Peonies: Question about bare root peony, 2 by NoH2O

NoH2O wrote:
I placed an order with Pure Peonies and am waiting to hear back on a pickup date. I also received a complete refund of my original order from Bannister last week. I am glad the issue is resolved. I will be posting a review on GW and I want to think carefully about what I say. I don't know if I am the only person who has had so much trouble with them - I almost hope that I am. There are fewer and fewer vendors these days and I hate to see a good vendor go bad.

I am getting 10 yards of compost delivered this week; it will be good timing for planting the new peonies and also the new plants I hope to buy when I go on a nursery hop with some ladies from the garden club on Wednesday. I'll be putting cardboard down on a lot of lawn and piling compost on top of it so by spring I will have a big new bed all ready to go - more dahlias! Yay! Also more peonies, roses, perennials, etc.

I moved back to the PNW from Ohio about 2 years ago. I left behind a huge 25 year old tree peony, Hana Kisoi. I bought it as a little bare root plant in a box for $12 at Sears Hardware. When I left it was over 5ft tall and wide and each spring had 120+ blooms that were 8 to 10 inches in diameter. It was stunning to see in full bloom but it produced so much pollen that I couldn't get to close to it.

The Puget Sound Dahlia Association has an excellent monthly guide to planting dahlias. I highly recommend it. You can find the information for buying it here: http://www.pugetsounddahlias.org/psdapub.html

Mary, I confess that I have been lurking in the dahlia forum for years. I used to be very active on DG but the last number of years have been very stressful with family issues and I just didn't have the time or energy to post. And so many of the old regulars have disappeared... Hopefully I will get back on there very soon.

At this point I am growing about 3 dozen dahlias. I do dig up and save the tubers and give some away to garden friends and sell a lot of extras at the garden club sale. This helps bring in cash to support my addiction.

These are pictures of Hana Kisoi. The picture of the entire plant was taken in 2005. It has grown quite a bit since then and each year increased the bud count by at least 10.