I am having trouble with all my containers and know that peonies do not like wet "soil" so I am wondering what kind of "soil" in pots has really worked well? Also any other special treatment in pots that helps them? And are woody peonies the same in treatment as regular?

Peonies in general don't like pots but some people have success with this. I don't. When I have to overwinter peonies in pots I plant them in the ground as soon as possible. I planted on tree peony in a huge pot as an experiment (and plan to have one more), we'll see how it goes. I try to fill pots with light soil.

Annie, you're right about them not wanting to stay wet. Any potting soil that drains well should be fine or you can add something to help in draining. I had to bag up a lot of peony roots and wanted to use planter's mix as it's more economical, I just added vermiculite to lighten it up so it wouldn't compact as much. The stuff I bought to use in AL is a mix of top soil, composted wood and sand so I used less vermiculite with it as compared to the mix of composts I got in CO

I am wondering if the grow bags make a huge difference too...In all our dirt moving, I put some in grow bags and after days and days of rain, the soil in the grow bag was only half as muddy and wet as the soil in the pots.

But I did have a horrible time getting a small tree out of the grow bag as the roots really grew into the fabric so I wonder if a peony would do the same.

I have "garden mulch." It drains pretty fast, but is a wood bark product and I read that peonies don't like wood bark.

The grow bags lose moisture very quickly. Keeping your peonies sufficiently watered is more of an issue - I am in humid Missouri and have to water my peonies roughly every 4 days.

Also, with grow bags, you can really soak them and not really worry about it. The bags don't retain all that water and as long as your planting medium is fairly light-weight, the peonies will be pretty happy.

I've got a handful of peonies that I am allowing to spend their 2nd year in grow bags. I picked up a 9 month time release fertilizer for them since keeping them in nutrients eventually becomes an issue.

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Argh...I just had a vole try to eat my brand new Bartzella...guess I will really have to figure out the grow bags or pots for my tiny baby roots because they won't take nibbling.

So with grow bags and adding more bark and pumice, I think I could get them from staying too wet. (We are really humid and rainy.) I could pop them into pots or on saucers if they dry out too much in the summer, but I usually water everyday if it gets hot and dry. I am planning on just keeping them in bags for 1 season...but I'll have to see.

Grow bags did not work for me with potatoes, so I can use them with peonies, yeah!

You will want to water them more in the first few weeks while they grow feeder roots. And if you keep the temps down so they stay somewhat dormant, they won't have as much need for water.

What I suggest that you do is that you fully water one and then pick-up the bag. You can gauge how dry they are based on the weight of the bag - they get a lot lighter when there is little moisture. You could probably almost use a scale to know when to water.

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Annie, voles are why I have problems growing Hostas in the ground. They eat the roots and the Hostas die.

Grow bags sound like a good solution unless the voles chew through them.

I don't have problem with voles here, my hostas are in front yard and they are surviving, I do have rabbits in the front yard, let's hope they leave my peonies alone.

SoCal, I have had problems in the past with rabbits chewing on the woody peony stems. I do put chicken wire around the base of each one.

They have chewed at my young roses. But they seem to leave my Itohs alone. I will see next year. I'm waiting to see what going to happen next year.

An air rifle to silently deal with voles and rabbit stew for dinner, that's all I have to say.

I kept my Shima Daijin in a container for about year while I was moving, but I never had any intention of growing it there so I cannot comment how would a peony perform long-term in a container. It survived being swamped by unusually heavy rains which flooded the poor-draining container though.

I think treating peonies as small fruit trees like Sandosck suggested is the key here: there are large planter designed for nursery trees (like these: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0815J76NY/ ) that work well. There are much better-looking ones in terracotta and similar materials but costs are literally astronomical.
The nursery owner I bought most of my peonies from says the trick for growing them in containers is to water them as little as possible: peonies are generally drought resistant and bloom before the weather really starts to heat up so it makes sense.
I also think eschewing a peat-based growing medium (whether moss peat or coco peat) for ordinary soil taken from any old field and amended as needed would held since peat is always either soggy or dry as a bone, no way in between. I grew several roses in containers over the years using ordinary soil with some added manure and they performed very well indeed: peonies are much lighter feeders than roses so they may need even less to perform well.

I'm beginning to think peonies are easier than roses here, but I have to wait and see. Roses are pretty rambunctious here. If I have success with some of my peonies next year, I might replace some of my roses with peonies as I age. Why? They don't prick as much.

SoCal, some David Austins are thornless..a guy I knew had them.

ElPollo..2 males in my family are getting to be quite the marksmen with Airsoft on all sorts of creatures...we just have such an abundance! Haven't gotten to try rabbit stew yet, but told my husband I was willing to try after loosing peas and trees and having fences chewed thru that allowed deer to crawl in to eat fruit trees!

Maybe I need an accountability partner so I keep my hand OFF the watering can!

I also keep trying to decide if I should repot my tree peony with more chunky bark or just leave it...my problem is that our truck is in the shop and they are looking for a part, so who know when I can get bark...I know I could just buy 1 bag, but it seems like such a waste if they will find the part soon.

Any guesses on how long I can safely go and still repot without harming the tree peony...3 weeks or is 2 pushing it?

Annie, as long as you try hard not to let the new white feeder roots dry out, I think you would be okay for a couple of weeks before transplanting.

I finally got the last of my Fall orders planted on Sunday. My next job is to move peonies that have not performed well. The trees and Crape Myrtles have gotten really big and are now shading some of the peony beds, and several herbaceous peonies haven't bloomed in a couple of years.

A garden does keep you busy all year long!

It does, that's why I retired early. I have to do a lot of work in my garden but I haven't because of the peonies, my new found obsession. It's good to be obsessed with something in life, hey that's my philosophy for living a good life.

SoCalGardenNut said:I'm beginning to think peonies are easier than roses here, but I have to wait and see. Roses are pretty rambunctious here. If I have success with some of my peonies next year, I might replace some of my roses with peonies as I age. Why? They don't prick as much.

Peonies are indeed easier than roses in most climates. The only issue is they bloom only once per year while there's an abundance of roses that bloom twice or even continously throughout the year.
Mutabilis is an amazing but little known rose and Bourbon roses were originally developed for very hot climates with little rain (they originate from crosses between Chinese and Damask roses) but became "the" rose during the XIX century before being replaced by the semi-legendary La France and other Thea hybrids.
The big problem is both, while still available, are hard to come by and while Mutabilis has great colors, Bourbon roses are not as striking as ultra-modern Thea like those bred by Meilland-Richardier of France.

How quickly do feeder roots grow any ideas?

Roses sure do seem to be fussy about climate....

I like the idea of peonies as early bloomers and fuss-free shrubs. But I also want to be able to conquer container gardening to have things to move around as they bloom.

Sandsock said:How quickly do feeder roots grow any ideas?

It really depends on what you are growing: old Chinese herbaceous peonies are relatively slow growers and are generally smaller than modern cultivars. I'd say the rootball of my Qi Hua Lu Shuang is about 10" wide and while I think the plant is mature now it hasn't really grown over the last couple of years, so that's probably how large it will ever get. I'd say it took 4-5 years for it to grow to full size and it didn't bloom the first year.