Well, even if it was a Home Depot one-eyed wonder, give it time. Years ago I bought a small Festiva Maxima root with just two or three eyes in those boxes packed with peat, and it took a while, but it has turned into a gorgeous lush floriferous specimen. I also bought a very small tree peony in one of those boxes and nutured in a pot for a few years before planting it in the garden, and it is now a showstopper! So just be patient, and you'll eventually be rewarded :) BTW: If you really want a tree peony and have a lot of time/patience, getting a small one and growing it on in a pot (dragged into the garage or shed for the winter, obviously) is a great, affordable way to dabble in tree peonies, these puppies are expensive!

Flowergirl, I don't think I can help you with this question. I do not think this to be clorosis. You can add iron to the garden bed just to check but if the soil is iron deficient it should affect the entire plant. Your problem is not unique. I have seen plants that appear the same way and in fact I have seen it in the same bed on diffent cultivars, again only affecting a few stems of each plant. The diffence in the stems is not always just a slight diffence. The next year all of the foliage appeared to be normal. It has me as baffled as it has you. I think it may have to do with the growing season due to the fact that in 2003 I had one plant that experienced this and a friend located some 10 miles away had the same problem on 2 of here plants. A similar temporary condition can be caused by damage from cold. I think this would have to be caused by cold damage that occures after the shoots begin to emerge. While in dormancy a peony plant can take a lot of cold with no damage. Some sources also call this condition clorosis. I think of clorosis as a condition primarily caused by an iron deficiency. A similar problem can also be caused by virus, however a virus is not limited to a portion of the plant. It will move thoughout the vascular system of the plant and all parts will be affected. I think this will happen pretty rapidly. I do have a few tree peonies which have this condition. It doesn't affect flowering but the plant looks bad by mid-summer. I notice this on tree peonies that I have grafted onto herbaceous roots of very old herbaceous cultivars. I usually try to get rid of these plants. Anyone out there want one of these tree peonies?

I also grow the Fawn. There was a bloom but the rain battered it so bad so I couldn't make a good comparison between the two. From what I can make between the two of them, I think the Fawn has deeper pink specks than PVW and it also is a darker pink flower. I think that I would prefer PVW over the Fawn as the stems are sturdier and the lighter pink color of the blooms looks nicer. Also the buds and young growths of PVW are very dark blackish red so the bush as a whole looks really striking even before the blooms open. I do like WF but they look best if you disbud and provide support.

Popmama, if that one smells really good it's probably Edulis Superba. Funny story about that one, I placed a very large order from a big grower that year for peonies and I received a suspiciously small box. Opened it and the order inside was for another lady who had ordered only 2 Edulis Superbas! The bill was there and everything--they'd just switched the shipping labels, I had her $30 box while she had my several hundred dollar one! I contacted the seller and they put together a 2nd box for me, shipped it out the very same day, so my order was only delayed by a few days. They told me to keep the 2 ES for my trouble--I kept one and took the other to the swap that fall.... Wonder if they told the other lady to keep the box for her trouble, or if she ever contacted them about the mistake?