I have over 50 varieties. Some of them are duplications, I would order 3 of each variety from GH Wild's when I 1st started planting them. For example I have 3 Brand's Magnificient, 3 Curonne d Or, 3 Feather Top, and 3 Shirley Temple from them. These plants did not thrive since I had not a clue about how to care for them until I joined the gardening forums. I'll see some of them bloom for the 1st time this spring.
I also bought peonies in boxes from SAMs in 2005, Bowl of Beauty were 4 in a box and Sarah Bernhardt were 3 in a box. Let me say that those were planted too deeply, I didn't know what I was doing back then, and when I removed the extra soil from around them, to get the tubers closer to the surface, they finally started blooming in 2010.
I've now gotten adventurous, and 2 years ago, I bought Vivid tubers in boxes from Walmart and Festiva Maxima from Pikes, which were ridiculously small. In 2012, I planted Vivid in the ground, it has not thrived. I dug up FM, and kept it potted for a year and a half. It was planted in the garden last fall, and has buds this spring. I bought Vivid last spring and started it in pots, these look much better, so they were planted in the ground in the fall, and are much bigger than the ones that have been in the garden since spring of 2012, which I plan on digging up and potting, so that I can baby them.
I hear ya about the planting room, I'm slowly but surely taking out the grass gradually. My DS is heading to college in the fall, he may not have any place to kick around his soccer ball when he comes home on break