Mary, looks like you've got some free time for poem-composing, while waiting for the snow to melt away ...

Indeed, Calin. But I won't quit my day job.

Just finished potting up dahlias and repotting iris. All in my garage. Be a while before dirt shows up.

Of my three new ones I planted in the fall I see one eye so far.

I also found one tiny tiny eye from a tiny tiny piece I planted last year that separated from a larger group. I thought for sure that would not make it.

Great. One of the nicest nurseries is Reath's in the UP. If the can grow peonies, anyone in Michigan should be able to.

This is the first of my standards to pop up and produce blooms before the others. A pink noid single.

My heavens. I have never seen so many pips.

Jerry, that is an amazing amount of pips and stems. How old is that peony, and what do you feed it?

There is one next to it which, according to the package tag, is supposed to be Emile Debatene. It is dated 2-14-09 which would have been one of the late bargains ($4.98) from Lowes. I would say the large clump was planted in '09. I feed all my peonies Miracle Gro at least 3 times per season, about 2 months apart. 3 of the tablespoon dippers in about 5 gallons of water drizzled under the stems and leaves by a 1/4th inch hole in a 30 pound cat litter bucket. Never water from the top because I always get leaf spots whenever I do. I seem to have a green thumb for anything except roses. All but the knockouts seem to commit suicide the first year.

This first pic is of another clump of the noid pink single.


Second pic is of the Emile Debatene??.

Thanks for sharing the info about fertilizing. I'm absolutely blown away by the number of pips and stems on your plants. I bet they're amazing when in bloom.

I bought a bag of inexpensive single peonies from Costco a few years ago, and they are almost as prolific as Jerry's. I think one of the variety was Nymph.
Those peonies produce a tremendous amount of blooms, but the show only lasts one week. Here is a photo from a prior year. Jerry - is this similar to your Noid single?

It would be very close if the pic was taken early in the day before the the blossoms were fully open. Mine seem to become more flat during the day.

Sounds like it may be the same. This is when it is fully opened.

They appear to be identical. I bought mine several years ago as my first peony. Dug and divided several times since then and many roots were just discarded as not needed.

I have always said that no peony roots are too small if they come from a scarce parent. I have no idea of where these came from but they were tiny and only had 1 or 2 eyes. Planted them close together so they could combine and make a nice clump.

I was not seeing pips on most of mine. My mom is visiting and suggested I planted them too deep. We dug them up and sure enough too deep! She solved that for me

There is a recommended sliding scale for peony depths beginning at 2 inches for the coldest regions of zone 2 and 3 ending at surface depth for the eyes in the warmest regions of zone 7 and 8. If I were in Michigan, I would plant them at about 1 inch and cover them with about 4 inches of loose mulch. Be sure to clean the mulch away when the low temps reach up to about 20°F.

Sante Fe getting close!

Went back and found this from last year! Again, my garden is under snow....only an inch or so on the ground and warm enough that it didn't stick to the roads so it should be gone again by tomorrow. It'll be at least a month before I see any growth though. Any of you seeing anything yet? Annette, I think you were first to report last year, any pictures to share yet?


This was from this morning...

Funny this should come up. I saw my first pip yesterday on Barrington Belle.