This is what you get when a peony has not been divided for years, The buds look very healthy so remove some of the distance material and plant.

I did a rescue when I moved into the house and all that was left with eyes were woody plates with eyes. I went ahead and planted not expecting anything to grow. The pieces grew and the plants are fine.

I hope when people dig old plants they are not discouraged by what they see but plant the best portions and enjoy.

You might want to express your dismay at what you received but only because you have never seen this old of root not because you sent a larger division. Your division should have been divided into smaller portions because the smaller divisions grow more rapidly. The larger divisions have a tendency to use the food available food in the roots before growing new ones.

I would like permission to use one or more of these photos for a talk that I will be giving in the future. Please let me know.

Thanks for your reply.

So riddled with holes is not a disease? that's good to hear.

Also, the buds are not really attached to any roots, only by a very tiny (about 20%) little "flap" to that giant holey rooty thing. And it's bent at right angles.

I've divided peonies, and sometimes some buds will be separated from any "root" in the messy dividing process. If there is no "root" attached to the bud, they haven't grown. That is what I fear here. The bud is on a stalk that is 80% separated from the roots. see second photo.

Yes, feel free to use these photos. Let me know if you need me to send offline.

When you dig an old peony this is what the center of the plant roots look like. The best divisions are around the edge of the clump. If I have some doubt about the dead and the living I would pot up the whole thing for now and in the spring when it grows, make a decision by what is growing. Al

Want to thank you again for allowing the use of your photos for a talk I gave this evening. There were several people in the group that had seen this root structure but had always considered it trash. With the pictures I was able to reassure several that this is normal and you can with careful cutting and after care have a nice healthy plant in a couple of years.

I would have to say that looks are not everything. I think as long as that section sprouts next year, it can always be planted deeper in the ground where it is allowed to develop healthy roots so the biggest concern is whether that clump sprouts or not.

Before I knew anything about peonies, I planted a store bought peony before which thrived for a few years, but last year, it lost it's health and perished likely because it never developed it's own root system, relying on the herbeceous root so it looked very good for a few years, but eventually died off last year.

I could have saved it if I planted it deeper or air layered the plant by planting it sideways, but the following picture can show that looks can be deceiving.

Here is a link that might be useful: Healthy looking peony that died

stevelau your experiences are interesting and you make some good points, but the original poster was referring to herbaceous peonies, not tree peonies which are not grown the same. Al

Are you sure?

That picture looks like it has woody stems which indicates either a tree peony or an intersectional, but looks nothing like my herbaceous peonies.

I am hoping that my seedlings give me 30+ different species since I have thousands of seeds planted so I may be doing peony trades in a couple years when they flower to have a complete collection.

Steve,
Very interesting. Which species do you have represented in your collection of sprouting seeds. You are certainly making an aggressive effort at getting a species collection going.
Leon

I have no idea what all the names are. I bidded on the assorted TP seeds off of eBay many times as well as the ones that have 20 seeds going for 99cent auctions many times and I believe these are likely rockii species. I also got some GCs from someone on this forum where some of them were partially germinated and will likely sprout next spring. I also collected fresh seeds off of yellow, red, grey and white tree peonies.

I've been collecting and planting these seeds all throughout 2011 so I do expect some of them will come up with a few thousand seeds planted in the ground. Some of them have already shown themselves with the recent mild weather, but I added more soil to hopefully keep them from getting fried due to coming up too early.

I believe that the ones that were planted august or before should start sprouting up by March, and some of the freshly harvested ones may come in late spring, but I expect the majority to emerge in 2013.