My peonies from Adelmans arrived today here's a picture of what came. The roots are beautiful and healthy, and have at least 3-5 eyes.




Annette

I find it good exercise to plant peonies. Digging a 12 x 12 hole can be a lot of work, especially if you have repeated the steps for many peonies

I agree, and the results of that exercise are beautiful flowers, much better than just feeling justified in having a bigger dessert!!!

Got my Pure Peonies order in, received Gold Mine, Belleville, Lady Orchid, Bowl of Cream, Etched Salmon and Buckeye Belle. Had a long day today, wasn't home until well after dark, but I'll take pics before I plant them in the morning.

Here's the roots I received from Pure Peonies.




Belleville



Bowl of Cream



Buckeye Belle



Etched Salmon



Gold Mine





Lady Orchid

Nice, Annette! A person waits so long for the roots to come that it's worth celebrating when they arrive!

I look forward to your pics, Liz.

Edit: Oh Liz, you posted while I wrote this! Wow, your Etched Salmon looks huge.
It makes sense that Goldmine is small. One nursery owner said it was the slowest growing he had. The ones he had in stock were tiny.
Well, I will probably order from Pure Peonies next year. The lower price of some of their peonies would more than make up for shipping; although, I still don't know how much their certificate costs after four emails lol

Pwinget said:I ordered from three Canadian companies this year, but I'm most impressed with Boreal Farms. Their roots were healthy and huge. My Mrs. FDR had at least 15 eyes! My smallest root had 9!

Thanks for letting us know about this company. I grew up probably about 50 miles cross country from them and we were zone 2 so I was surprised to see a peony grower there. I guess they're zone 3a - I expect the lakes keep it a bit warmer.

Thanks Pwinget. Nice looking roots Liz. I agree with Pwinget, your Etched Salmon is gianormous I hope I get to plant my roots this weekend.

That one was definitely the biggest root of the bunch, all looked healthy. Got my order in from Fina Gardens and Brooks Gardens this evening, again in too late to do anything with them tonight but something to look forward to in the morning!

Dora, it's nice to discover a nearby grower of things you like. I recently located a peony farm near me. I had called them for a catalog, but she didn't have one this year. She had recently moved all her stock and would be ready to sell bulbs next year, but oh... she didn't want to. She was a hoarder of peonies and proud of it. It was great talking to her. She invited me to tea when her farm was in bloom the next spring and I intend to take her up on the offer!

You guys are so lucky to have a grower so close, Pwinget and Dora! I think I'm going to make a trip to the University of Michigan peony garden next spring, my in-laws live near there. And maybe go to the American Peony Society convention next year, too. Wish there was something close enough not to have to fly....

Got my order in from Fina last night and just opened it this morning, I think I got some roots to almost rival yours, Pwinget! My Battle Flag had over 30 eyes!!!! But the overall root size was smaller than yours. Wanted to split it into several pieces since it had so many eyes but it was a weird one, couldn't see how to divide it to keep good roots attached to all pieces. I was afraid I wouldn't get enough complete feeder roots and end up killing most of it off so left it. Every single one had more eyes than I expected but not as many as Battle Flag. The one with the least was the double red fern leaf, it had 5, pretty impressive girth for a fern leaf. Got Brooks Gardens in, too.


Brooks order, got Birtz Tort, Carnation Bouquet, Myrtle Gentry and Salmon Glory


1st box of Fina order, has Barrington Belle, Battle Flag, Pink Firefly and the double red fernleaf


Merry Mayshine and Nosegay


Firelight and Early Scout

OMG Liz, look at the size of those Fina roots. I was on their website last night, they've got some nice peonies at reasonable prices. I may have to place an order. Thanks for posting your pictures.

Now, back to the garden to finish planting the Adelman's peonies. I'm adding them to the front of the beds with the irises and lilies behind. I also had to move Green Lotus, Athena, and Early Glow, the irises have multiplied so fast, they were encroaching on the peonies.


Annette

I spent a long time reviewing the Fina Gardens website yesterday, and i placed an order for:

Carol and Many Happy Returns, peonies that I had previously that disappeared from the garden.

Accent, Lou's Kelsey, Paul Bunyan, Dinner Plate, President Lincoln, Jacorma, and Raspberry Charm. Some of these peonies I had never heard of, but I'm looking forward to growing them.

They emailed today saying that they would ship them by October 16th or earlier.

Annette

Hope you're as happy with yours as I am with mine, Annette!!

