Three years ago I got my first 2 tree peonies (Tria and Hesperus). The next 2 springs the branches had died back to the ground, but vigorous growth sprouted up. They even bloomed. They are "own-root" per the grower. I live just north of Seattle , so it is usually very mild in winter but I discovered the peony site is quite windy in the winter, and the last two winters had (for us) some bitterly cold and windy weather. So I didn't really worry. This winter has been quite mild, and I was out in the garden this week- same thing seems to be happening again with shriveled blackened stems (strange my Itohs have 3 foot tall live stalks with huge live buds!). Any ideas? should I put burlap and straw around them? Should I give them away? I have no sheltered spot for them. They are behaving like an herbaceous peony, should I just leave them to do this?
tree peony dieback
It seems that for some reason this fall/winter the peonies are misbehaving. My Itohs have pips high on the stems and the herbaceous peonies have large visible pips as well, and this seems to be occurring in different zones, based on the comments in this forum.
What zone are you in, and can you cut and remove the blackened stems that may be diseased?
Before you start cutting really look at the dieback. All tree peonies will have dieback on their outer shoots. The dieback should end near a live bud. You might want to contact seller and ask. Post a picture of the dieback which if it does go completely to the ground may not be from the tree peony but from the graft root even if the seller stated it was on on roots.
Because of the number of deer I have I leave the dead material on the tree peonies until spring to prevent the deer from eating this years buds.