In zone 10, choose the early-blooming peony varieties. In this climate they need to be planted in partial shade, and consistently watered in the Summer. The bud tips need to all be cut off in October to help the plant go into dormancy. Itoh peonies are said to do much better than others here, possibly because they are very early blooming and have an extended blooming period.

I rescued a JTP 3 years ago and this year is its first blooms, they lasted longer the the posts I've read here, but that may be because it is in partial shade, similar to the location it originally came from. Green Thumb Guy is correct about the grafting onto herbaceous. Other research I've done indicates the following. That the graft stock must be managed to avoid it taking over. That winter protection in zone 5 burlap in winter helps alot because different then Herb P's, JTPs they have eyes along the branches also, and propagation of Itohs can be done by layering an eyed branch to the ground. This takes time but works for patient gardeners. Hope this information helps.

Suel. I usually pot up my tree peonies for the first year, as soon as possible, here in VA. I have a bad back, also... The ones in the ground for many years, ('Higurashi' is already starting to break dormancy!) & yours may as well be planted if your ground isn't frozen solid, if you can have someone help. Unless of course it's been indoors too long & is actually leafing out already. You don't want the leaves to freeze, or a flower develop toosoon, only to be frozen by getting conitinued severely low temps.. Outdoors, they grow at a rather slow rate, whereby the buds/leaves seem unaffected by light frost. Even the one fron from Michigan Bulb Co. (cv. "Heaven Scent"?) is breaking dormancy & I can see it has a first flower bud appearing & still is/has been potted all though the winter & was bought mail order, last spring & stayed outside all winter, unprotected. Try to keep the graft union, below soil level, so as that it can grow it's own roots enventually, unless that is, it was purchsaed as an actual division & not grafted... gringo

Glad this got bumped to the top again. I thought maybe someone would want to hear how my Costco purchase has gone. I bought 3 TP's from Costco the end of Feb and planted them together in a big pot kept in garage. I was a little confused about Japanese vs Chinese in my earlier post - the Costco tree peonies were Chinese - don't know what Van B sells. I planted out the Cinnabar Rampart (Zhu Sha Lei) about 1 week ago. When I took it out of the pot it had begun developing new roots - good sign. It had begun to leaf out and looks quite healthy. The nice folks at A&D Peonies in WA had told me to plant it before it leafed out if I could - so tried to hurry to get it in the ground. Now its covered with a box as the snow is falling and not expected to quit till tomorrow. My favorite nursery told me that peony leaves would freeze on the tips and look uglier than normal if they weren't covered so my yard looks like a warehouse with boxes everywhere on the herbaceous peonies. The 2 not planted yet are P. Suffruticosa Hu's Red and Paeonia ostii White Phoenix. The P. ostii was a lot later than the suffruticosa's in developing leaf buds and its not as healthy a plant - the stems appear to be largely dead and the new growth is coming from the bottom and from the rootstock. There is a lot of conflicting information on the internet about P. ostii - some say its the easiest to grow, others say its susceptible to diseases and a weak plant. But the picture was pretty! Now I'm waiting for the snow to melt so I can plant out the other 2.