Some years ago I purchased 5 peony rings with the green coating and a metal grid on top. They are about 16" across and pretty heavy duty. Around $10 each, IIRC. When the peonies shoots are about 12" tall I put up the rings, and then guide the shoots through the grid for a few days. This is a bit too much fussing for my taste, but they seem to work pretty well. Once they're through they grow nice and upright and the foliage hides the ring by blooming time. This pic is from last June and you can't tell the rings are there -

Have bought from treepeonygarden and chateau charmarron and both are great vendors. 10 tree peonies between the two and all had at least 2 woody stems (most had more) and extensive root systems. I would recommend both vendors. Treepeonygarden sells out quickly (they start taking orders July 1 and some plants will be sold out by July 14). With them, I have found it best to wait until August or September and a new icon appears on their website for yearly specials (the prices are much more reasonable) starting at $5/$10/$15/$20/$30 plants that are nice plants. Chateau Charmarron has good prices, great plants, and they dig bare root until the end of December(longer than the rest, makes good Christmas gifts). Both vendors are great, plants are great.

Oh and one more thing, earlier this spring it looked as if the very tip of an eye was poking up thru the soil(besides the one stem), but it apparently was a dud and never made another stem. Is it possible this peony has root rot and is just barely hanging on? I'm guessing that's what happened to the other ones since they never came back. Would that also cause it to have less stems than last year? I always heard they double the amount of stems from one year to the next...

I love a very full, cottage look, so I tend to actively seed poppies in areas I know will be more densely planted come spring. I loved how the poppies emerged from drifts of Jupiter's Beard, Statice, Lomandra in shadier spots, and some other plants in the front yard. It helped limit the sight of the lanky plants certainly. Amidst the roses that are grown in a more traditional way, the poppies stand out like sore thumbs. However, I love the flowers and it's not a public rose garden, ha. I can grow lanky poppies and not feel one bit worse for it. I tried some of the 'Erewhon' and 'Blue Shift' Sweet Peas from Annies in that area this year and they were beautiful! Great cut flowers. It's probably a bit cooler here though. I had them on lattice amidst other climbers. 'Jeri Jennings' is next to some volunteer dark purple sweet peas. The picture above shows some sweet pea foliage, but the flowers mostly finished before 'Jeri' started blooming recently. Right now I've got Nigella springing up in an area that is almost exclusively populated by succulent/drought tolerant plants. It's a strange look, but fun until I consider that I'll need serious gauntlets to rip out the dead Nigella soon. Puya are amazing until you weed around them and I'm mostly growing the smaller types like P. mirabilis and alpestris. A lot like roses actually!