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Should I wait?

15 years ago

Hello all. I'm just starting to look at the lovely plants that are peonies and received a phone call from a friend that ordered three of them and received 6 in the mail. She called the company that shipped them, and they told her that they wouldn't survive shipment back, so she offered to give me one.

I didn't ask a lot of questions when she offered it (all I heard was FREE PLANT!!) I know it's a tree peony...and it's purple. Everywhere I've looked online it says to plant in the fall for better plants the next year. If this is the case, can I store the plant until this fall? Where? How? I'm guessing it's bare root since it was shipped, but am not sure, and I don't know if this makes a difference. I don't want the plant to die before the fall, but don't want the plant to die in the ground if I'm planting at the wrong time.

Please help!

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Comments (3)

daveinohio_2007
15 years ago
Plant it NOW; don't wait til fall. Hopefully the vendor has sent planting instructions.
maifleur01
15 years ago
If the vendor did not send planting instructions please plant with the graft and part of the stem under the surface of the dirt. Most tree peonies are grafted plants. To insure the grafted plant(the part that you want to grow) sends out it's own roots part of the stem must be below ground. Some people actually bury with only the tip showing. I only do this if the grafted stem is very short.

A word of advice I find with many of the grafted peonies the stem that is grafted will die this winter. However if I leave the plant alone a new stem may come up not next spring but the following spring. So patience is the word. I find this is most often true with the tree peonies that are imported directly from China. The stem dying may happen several years in a row but once the plant has established itself the resulting plant is quite vigorus. This is from my experience in my area and may not be the same for everyone.
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diannp
15 years ago
With herbaceous peonies one should always plant them in the fall, but with tree peonies, I personally, have better luck if I do plant them in the spring. Just remember when planting tree peonies you need to plant them much deeper than herbaceous peonies.

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