I would definitely plant it. Trying to store roots of a plant during the time when it would normally be growing is an iffy proposition. My peonies get full sun in the morning and tree shade from mid afternoon on and are right now blooming. The important thing about peonies is not to plant them too deeply. The buds should be only an inch below ground. Peonies usually go dormant after the foliage dies back in Aug, but starting them so late, I believe I would keep watering them so they will gain as much energy as possible this summer. They will benefit from some compost but I wouldn't tuck it too closely to the stems. Let the stems breathe and put the compost a few inches out. It will leach down and feed the roots. Good luck.

Peonies are my favorite flowers. I would not plant in OK's full sun, that's far too much for these plants. My old house I had them in a partial sun location where they received morning sun, dappled midday sun, and partial shade in the late part of the afternoon. I got three as divisions from a co-worker, and it took several years for them to flower reliably. Definitely get your roots in the ground asap, and like Mulberryknob says, plant high, almost mounded up. I dug my peonies and brought them to our new house a few months ago just as they sprouted. I divided one and gave to a friend, and the others have good foliage but no buds yet. I would not be surprised if it takes a few years to get them settled in and happy enough to bloom. From what I understand, they are cranky with moving around.

If you lose yours, let me know and I'll give you a division in the fall (that's really the best time to divide these, i think, although I just did it early spring and my friend says their division is healthy and vigorous though not blooming). I have two pinks and a white, so even if I don't get blooms this year, you have a 66% chance of getting a pink from me.

Carol, that started to happen with mine once our small Chinese pistache tree got big enough to begin making too much shade. I thought moving to the eastern foundation bed of my house would have been the perfect solution but then we moved so now they are in a southern bed with morning sun, dappled midday shade from large oak tree, then mostly shaded by a yaupon holly from harsh western sun. I do have them growing through peony hoops with the grid on top - the circle type hoop didn't do anything for me. This keeps them pretty vertical, especially if I take care and try to pull the hoop higher and higher as the plant grows, so the grid would be closer to the heavy blooms. My DH hates the hoops, though. I recently saw some peony plants at Lowes that claimed to be bred for upright strong stems and I was sorely tempted but refrained because the garden budget is quite stretched this year.

Bon, also note that the blooms are a magnet for sugar ants because they put out some kind of sap or something. That means they look gorgeous in my landscape but I had a hard time ever getting a cut flower ant-free enough to use in a bouquet inside. You can rinse, rinse, and rinse some more but it never failed, I would later see some ant that must have been able to hold his breath like a Navy SEAL. Occasionally would cut a bloom for a bud vase for the patio table.

I LOVE peonies!!! The Sarah Bernardts are pretty good peonies. I have several. I too would get them in the ground as soon as possible. Like everyone else, I plant them in partial shade, morning sun is preferred.

Some of mine have weaker stems than others. I use peony grids on a few of them to hold them up. Usually I just cut them and then I don't have to worry about it ;) They are, indeed, ant factories. If I am taking them somewhere, I have to cut them the day before and wait for the ants to wander off.

Do you live anywhere close to OKC?

I order peonies every so often from Gilbert H. Wild. They run a great grab bag sale on peonies (3/12 or 5/20). You don't get to choose them, but if you are just filling some spaces, it is a good deal. Every year when the peonies start blooming I starting thinking, "I need to add MORE." :)

I don't have fresh pics from this year yet, but here's some of my old bouquet pics:

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Here is a link that might be useful: G H Wild Peonies

I need to make a peony album :) Here's one of my very favorites. I think my sister passed this one on to me.

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LIKE!

Lisa, i say wow! those are awesome Peonies... if my DW see your pics, she immediately start drooling and put her next wish. I have few peonies in the flowers beds, but seems to be not very happy in that location. They produce few flowers and stems are not strong enough to hold them. By the way they are growing in full sun under native red clay soil with some amendments with compost. -Chandra

How long have they been in the ground? They do take several years to settle in. Some peonies just have weak stems, and some are stronger. If you buy them from a catalog, a lot of times in the description they will note if that variety has a strong stem.

