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.

Kek19, There are many ways to propagate tree peonies. Go to your local library and ask for them to locate for you as an inter-library loan "The Peonies" by John C. Wister. Read chapter 4 in the tree peony section for propagation methods. With the shoot you have now since it has it's own roots you have a good chance on it living for you. You may want to consider removing the existing leaves to force the plant into rooting. Make certain you pot is deep enough to grow lots of roots. A four inch pot is probably to shallow depending on the size of your shoot. I have not tried it but before we became to rely on nurseries for all of your plants the victorians did grafts in the spring with the green material. But then the victorians did many things that we don't do any more.

Shudavies, not all growth is herbaceous. tps put up shoots also from below the surface. Some people even plant tps at an angle so they will form new plants. This is called layering. This year if you haven't already cut them off wait until the leaves unroll. Then check to see if are from herbaceous or tree. On another site someone mentioned that tps are generally not shiny and herbaceous are very shiny. There are exceptions to this as for everything. If you want a tree form remove the growth if it is from the mother plant. If you want a larger shrub like plant let them grow. Each appeals it is a matter of personal likes.

Thank you, Steve - your blog is very well done. Thank you for that encouragement for my poor damaged tree peony. I will be patient and wait for it to regrow, watching out for any signs of the herbaceous root trying to sprout. The loss of flowering is disappointing, but what made me so angry was all those years of steady growth just wasted. Grrr. Believe me, it will be well protected every fall from now on with the same method that works with my shrub roses: a sheet of the dryer fabric softener "Bounce" (original scent seems best) tucked into the crown of a rose in late fall. This has always given me great protection from rodent damage over the winter on the roses. Apparently they find the fragrance impossible to live with. No, really, don't laugh - it does work. That scent is soooo strong, even I have a hard time with it, LOL - and it hangs on through the winter quite well. Cheap and effective protection. I only wish I had thought to put a sheet in the tree peony but I never had voles up around that area before...but then, it was a terrifically hard winter that just passed and the amount of woody plants girdled during it is simply astounding.