Linnea: I don't know anything about peonies but it sounds like you got some sage advice above. But let me tell you about my rose 'Mary Rose' that we moved a couple weeks back. This rose did great last year and really dragged this year. Mainly due to a lack of sunlight. So I think two weekends back we decided to move it into a pot and then we plan to sink the pot until next spring when it can be re planted. To that end my husband who can be a bit impatient at times went out to the where the rose was planted, shoved the shovel in the ground about ten inches from the base all around the perimeter of the plant, and then kind of unceremoniously pulled it out of the ground. I could only stand there speechless! Rough treatment for sure. We then put the poor baby in a very large pot filled with potting soil, a handful of steer manure and some bonemeal and left her in shade for over a week (well watered). At that time I also cut back the canes to about 14 inches tall leaving whatever foliage looked decent. Last week I brought the pot out to where it could get half day sun and then on Saturday up to where other roses in the yard are, nearly all day sunny conditions. This morning I noticed she is getting lots of new growth and has purple foliage coming on in several places. Go figure! I thought after what my husband did to her she was a goner for sure. Roses can be remarkably tenacious. Having blathered on about all that let me ask you this. Were the roses healthy before? Can we see a picture? Do you want to plant them in pots? The ground? What's your plan for doing with these if they make it? I know this is considered to be the wrong time to cut back roses, especially in your zone. So you might just want to focus on getting your transplants stabilized and then if they are still kicking in the spring you can cut back dead/leggy canes at that time. Hope this helps. Kate

Update! I got all 8 roses in the ground today, and after 4 hours that is a magical journey I never plan to undertake again. I only had space to plant them about 3-4' apart, and I amended the soil with peat moss. Luckily this area has nice black dirt, no idea why, but it's one of the areas with better soil quality. I would have gotten a picture, but by the time I thought to, I was too filthy to go back inside the house to find the camera. Some highlights include spraying myself in the face with the hose TWICE, digging up a 6' honeysuckle tree to be planted elsewhere (it just showed up one day and I decided to keep it), clearing out the whole bed of overgrown daylilies and Bishop's Weed, and having to eventually take off my shoes due to caked on mud and just go at this project barefoot and crazy-looking as God intended. I also learned that accidentally touching rose fertilizer pellets with your bare hands hurts like hell. Good to know! Thank you everyone for your help! I will try and update if I have any further news as to how things are going.

Done! It was simple. The only problem I had was my own stupidity. I mistakenly clicked on VT instead of VA and the city of Orange. So of course it came up with 0 first. When I corrected that it was fine and came up with 2 results in Orange, VA. I didn't put in the name of the shelter at all. I just chose VA as the state and Orange as the city, then chose Rikki's when the 2 popped up.

Or maybe glamis castle or windemere?