AND, if we get rain, which we do this time of year, the rain will knock them down quite a bit. I try to cut them if I know there is rain coming. I'm going to cut a bunch this afternoon before the rain and or hail comes in.

They are not blooming in this pic, but here is a shot of where about half of my peonies are, daylilies are interspersed and next to my house are my hydrangeas. My house faces NE, sorta, I'm on a curve, so it's hard for me to gauge it, but that area gets sun in the a.m. until noon or so.

I took a photo tonight of the same view. This week they peonies are starting to bloom.

I cut a bunch of these right after this because rain was heading our direction.

Mia, you know, the interesting thing is, that "bomb" pink peony is in full sun!! I forgot that I had one in full sun. It is doing fine there. I do try to keep most of them in partial sun.

(Thanks for the LIKE!)

Oh boy! I am SO happy I didn't get any response from the peony forum because you guys know the sun patterns here. I have much space to choose from so I can make it perfect for them. Neighbor said I should plant in full sun but I wasn't sure because she only has roses and they seem to handle the sun here but I realized peonies might be more tender.

Mia, I'll take you up on that if they don't work out. This sweet little 4 yo will NOT forget. So, if I don't have a way to get some I'll be contacting you. lol

Lisa, those are SO beautiful. The whole bed is! In fact, I have a section of my house in an exact location like yours I was considering and it's even bigger in the area.

Thanks for the tips on the ants! They are a pain here without a constant food supply. I'll be certain to plant them on the fence side rather than up by the house like I was thinking so the ants won't be a bother to the house. In FACT, they might pull the ants that come into the house on that side away from the house.

In this area I have an exact spot that would receive full morning sun, dappled shade in the peak of the sun and shade in the early evenings!

And since ya'll mentioned the weight of the flowers I'll look up some type of trellising support. Not plant too deep. Mound up the soil so they can breath well (We're getting a lot of rain, aren't we?) and leave any amendments away from the plant stems or roots.

So, they'll be beautiful in this area, too. I'll be patient and let them get well established but, eventually, I'll divy them up so we can have more. I'm so excited now. I'm sweating this one because even my husband loves peonies (shhh don't tell anyone). hehe

And it's cool right now. How appropriate!

The neighbor gave my daughter a rose from her garden. It was the first rose she has handled and curiosity got the best of her. She began pulling off some of the petals as I was speaking to the neighbor. I glanced down and saw the mess and gently stated, "Aww... You tore off the petals." and went back to talking. I looked a few minutes later and saw she was CRYING. Oh my gollies she's s in love with life and, especially flowers. The very first set of flowers that died - wild flowers - literally tore her soul apart when she was only two. That was her first experience at death. So, now ya see. I gotta get this one right because she's so looking forward to having them and she even comprehends the patience required to letting them grow!

And it is so worth it, too.

Thanks everyone! I had been putting this one off.

*hugs*

bon

Bon, are you anywhere close to OKC? I could definitely share a few things with you and your daughter :) If you look at the back of that photo, those are iris orientalis. I always have plenty of those to share :) and I am sure I could find more.

If you are not close, maybe I could still find a way to get some to you.

Lisa

Lisa, I'm in Cushing just outside of Stillwater. It's about an hour fifteen from OKC. We have irises! Oh lordy, do we have irises from the previous tenants. They need to be divided and moved. There must be two hundred under ground. My little one screeched to high heaven when she saw a couple bloom but that was all that bloomed! I will attempt to do that this fall. It'll be the first time I've done such a thing but there are so many (by show of the foliage) I'm sure there will be success somewhere.

bon

Bon, If you would like to me to look around, I bet I could find some plants in my garden to share with your daughter :) I love to encourage new gardeners!

I know all about overflowing irises! My bearded irises desperately need to be divided and thinned out. You can do that mid-summer (July 4 or so), if you can stand the heat then. Do you know how to replant them? The tubers need to planted on top of the ground, with just the roots in the ground.

My iris orientalis are slightly different than bearded iris, but no less bountiful :) They came with my house and it took me awhile to figure out what they were!

Look at that! Those are GORGEOUS.

