cool weather veggies, but with this rain I can't get into the beds...

I forgot to mention, your bareroot peony is just fine as is. They sit for months in sawdust, refrigerated by the growers. If you want to put it in the fridge wrap it in a few layers of newspaper or put it in a small brown box with a bit of vermiculite or perlite, or shredded paper. You can throw a slightly damp paper towel in there, too. The idea is to keep it cool and dark, able to breath and not dry out. Probably best not to use plastic unless it's that kind that has little holes in it.

You could pot it up, but I wouldn't, cuz you don't want it to start rooting and then have it be disturbed again when you put it in the ground. Peonies are one of the first plants up in the spring, so it could easily start to grow in your pot very soon now.