What climate are you in?

They need a certain number of chilling hours in order to grow properly and flower each year. If you are new, you might as well start out with the good stuff and go with Itoh or intersectional peonies due to their hardiness, disease resistance, vigor, upright stems which do not require staking, and foliage/blooms that look like that of tree peonies. Herbaceous peonies tend to flop over from their own weight, attract lots of ants, and the foliage is prone to powdery mold after flowering while tree peonies can be a bit tricky to get established.

On average, they are the most expensive, but I was able to get a good pretty good deal from an eBay seller when I purchased 5 large tubers which I was able to split into smaller sections like a potato. When they are dormant, they seem to be capable of producing new plants from any fragments that have at least 1 eye. I have attached a link to the blog on receiving my itoh peonies.

Here is a link that might be useful: My itoh peonies

Here's what I found on the chilling requirements, so it might be possible on one of your cooler winters to get flowering. Even if you don't have enough cooling hours for vernalization, if you have an ice machine, you could probably pour ice over the peonies, or place frozen bottles around them to cool down the soil temperature for 2-3 weeks in order to induce bud development each winter. Just have styrofoam covers to make sure the ice doesn't melt too quickly.

Chill Hours for Peonies

The roots of peonies need at least 400 chill hours in the winter. Chill hours are the amount of time that the temperatures are below 45 degrees F and above 32 degrees at any given time between October 1 and February 28. Some plants need more chill hours when they are dormant to grow during the next season. Plants that do not get sufficient chill hours during the winter will not be able to produce fruit or flowers as successfully and their foliage may sustain damage.

Thank you the information. Your photo log was very impressive! We have micro climates here in the SD area. Im a bit inland and only get a few days/nights that are in the mid 30's. Most winter nights are probably in the mid 40's or a bit above. Good idea with the ice cubes. I would hate to invest so much $$ on tubers and have them fail. Can you forward the ebay vendor that you got yours from? Do you have other peony blogs? Thanks!

Call your county extension service and ask for the average chilling hours where you live. Your local nurseries are likely to be negative to recommending peonies, so will not usually sell them. If you do have the minimum 400 hours chilling and are willing to plant your herbaceous peonies high enough that the root top, or crown of the plant, which is where the buds are for next years blooming stem, and is the part of the plant needing the chilling, exposed to the air temp, not the soil temp, you can succeed. Al

I got them from macao2000, and he should still be selling itoh peonies on eBay.

About the chilling hours, you might be better off with tree or itoh peonies which have aerial buds on branches since they can be exposed to cooler air temperatures during the night.

Beautiful!!!!

stevelau1911 Hi, are you still active here? I went to your link but the images are down.