That's so generous of you, Lisa! She's four, btw.

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I took a look on the internet and tried to identify the two that showed this spring. One was purple and the other white. They are both bearded iris. They stood over 4 foot tall. We picked one of the purples that had not yet bloomed and put it in a vase for her. Overnight it bloomed on the table and she woke to find the beautiful thing. She sat at the table for a long time admiring it. She is SO obsessed with flowers. She asked me to put a worm from the bin into the vase to make it "feel bedda". hehe (She even coddles the worms!) She's catching on quick. I haven't seen the Iris foliage as large as they are this year! Was it the mild winter? I remember when I first moved here wondering what the blazes all those leaves were. LOL Btw, I only have the internet to know how to divide and such. Apparently, I need to do the same with the orange day lillies. It makes me happy to know I can start dividing in summer because I'm so slow. That'll give me plenty of time to have them all arranged by the first freeze. I'm also wanting to move a bunch of grape hyacinths to a central location if it's possible. LOL I've artistic talent and a vision but I'm short on "know how" LOL I can just see the whole place just "lit up" with colors and greenery everywhere.

I'm still trying to figure out where to put them all. I'd like to have them all together, if possible. I have the room for them all in full sun. Then, over time rearrange them by color (If I feel like it). Is full direct sun from noon on okay? Because that would be perfect!

bon

My Mom's yard in Blackwell is full of peonies and they seem pretty tough. Mom has a brown thumb, they were already there when she moved in 30 years ago and they're still doing fine. She has divided them and moved them around the yard quite a bit. They're not floppy unless they get pounded by rain.

Hers get a lot of afternoon sun--I think the ideal spot would get more morning than afternoon sun but like I said, they're doing fine. They do get the tiny ants, but I have heard that the ants are actually necessary to help the blooms open up.

Oh, my goodness, she is adorable!!! I like the layout of your garden too. Very pretty. Design is not really my best talent :) I tend to find/buy stuff and then have to find a place to stick it in!

It's too early to move a lot of what I have in mind for your daughter, but I will start scouting and potting up a few of things.

Lisa

Your flower arrangements are gorgeous. I'd say you're doing just fine in the design department!

Lisa, of the two blue spires in your arrangement, I know the Larkspur. What is the other one? Baptisia maybe? It's really lovely.

Yes, they are baptisia. I love the blue color. My bushes got wiped out two years ago by the Genista broom moth caterpillar. I had the first known siting of it in this area, which was exciting until I realized it killed my bushes. I have a few stray stems trying to survive, but they are barely there. I've put in a few more, but it's gonna take years to get cutting sized bushes back!

Lisa

Here is a link that might be useful: My baptisia killer

Is anyone still looking to divide and get rid of Iris and/or Peonies in OKC?

If you would like some of those white ones pictured up, and are willing to dig them, you are welcome to plenty. I have some bearded iris as well (and access to some others) if you are interested. I live in the village.

kplum, You're welcome to some of my purple bearded iris. I need help with these as I just don't have the physical fortitude to get to them. I have a large garden area to work with and I'm already scheduled to dig up naked ladies mid summer. If I could or would get to the iris, I would at the same time. I can condition the soil and mulch to make it nice and ready for removal. Alas, I'm in Cushing, tho.

2013 pic

I have white ones, too along a fence line.

Anyone who would like some of these are under no obligation to 1) Be neat about it or 2) Divide them all. Just sayin... take what ya like!

My mom loved peonies, so when I bought my house she gave me one that I planted right in front on the north side. It took about 5 years before the thing had buds, and another year or so before they bloomed. Then someone told me that peonies need the ants in order to bloom. The ants eat the sap from around the buds which causes them to open. Once I stopped killing all the ants, it bloomed amazingly. Now with us moving, I have to figure out how difficult it will be to dig it up and take it with me. (My husband is not going to like me, I already have too many plants in his mind. Now I want to dig more up???)

Peonies are amazingly hardy plants. You should be able to dig it up, probably separate it, and take it with you. Are you going far? (if you are headed very far south, that might be an issue..)

No, we're staying within Oklahoma.