On Friday, Aug. 28, 2009 funione wrote in the thread "Help me choose tree peonies for Austin, TX":

"I was reviewing this older string as I have similar questions as a Newbie and blackangus is only 60 miles south of me. I grew up in SE Oklahoma where folks had lots of peonies. I have always been told they won't grow here. I had been told the same about azaleas, camelias and gardenias, but I have great luck with those, so I purchased an ITOH peony (First Arrival) this spring. I am trying to find a Bartzella. The photos are beautiful, but I am not sure how to provide basic care. The First Arrival grew about 10" this spring. It looks a little bad right now. I would like to know the basics for the care of both tree and ITOH peonies. I understand ITOHs are supposed to be "sturdier" than either herbaceous or tree. Or, should I have chosen a tree type? I am also interested and following the info everyone is giving blackangus about tree peonies."

Funione, I am another person new to peonies and only recently discovered this Garden Web peony site. I'm suprised that no one with lots of knowledge has responded to you in all this time, but I think I might know just enough to give some tiny bit of help. This is precisely the kind of information I was looking for when deciding to place an order for our very first peonies last fall.

First, you might want to buy a book just to give yourself a place to look up things and to help learn about care and cultivation. This book didn't have information on as many varieties as I'd wish, and it didn't have a list of peonies for warm areas, but it's a very good book: "The Gardener's Peony" by Martin Page.

There's also a website where they are trying to get people to contribute their own experiences with roses/clematis/peonies. All peony gardeners, if they would contribute their own personal experiences in growing a particular peony variety, would help others and would benefit themselves when trying to lookup information about an unfamiliar variety and looking for the locations where it might work. The site is free, except for a few features that you need to subscribe to get ($25).

I'm hoping the HelpMeFind website gets better noticed and that peony lovers start contributing to it in the ways that rose lovers are. There have been more contributions for roses there so far, and that part of the website is extraordinarily helpful--better even than my best rose book because I can see where people live who are posting their experiences, both good and bad, with any particular variety of rose. I'm hoping the same thing can happen for peonies. If you only grow a single peony, it would be extremely helpful to contribute your experiences with it at the HelpMeFind website. These are ordinary folks running this site; they're not trying to get rich, but to provide a service that they themselves once wished for in gardening.

Everywhere I looked for peonies, the standard advice was to buy peonies that bloom early if you're looking for something that might work in fairly warm areas of the country. I'm assuming that that advice must be mostly correct.

The place I ordered peonies from was www.terraceiafarms.com. I ordered some other bulbs too, in a large quantity. Everything I got there was top quality, enough of a top quality that I wondered whether perhaps it was especially related to the fact that my order was placed early, really early, and perhaps they send out their best stuff first?

The odd thing is that none of the five peony varieties I ordered is supposed to be an early bloomer.

Anyway, if you go to their website you can see that they are located and grow their plants in North Carolina, in zone 8 here, I think. And another vendor with the same varieties was located somewhere in Georgia. So if you decide you're interested in regular peonies, not just tree peonies or ITOH varieties, you can make a tiny list of varieties good for the South by visiting that website. They don't sell ITOH or tree peonies.

To try to find additional Southern varieties, I just went to www.waysidegardens.com and they sell six peonies, three of which are ITOH. They mention that the other varieties there will work for the South too. Since they are located in South Carolina, they ought to know what will grow there? Still, one of their selections, Peony 'Bowl of Cream' happens to be a late-blooming variety. So I really do wonder about that "plant early-bloomers" rule for Southerners.

I found a Bartzella today at www.songsparrow.com. If you search on that variety at www.helpmefind.com, and then click on the far right tab at the top of the page that says "Buy From" they give two other possible nursery sources too.

That's as much as I know. Maybe someone in the South who knows a lot would post a nice long list of varieties proven for the South? I'll bet we aren't the only ones wishing for such a list!

Best wishes,

Mary

I'm enclosing a HelpMeFind peony search page link. To switch to roses or clematis, look up to the left and pull down from the menu under "Name Search."

Here is a link that might be useful: HelpMeFind peony search