He has listed unnamed tubers for an incredible price and I am tempted to donate to a local park. But I have been burned on e-bay before, so wondered if anyone here could recommend him? thanks
ebay does anyone know Bill from krakow Wisconsin?
Hi, I bought 20 from him last december. They are nice fresh healthy roots. All of them have sprouted pips and they emerged real early. However, I cannot say about the quality of the flowers until bloom season. Even then I do not know if any will bloom this year as I just planted them this past december.
Healthy, great peony roots, I bought 20 from him last spring (received about 25) and had two bloom about a month after I planted them (just a couple of the single bloomers but not unattractive for a first bloom). I also purchased 10 again from him this spring and received 12 healthy roots. All have done well even though some of them have not been planted in ideal, prepared spots.
Michelle, did you take photos of the flowers? I would really like to see them if you still have them.
I have them but they are not good, I had real issues with bugs last year (cucumber beetles) and drought. They are the first blooms so they may or may not reflect the later peony. They were planted in April and these pictures were dated for May 13. The two that bloomed are singles. Here are the only pictures I have of them anymore, sorry. From what I've learned about peonies the doubles and other versions take longer to bloom.
Thank you so much for posting the photos. They are beautiful! I have never seen a blush pink single before. I just can't believe that they bloom for you within one month of planting. I can hardly wait to see this year's blooms from Bill's peonies that you planted last year.
I was shocked at how quickly they bloomed too, I was thinking a wouldn't see anything for at least a year and I also wondered if I should have deadheaded them. They are all coming back though it seems this year. I never thought I would say I have to many but I'm starting to wonder. It was hard to pass up a deal that good. I still have 6 more from him for this year that I need to dig a new garden bed to put them in, I just have them potted up in soil right now. I am in my third year gardening in a yard that was just weeds and only weeds before we moved it. I can't wait to see the pictures you have of your peonies either:)
Michelle
This message was edited Mar 26, 2013 10:32 PM
Hi Michelle, I guess you and I are the only ones on this forum to have purchased peonies from Bill in Wisconsin. If I get any blooms, I will post all of them to let you see what mine look like. If mine turns out anything like yours, I will be thrilled. That is such a pretty blush pink color. Can I ask you how you went about to get rid of the weeds from your yard?
Karen
Sure with the kinds of weeds they were, we had to spray and spray. Then we discovered after getting moisture that there was burmuda grass in there unfortunetly (might as well be a weed). We still have burmuda which has taken over everything but the gardens which is a battle but most of the weeds are gone except for this time of year which I normally just pull them by hand because I don't like using chemical. With the peonies I'm just ready to see more buds and hoping that the bugs don't butcher them this year:(
Michelle
Michelle, peonies are sort of "born" with their buds. That is, they form their buds when the sprouts emerge. If you don't see buds (tiny) formed at the end of the stem, you won't see them at all. You were lucky to have a bloom last year. Many times these buds fail to thrive and just sort of dry up, so you must have taken good care of them.
How sturdy they are when they arrive is directly related to the root structure and number of eyes. I always relate root structures to icebergs since their is such a large, woody root ball underground.
Midriash, when I got peonies that were really inexpensive, they were no more than a 2-3 inch long twig about 3/4 of an inch in diameter with one or two eyes. Planting those in a public park may look like there is nothing there, so they would have to be cordoned off. The peonies I got are no longer available, but there are others you can purchase in multiple package from big box stores. Much easier to return than on ebay, I guess. I've had both good luck and bad luck on ebay, so it is my last resort.
I will just send a picture of approxamately what you will get since I have them available. These were taken before I had a chance to pot up the 6 smaller ones out of the 12 Bill sent and one picture of after i had them potted. They are all pretty massive roots. I planted the larger ones before in the garden since I had spots for them. I currently have one from him last year that has seven eyes/sprouts coming up so far. That is the largest, they range from about that size to 2-3 eyes but still massive roots on the less eyes.
Sorry, probably no blooms this year all my peonys are done with this last ice storm, they were just to far along. Most of them were budding getting ready to bloom and the 65 degree day followed by 20 degree night with wind and ice storm has the last half that didn't get hit in the last ice storm sitting on the ground. Maybe next year:(
Hi. I am so sorry about your peonies. I really feel for your loss because I know how hard it would be for me if it were happened to me. As this is the first year for my peonies to bloom, it will be that much harder. Again, so sorry for your buds loss.
Karen
Well i will at least post pictures of the few I took before the last ice storm. (All now laying on the ground) All of these were purchased from Bill and planted Spring of 2012. The one on the left was doing something I'm not sure was normal and had two small buds per branch forming.
Hi Michelle! Here are the blooms from the peonies I bought from Bill S. They are mostly single. The peonies in pic#1: all of Bill's peonies in a bouquet; pic 2-4 are individual shots. Of the 20+ peonies plants, only 6 bloom. They make a nice bouquet.
Those are beautiful!
Thanks. I hope that you will have better weather next year. That was just aweful that the cold snap came so late this spring. I thought my peonies buds were goners too the last frost we had the Monday after Mother's Day.
I'm very happy to say that these are the two from Bill that did bloom after such bad late freezes and freeze damage:
They are awesome, Michelle. I think they show a lot of promise to be even more beautiful when the tubers are older. I really like that fuschia color with the yellow stamens. Yep, it is very nice.
Based on this thread, I ordered 20 from Bill and received 26. I split my order with my son, niece and 2 friends. All of us have had a least one bloom on one plant, except my son, or at least if he did, he didn't tell me. Three of mine bloomed--all singles. They had the largest roots/tubers (?). Happily, my 3 were all a little different. I'm no photographer, but I did take some pictures for my personal little co-op. We've been sharing reports and pictures of our mystery plants. I had 2 pink (pic 1 and 3). They were very similar but pic 1 is a much lighter pink than pic 3. Pic 2 is white with the faintest pearlized looking blush. Hope I'll some darker pink or red ones eventually. I definitely recommend Bill. Sharing the order and sharing the adventure of waiting to see what each of us got has been lots of fun.
