To me they both look like they could/should bloom next spring, certainly the 2nd one. How deep do you have them planted. I don't know where you are located, but was wondering with the mulch, maybe they are too deep? I know around here they say to plant the roots 1" below the surface of the soil, in 6a I think you would be the same as me. Planting them too deep can prevent blooming, & mulch counts. People who add mulch every year can find their peonies stop blooming when the eyes get too deep. I wouldn't do anything with the slanting one, it will probably correct itself.

I wouldn't worry about the brown spots, some peonies get pretty ratty looking in the summer/fall.

1) I don't think that the first one will bloom yet, looks a little small in my opinion. The second one seems like there is a chance you might get 1 or 2 blooms, if not then I would say it should get something by 4th year.

2) I would leave the slanting one as it is, it's going to die to the ground for the winter anyway.

3) It's fairly common for peonies have powdery mildew (white and powdery on the stem of your first picture), spots, yellowish, and look worn by late summer. Mine looks like and majority of people in my area look like that. For late summer/early fall these problems are just cosmetic.

So happy to know that they both are growing well. I think I planted the roots as per instructions, but as you mentioned Nancy mulch may be one of the reasons. I didn't know that. We have been mulching every year. I will take care of the mulching around these peonies next spring.

Thank you all for your suggestions!

As Nancy mentions mulch counts and depending on how much you have placed on top of the roots you may have several of inches of mulch on top of the soil. Do not wait until next spring to remove some of it. Be aware that mulch should never be placed next to plant stems, shrubs, or trees. It should be kept away from all stems of any kind.

I'v read that it takes 3 years for a new peony or a transplanted one to get blooms. It's like that old saying about English Ivy that applies to most plants just planted..... "The first year it sleeps, the second year it creeps, the third year it leaps."..... Think of it as the first year it is growing good roots, the second year it has enough good roots to grow decent foliage and the 3rd year it's well on its way to grow well and bloom.

Yes, drag the mulch away now. It's been my experience that peonies like a very VERY light cover over their roots. Like maybe an inch or so. So make that one inch all dirt and no mulch.

Hooray, first flowers are always special! 1st one should have more buds next year! What's the Peony variety?

2nd one looks like bud blast, where you have buds but they turn brown and die, usually due to disease problems or if you had late frosts, but yours look healthy, so often times with new peonies like yours you have bud set, but it's too young/not mature/established enough, so it aborts them.

Hopefully the 2nd one will have buds that are actually able to develop and flower next year.

Congrats! I always get excited when I see nice fat lil buds on a newer planted peony in my garden

the second one, I would clip those dried looking buds off the plant, they won’t produce any flowers as A W mentioned. I’ve had this happen to a couple of my plants as well, they came back the following year without issue

I am not sure what variety the 1st one is! 2nd one - I faintly recollect that it might be Alexander Fleming, but again I am not sure. I have posted a closeup pic of the bud...any clues? :)

No clue, it could very well be! Mine are a guessing game too, I have about 40 planted around the house and I never remember what I planted where lol

So what I had read about Peonies taking 3 years to bloom after transplanting turned out not to be not true for me. (I had written in this thread that I had read this information)

My personal experience this month on blooms on my own transplanted Peonies was different for each of the 3 different colors I planted:

I transplanted Red, Pink and White peonies and was expecting to wait for 3 year for blooms but they are all behaving differently.

I have no idea of their proper names.

Red Peonies are blooming but not much yet.

Pink ones full of flowers as if they were never moved.

White ones got bud blast with a few good flower buds (I buried some roots too deep and on top of each other on these and that is listed as a possible cause of bud-blast)

Sun is slightly less for the white Peonies and equal for the Pink and Red.

@Sue Hughes, beautiful pics, especially the pink one.

I think it also has to do with when it's transplanted and how much roots get disturbed and if it gets broken into pieces. I find if I carefully dig up one that's in a raised bed with light, soft soil it generally grows and flowers as if it was not even disturbed.

But when one gets moved from somewhat heavy clay soil, it's harder to dig up carefully, more damage/disruption, and longer time to reestablish themselves

That's been my observation with ones i've moved/worked with.

Update #2: Both my peonies are blooming very well. I would like to stake the white flowers next spring, so that they don’t droop so much to the ground