Hello. I'm at 8250 feet in the Colorado Rockies in mostly zone 5 with the occasional zone 4 winter.

I bought a peony for the first time recently down almost 3000 feet lower. It is a herbaceous Festiva Maxima.

I checked in with my rocky mountain garden forum about placement and I think I did pretty good.

I dug very deeply and found sand and rocks in the bottom of the bed, covered the bottom of hole with lots of good, organic compost and buried the crown (where stems met rhizome) 1.5 to 2 inches.

It had one unopened bloom on it that I left on because I wasn't sure if it needed to be removed or just left on.

Of course, right after transplanting it from the pot to the ground, it changed from unusually wet weather to very hot. Today, it is wilting some, mainly just drooping.

Does it need special care? I've never fertilized except for my roses but I have, aside from rose food from Fox Farm, liquid tomato food and the previous resident left behind tons of miracle grow.

I've watered today but have not been since it has rained every day in the evenings. I planted it this Sunday the 21st. I'm not an over-waterer.

I think that is everything...let me see...

The bed was amended last fall with fresh, organic compost (the packaged kind)

The neighbors are perennials, iris, geraniums, thymes, day lilies, catmints, mums, asiatic lilies

There are dogs but they are fenced out of the beds

We are experiencing more aspen fluff/pollen than usual this year and we just started to get our typical dust storms of pine pollen two days ago.

I added some more compost to the top of the bed about two weeks ago

I put shredded cedar mulch on top a day or two before planting

I think that is everything!

Any ideas are welcome, even if the best thing is to just wait and be patient.

Thank you!!

Jennifer