Until you can move the one planted last spring take a large 3-5 gallon pot and cut the bottom out. Gently slide the pot down the stem and press into ground, fill with soil or potting mix. The tp's own roots come from above the graft. By filling the cut off container with soil and with luck the tp will put out roots in the container soil. The soil hopefully give you until this fall to replant. Go ahead and plant the one in the pot so only a couple of inches of the stem is showing. You can plant tp's on a angle if you would like a bushier plant. The stem contains cells of both root and stem.

Where are you in Missouri? That can help direct you to someone in your area that has tps and you can look at what they have done. I have 75+ and they are planted to be stressed. So I would not be the best to advise on landscaping. But some of the best that I have seen have been planted at woodlands edge and under trees that cast a dappled sunlight. Missouri Botanical Garden in St Louis has several but to my eye they do not appear to be healthy plants. Peonyman plants his in raised beds in full sun and his are very healthy. He did take advantage of his areas recycling center' compost and added loads of compost to the beds.

Maifleur -

Thanks so much for your help. I will try the pot idea, and maybe try to move it in the fall. It (the larger one) is growing so nicely that I may not even move it in the fall, but maybe just hide the pot collar with something in front. Is underplanting with low-growing, non-invasive stuff ok?

I am located in SW MO, between Joplin and Springfield. I'll ask around on the Ozarks forum to see if anyone there is growing them. Are you up closer to KC or St. Louis?

Just out of curiosity, why are yours planted to be stressed? Are you trying to evaluate them for difficult growing conditions? Did it take you a long time to build up such a huge collection? Sorry so many questions - I'm getting closer and closer to just buying a few more and experimenting a little. With the time involved in getting them to mature, it seems like adding one or two per year is not unreasonable...

Raised beds with lots of compost are very doable for me. Does Peonyman put in companion plants with his, or are they by themselves?
Thanks again!
- robinia

Robinia, the reason I asked where you live is because your region is Ozarks. Since you are in the western part of the state to see tps Henry and Karen Chotkowski in Fatettevillle, AR has many tps. Sorry I don't have my list with me but they are int the telephone listings. I believe he did lose the tree that was shading most of his tree peonies so the tps may be shorter than when I saw them last. I have seen on the internet where the Chotkowski's have a peony day but it is after the tree peonies bloom.

I am in KC north of the river. I belong to the Heartland Peony Society and have purchased most from their bi-annual sale. Next sale should be next year. I also travel and look for plants that I like their foliage or have information that the particular plant has pretty autumn foliage. I started stressing the plants because I found that TLC just did not work for most of the plants, not just peonies, that I aquired. I found that in my soil if I added the usual amendments in a year or so the plant died. I started decreasing the stuff I added to the soil and found that IF you have time and material you could dig a hole, lightly add compost, and then cut slits in the sides of the hole spreading the soil slightly, allowing some of the amended soil to seep into the slits. This allowed the plants to send roots out the sides and establish themselves. This has lead to other experiments. Some successful some not. I collected old gardening books for years and sometimes there is a whiff of information that is something to try.

If you do the raised beds try planting some herbs that take low water conditions such as thyme or bulbs such as lilies. For now just stick several annuals or decorative rocks arround the pot to make it look like it is in a walled garden spot.

Peonyman does have a few companion plants but he likes the look of the foliage against the soil.

Arnold's nursery in LeRoy Kansas normally has a few tree peonies in pots. The price was $29.00 to $59.00 but that was last year. Next year from January on look at Lowes for 1 year grafts of tree peonies. If you get them early and put in ground they should live. Since you only have the two you probably will not have the ones Lowes has. I have found in the packaging material or arround the stem a lable with the name of the cultivar on it. Make your own label until the plant blooms. If the plant looks like the picture then you can make a permenant label. If you have a garden center in your area that does have tps keep checking. I have purchased quite expensive plants cheap when the nursery is clearing stock for their fall plants and holiday stuff.
Good luck.

