I don't know if hellebores bloom the first year, I can't remember with mine when it bloomed the first time. But mine are blooming now and have been for about a month. Poppies for me bloom in June, I think. Mine are quite frilly right now (foliage).

Lois, I'm a little schizzy about dividing, too, but must some less choice plants in spring. If I lose those, easy enough to replace. Thanks for the idea about the trench as I've lost several rose suckers I wanted to transplant, finally figured out something like you said. It's not that their roots are as delicate but the shoot (don't know what they're called) to the mother plant must be severed so they can grow on a bit and develop a more extensive, independent root system of their own, then dug up and moved. The hose will help my back if I have to go down very deep. Now layering, only tried on a clem and didn't work. But if there's any chance you could get another tree peony by that method, it sounds safer, just would take a lot of patience. In one of my slides, I don't know what he has in front of the one tree peony cluster, but it's a nice arrangement. I have Jack Frost but it's in too much shade under a large tree, seems happy enough its first season, may make babies - or may not come back in the spring. No chance for a tree peony there.

Lovely to have deer except that they become overcrowded. When that happens they will eat everything available. Seeing them with their ribs visible because there is not enough food is very sad. When the get that bad they start developing diseases and die in great numbers. I hated it when hunts were done in the woods across the street from me started but knew it was necessary to prevent more tragedy both to the deer and the people that they would run in front of and hit them. The year I had 25+ antlered deer, young males, in my front yard one day eating acorns was the year before the hunts began.

all my peonies were in ground. We put our house for sale, so I have taken all my peonies from the ground and planted them in the pots. I have many more blooms to come this year. in the first photo you can see few peonies in pots.