It was a really rough day at work today, I came home ready to hop in the shower, then head to bed. As I was going upstairs, I was greated by 3 boxes set there by the DH or DS. I read the labels, and the boxes were my peony tubers from OHG and Fina Gardens. I took them to the sink and opened them up. I had a new sense of energy, and after viewing my tubers, I'm so excited to have received them.

Our weather is cooling down quickly, and we're heading into to 30's at night starting next week. I'm looking forward to getting these tubers planted and settled in for the winter. Thank goodness we had rain all day yesterday, which should hopefully have softened up the red clay.

I got the sweetest note for Scott of OHG, apologizing for the size of the tubers sent, and they sent a gift of red spider lilies (Lycoris), and Double Pink Poppy Seeds. Frankly, I'm happy with the size of the tubers from OHG, as they are the size that I'm used to. Thanks to OHG for my heirloom peonies, and the extra gifts.

Fina Gardens sent tubers that appear to have come from the Land of the Lost! I've never seen peony tubers this big. There must be something to be said about the soil in WI The tubers were so big they had to be shipped in 2 boxes.

The boxes.


OHG peonies



Hermione (OHG) vs. Jacorma (FG)


Jacorma (FG) vs Mrs. FDR, Hermione, and Phillipe Rivoire (OHG), and Carol with the peat rinsed off


I'm glad I've learned about these 2 new sources for peonies. I'll definitely be ordering from both companies again.

Fina Gardens seems to be a winning mail-order company. Nice! 2 boxes! lol
We can trade Mrs. FDR pictures next spring I hope!

It's peony planting day here in Duluth, GA. The weathers cooling down and I have some time to get my plants in today, so here we go. The smaller tubers on the left are from OHG, they are 2 of the Mrs. FDR, and 1 each of Hermione and Philippe Riviore. The tubers in the right are from Fina Gardens. The tubers have a varying number of eyes. It's going to be a beautiful spring of 2014.



Peony eyes

Carol -15
Lois Kelsey-5
Accent-10
Hermione-6
Mrs. FDR-10
Mrs. FDR-9
Philippe Riviore-6
Jacorma-7
President Lincoln-11
Many Happy Returns-6
Dinner Plate-7
Lois Kelsey-6
Paul Bunyan-9
Raspberry Charm-9

Holy buckets! All of them are some seriously nice roots! Be sure to post pictures next spring!

I will Diann, I'm really looking forward to next spring.

My peonies arrive from Van Engelen today. I got 3 Moonstone for $24.00, at $8.00 per plant, that's the best price that I've paid for peonies so far this year. The plants had 5, 6, and 10 eyes. I'm glad that I tried the VE peonies. I will definitely order from them again.

They usually have a sale at the end of November, I hope they'll have some peonies left.

I finally got all of my peonies planted yesterday. We've had crazy weather here, freezing for several days then it warmed up to the low 70's this past week, with rain for days.

I planted the last 7 Fina Garden tubers, and the 3 Moonstone tubers, that were on my deck for months, sitting in the bags of peat. The pips were increasing nicely.

I had 6 potted peonies in 1 gallon pots, that I bought this past spring, that were also planted yesterday, and 4 plants in pots, from very small tubers that I grew. I was thrilled to see that these tiny tubers had done so well, and has grown nice feeder roots, some almost filling the pots.

12/7/13- peonies planted

**Fina Gardens: (7)
Carol-Bockstoce1955 34" red enormous blooms offifionalis xalbiflora
Jacorma-De Vroome 1969 pink double
Lois Kelsey-Kelsey 1943 single/semi double white with red carpals yellow stamens
Many Happy Returns- Hollingsworth red 6" flowers
Paul Bunyan-Lins 1955 pink double blooms
President Lincoln-Brand 1928 red single yellow stamens
Raspberry Charm-Klehm/Wissing 32" 1979 semi double

Van Engelen: (3)
Moonstone (3)-pink double-Murawska 1943, 32-36"

**Pikes March 15, 2013 (6)  *****potted plants*****
Festiva Maxima white-Mielles, 1851, 34-36", floriferous, very fragrant
Buckeye Belle- red Mains 1956 
Madame Emile Debatne dark pink 1927 pink 
Jan Van Leeuwen- van Leeuwen 1928, 36" white, faint fragrant, Japanese form 
Nancy Nora-Bernstein 1942, 32-34" pink, 
Rosabel-pink (from Lowe's nursery in a 2 gallon pot)

Gown from small tubers: (4)
Festiva Maxima-potted plant grown from a small tuber potted spring of 2012
Peony Vivid- 3- (tubers potted with Staygreen soil, manure, soil conditioner, Bulb Food, and Azomite spring 2013) noted to have nice roots some filling their pots