Not sure I understand what you are saying... ? Did you plant it and it is just now coming up or was it a surprise growing with some other plant? You can grow them in containers (mine are in containers), but if you want to repot or plant somewhere, you could wait until fall when it cools off and then move the rhizome and replant (don't plant more than ~2" below the soil).

I planted my tubers/rhizomes in containers in March, among other plants already/about-to-be in flower. I thought my little "experiment" was a total failure and wrote off the tubers... until I found the young plant this past weekend.

The peonies in my MIL's (in-ground) garden have come and gone, and it's getting awfully hot & muggy around here, I thought I might have to abandon the effort entirely and stop this sprouting in its tracks (or else risk hurting the tubers for next year?)

Keep the containers cool so that the roots do not cook and the peony should be fine until fall. You do not state what size the container is but if you wish to grow in a container the container should be largeer than a three gallon pot. Perhaps some of the other members that do grow herbaceous in pots could advise on the size used.

The peony is a Sarah Bernhart and it's nestled in a 12" pot with a small zonal geranium and some sunflower seedlings (budding now at 4" tall or so). I had some kind of bushy plant with small daisy-like flowers in there, but that rotted/got ripped out a few weeks ago.

I have no issue with repotting it by itself in a large pot if you think the transplant won't kill it at this point.

Also, could you expand on keeping it "cool"? Is summer shade enough, or should I bring it into my airconditioned apt during the hottest part of the day?

An update: the peony is growing quite quickly in this weather. The only other grower in the pot is the trailing foliage stores like to sell zonal geraniums with. I'll try to supply a pic soon.

Sooner than I thought?!

By cool do not leave the container in full sun. You may want to position your pot so that the pot is shaded but top in sun. Your pot appears large enough for now but one of the reasons containers fail is that the sun hitting the container acts like a cooking pot. If the pot has enough space only the outside will heat up. This is why when you see container gardens and the foliage is lush if you raise the foliage you will not find any plants in the first 2 inches from the outside of the pot. After the foliage of the geraniums will shade the soil you just need to shade the pot. You may need to fertilize. Geraniums like fertilizer and it will increase your blooms. Just use one that is lower in Nitrogen, the first number.

rdogg - I guess at this point (and this is probably more a personl preference for me), I wouldn't recommend having anything else in there with the peony since the peony is a hardy perennial and the other things you list are either annuals (sunflowers) or tender perennials (the pelagonium). I have my Sarah Bernhardt in a 14" by itself (it's been there 3 years). They have been about 3ft tall in their container and looked like this before and after bloom:

If you keep it by itself and let it grow out its foliage, that foliage will help to increase the size of the rhizome, which will inturn help to give it more "eyes" that can flower in the future. You could leave it in that pot for now but consider digging out the other plants and repotting them elsewhere. Then in fall if you want, you can move the peony to a larger pot if you want to keep it in one!

I'm moving and want to take starts off my Mom's peonies... Is it possible? How should I go about this?

Hi Kacey, Why not start a new thread of your own? If you want to take a division from your moms peonies it would be better done n the fall, but if you have no choice you can do it now, but it will stress the plant somewhat, and the division will be pretty weak. I would use a transplant shovel or something similar to cut down straight through he mother plant on one edge being sure to take a good sized piece so you are sure to get several buds for next year. Immediately pot it up in a large enough pot to support the roots and be able to keep them moist until you are able to plant them, or wait until the fall. Keep the pot in the shade. Good luck. Al

Hello Jenny,

please share white peony with me for red one. i can send you.
myids10@gmail.com
thanks