This post is a little bit speculative and I apologize for that. But it's based on situations avoided rather than trouble arrived at.

I am extremely interested in the propagation and the expansion of most of the cultivars that I've purchased. As a result, I spent quite a bit time examining the roots that I receive. Occasionally taking a closer look results in action. For instance, I find pieces of the crown that are thin or unlikely to produce stems and feel compelled to cut it out so there is room for new growth.

That said, I've thrice encountered a situation which could poise an enduring problem. Embedded within the tangle of roots and crown, I've found small but independent pieces of a root with an eye or I've found that the tangle was close to 50/50 but truly divided.

One of these is worth describing. I had a large piece of root that I was evaluating for possible division. When I do this, I tend to trace the roots and push or pull on them as I look for a good spot to cut. Well, one of the roots wiggled quite a bit. It was cut on the backside and when I wiggled it, an eye was moving back and forth. I was able to push the root out and ended up planting the single eye root. If I had planted this root intact, I probably would have missed the floating eye and I think that I would have had strong potential for a lasting and fairly invisible problem.

I've read posts here about peonies that aren't performing well and yet have the same advantages as other peonies that are exceling. If you've somehow managed to get two peonies started in the same location, I doubt that the end result will be very good.

Anyhow, I am bringing this up as a cautionary tale. I think that the larger the root, the more important a through examination becomes before you plant it.

I tried to start 2 peonies at the same location and as long as they were small and I transplanted them a year or 2 later nothing went wrong. In fact, once I planted 6 and they were fine a year later and I presume they would survive and flourish at the 2nd year as well. The trick is remembering that it is not one plant. I think if they are small or tiny 3 years are perfectly fine as well. They may have a weird or interwoven roots, but healthy.
And I feel that sometimes it is better to get rid of excessive mass of roots before planting because there will be no space for new eye and roots development. I would certainly divide the old hollow roots that we saw recently at forum because they will stop developing in a year or two at most. The tiny attachments - I agree, better pull them out and plant separately. They will not develop nicely and will overcrowd the major root.

All very interesting. I planted a tiny root next to a bigger plant hoping that would help. I dug it up yesterday, so we will see tomorrow.

Couldn't find it, so likely it rotted.

I'll find out this year. I will transplant some if they survive. The key is to make sure they survive first. This year I moved some with the whole dirt surrounding it, so nothing was broken, but some of them were really teeny tiny.

I bag up my small peonies into 2 gallon (rarely - gotta be really small) or 3 gallon grow bags.

It allows me to basically grow them in the best possible soil, maximize the time they can grow roots, move them out of bad weather, and otherwise baby them. The only downsides are the amount of labor involved and the increased need for watering. Anyhow, they seem to do really well when pampered to this level.

I've got 5 or 6 bags with 2" to 3" small, single eye roots in them. These aren't optimal divisions and are often accidental or coincidental, but growing them like this makes them 2 year projects instead of 3 or 4.

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I seem to be a chronic over-water and my sandy loam seems better for my baby peonies...I have 2 peonies with only 2 inch roots that came up in my soil, but I killed the ones in pots. I am going to have to be really super careful with my tree peony that is going in a pot (because it hangs down).