Maifleur -

Thanks so much for all the info! I wouldn't mind making a special trip to KC for the HPS sale next year. Fayetteville is very close to me - I actually used to commute to school there for a short time - so visiting the Chotkowskis would be very doable for me. I will look into that asap.

Thanks for the tips on tp culture. I'm gathering that putting them with roses may be a bad idea, as I grow my roses in pretty rich soil with lots of amendments, and quite a bit of moisture. Woody herbs and lilies are two of my other obsessions, so what better excuse to add a few...need them for the tree peonies...!

I've heard of people getting tps at Lowe's, but I am religious about checking new arrivals, and they have not been carrying them down here so far. I'll definitely keep my eyes open.

Maybe I'll start another thread asking for pics, especially of Peonyman's gardens.

Many thanks from a fellow Show-Me gardener.

- robinia

I have planted several of them in various parts of my garden, and they have experienced benign neglect most of the time--no special winter treatment, fertilizer, etc. The soil here is a limestone soil and heavy clay for the most part.

My plants are several years old now, and the largest is only about two feet tall. They were bare root when first obtained.

All are in partial shade, two at the edges of informal planting areas under full-sized maple trees. One maple casts quite heavy shade, and that tree peony has remained quite small. The other maple tree casts dappled shade and is next to a neighbor's lawn which gets full sun all day; that one is probably the largest tree peony I have, and one of the youngest. That bed is slightly raised and mainly consists of organic matter.

Another tree peony is in the center of an area of deep soil that used to be lawn. It did well initially and was larger than the others, but has suffered from the spring competition presented by a bleeding heart plant I established quite close to it.

I have two on the berm of a small bank on the North side of my house; the one receiving the greater amount of sun is easily twice as large as the other one, even though they were planted at the same time.

I have one in a shady place level with the ground that I had forgotten about--it is struggling a bit but still returns.

Finally, one I planted in very poor soil with little preparation is still alive, but so far has not even flowered, and it certainly is not thriving.

Therefore, I would say that they like a bit of a raised bed, or at least the organic matter you can put into one of those, and probably don't like wet feet or oxygen deprivation. I haven't done any special watering, but this is PA; we may get more rain than you.

I have seen full grown tree peonies in the Hershey gardens. They were probably ten or so feet tall and looked a bit like broad, dwarfed trees with dark trunks. They were still sort of interesting after their spring bloom.

I have also seen a few planted by gardeners in the area. They looked more like densely-leaved shrubs, from about five feet to eight feet in diameter. I think their leaf density could be partly because they were all in full sun, and also due to pruning. They all had a round shape.

I have found a bit of judicious pruning can save problems. Apparently the little stalk that bears the previous season's flower dies, and can then be a source of fungus or other infection; that should be clipped off in early spring for that reason.

Apparently Hershey had some fungus problems a few years ago with some of their old peony trees and they had to be removed. It can get quite humid here during the summer; possibly that was a factor. For that reason, though, you might want to see that your plants are not too crowded.

All of my plants are protected from prevailing winter winds by my house, but there are a few not too far from where I live that do not have that sort of protection--although the owner might cover them in the winter; I haven't noticed for certain.

A couple of my plants now usually have at least three large blossoms each spring. They are easily ruined by rain and don't last that long, but they are spectacularly beautiful, and I therefore am glad I have them; I look forward to them each spring.

Planted my first tree peony this spring (Taiyo). Was just an 8-inch stick, but rapidly put on leaves and is now about 18 inches tall. Because of a large cedar elm shading the house, the plant gets three or four hours of morning sun and about an hour in late afternoon. I only water it about every two weeks, even with our Dallas heat. They originated from an area that averages 30 inches of annual rain and it seems to like a little dryness. If this one flourishes here, I have three others in mind to try--one at a time, of course. :-) Thank you for the information, it has helped. Hope yours have done well this year!