Hello all,
When do peony plants start to appear at nurseries? I have never grown one and one like to add one to my garden. Are they available Spring & Fall? When's the best time to plant them in zone 5? And what's the better choice - tree peony or regular peony? Thanks in advance. :-)
When do peony plants start appearing at nurseries?
When peonies appear in local nurseries depends on your area and what you are looking for. Around here Home Depot will bring in 4 inch boxes of tree peonies. You will normally find them on a hidden wire rack somewhere near the garden area. Walmart will have bags after the Valentines stuff is on sale.
There are places around Philadelphia that has potted peonies. ET Flowers, Eleanor Ticknor sells pots but there are several growers in Pennslyvania and New York. Eleanor started the Middle Atlantic Peony Society. Some really good growers in your area do not ship.
A word of caution. Depending on how long the root has been in a pot you need to completely remove the planting medium and straighten or cut off any crossing roots.
Fall is best to plant but I have planted any time the ground can be worked.
By the time you see any peonies in local garden centers, they are usually in bloom.
I have only purchased one peony in a pot; all the others have been planted as bare roots, and they all fared better than the one purchased in bloom. Patience is a requirement, as well as full sun and shallow planting. The price of bare roots is dependent on the number of "eyes" on the root. The plants will always grow in less than full sunlight, but you cannot expect many, if any, blooms.
The tree peonies, which you can expect to be much more expensive than herbaceous peonies have always been purchased in pots. I have no intersectionals, but have seen them, and they, too, are expensive (and gorgeous). A landscaping garden center will probably start bringing them in for sale guessing mid to late April and will have them $$$ for quite a while.
Here in zone 6b, our peonies bloom around Memorial Day, sometimes a bit earlier, sometimes into early June. There are about 2 weeks of blooms, and that is all. And expect rain; it's inevitable.
Our tree peonies are already budding at the nodes with little red shoots, and this is quite early. I expect they will be in bloom early May. Looking at last year's photos, tree peonies opened around the 13th-15th of May after a grueling, wet winter. It will be interesting to see when they bloom after a relatively mild winter.
The pink tree peonies in the photo open to about 9 inches in diameter, The reds and red and pink (blurry in background) are only about 6 inches.
The best time to plant bare root herbaceous peonies is in the fall. If you purchase them in pots, planting them immediately is best. I have planted bare roots in early spring, but if you do, don't expect to see them till the next spring. I purchased most of my bare root peonies from Costco, are they are probably available only in February, so they get planted as soon as the ground is workable. They are rather inexpensive, but only have 2 eyes. They are sold at the flower and garden shows (ours is at the end of the month) with 4-5 eyes, and they are the best. They come with the advice of the grower, face to face.
Take a look at Klehm's http://www.songsparrow.com/2012/plantlist.cfm?type=PEONY,&subtype=all&startrow=1&pageType=plantlist.
They have a wealth of information which may be helpful to you.
By the way, it is OK to purchase a peony in a pot that has already bloomed if it a nice, full plant. They usually have a picture and description on the pot so you know what you're getting. Let us know how you do.
Tree vs. herbacious? How about both. More shade necessary for the TP's. Morning sun only always seems to work. A sunnier area gets the herbacious peonies, usually an average of 5 hours but some varieties need more or less sun to bloom well.