Yes you can. Last spring I bought a blooming peony at Costco, because I liked the color. It was in a five gallon nursery pot and hopelessly pot bound. I planted it in my garden in that condition to keep it alive until now. Yesterday I dug it up the rootball as packed as when planted. All summer I had watered it by hand directly on the roots and the foliage looked bad all summer. It took a lot of water under high pressure to wash all the soil out of the mass of roots. Out of the tangled mess I was able to get 4 good divisions which I planted, and will do well, freed from their prison. Al