There is so much unknown from your post, starting with a 'root control bag'. Four years old does not give me a picture of your peony. How tall a plant containing how many woody stems does it have? What are the growing conditions like, other than the "bag"? Al

Al, the plant has 3 woody stems and is about 12-14" tall. The plant is in the root control bag which is placed inside a pot. It gets a good 4-5 hours of sun early in the day and is in dappled shade later. Sorry I wasn't clear!

Jen

It needs to be in the ground. The size sounds good for a 4-year chinese peony. The root system on a tree peony is much more extensive than the above ground growth. A pot, with or without a root control bag, cannot support this. The root control bag should help to develop a thick branched root system instead of long roots wound around the pot, but a tree peony wants long flshy roots going deep into the ground. If it absolutely can't go in the ground then get a much bigger pot and ditch the bag, then be careful to water sufficiently but never waterlog the soil.

The bud may have been attacked by a fungus which caused the stem to die back. Hopefully the leaves are still fine. Since your plant is now of flowering size you should get some more buds next spring.

Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately, it will probably have to stay potted. I have no problem repotting it ino a bigger pot (without root bag) - what pot depth do you recommend? The leaves still look fine right now and I assume I shouldn't repot until it's dormant again this fall?

Hi Jenny - I have a potted japanese tree peony (a baby one) that is just starting to open its buds. What you want to do is look for the graft point on the woody stem, which should be not too far above the roots and then when repotting, sink the plant so the graft is about 6" below the soil surface. That will allow the portion above the graft to eventually sprout its own roots. This means you want to look for a deep container. Based on your size description, I would probably start it off in a 12" wide/deep container and progressively move up from there as it grows over the years. Although it's no longer dormant, I would go on and move it to its new home and let it develop more of a root system.

A Chinese Tree Peony is unlikely to be grafted.

shrubs: Are you sure? I checked the web site of Heze Garden (Chinese). They sell both divided and grafted plants (different prices).

There are nurseries (I think Cricket Hill may do this) that sell Chinese peony cultivars that are grafted onto seedling tree peony rootstock. I expect this is a quicker way to mass-propagate them and may even reduce the price compared to own-root.

Traditionally, chinese tree peonies were not grafted and japanese tree peonies were grafted. I believe that the traditional japanese tree peony rootstock was a vigorous tree peony. European and american breeders grafted their cultivars onto herbaceous rootstock (once past the initial breeding from seed stage), partly because they were unaware of methods for dividing tree peonies.

A purist would consider that a grafted tree peony should not be called a chinese tree peony. Chinese growers probably wouldn't even recognise one of their cultivars grafted onto a herbaceous stock since it develops a different habit. Because plants on their own roots establish more slowly, despite a proportion of graft failures chinese tree peonies used to be more expensive at the same size. Chinese tree peonies on their own roots still are more expensive at the same size. It has become increasingly common to graft chinese varieties to grow them to saleable size more quickly. Complex chinese names also seem to have some marketing appeal despite many of the 20th century american hybrids being superior in almost every way. Many online buyers do not even tell you whether their plants are grafted, perhaps because there is now a strong lack of plants on their own roots. Possibly tree peonies are no longer even imported from china into the US.

Well, I am not in a position to judge that tree peonies from America/Europe are superior than tree peonies from China/Japan. These plants grow in Euro-Asia continent for millions of years; before human beings evolved from apes. I think they are just different looking plants. It is impossible to judge art anyway.

It is a different story when it comes to grafting. In South Florida, grafted Gardenias grow larger and stronger. However no one ever told me that grafting make TP stronger/larger/superior.

TP with their own roots might grow slow, but I suspect they are more frost tolerant. In the long ran, own root TPs grow into larger trees with larger flowers. That is why they cost more. Natural division may also minimize the problem of plant virus (unavoidably spread by grafting). People mass-breeding orchids, tulips, cyclamen, tps, etc know the harm of plant virus - causing decline of quality. Correct me if I am wrong.

Also, I say many Asian TP species have historical interests. For example, Yao's yellow, it is the first yellow (actually white with orange bases) ever developed. I feel history when I see TPs that are enjoyed by people from Tang Dynasty 2000 years ago.
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Currently if you import from China esp Heze area you will get a grafted plant. If you import from Japan Kokobuki sp you get on its own roots. If you buy the plant from Rick Roger of Brothers Tree Peonies you will get a tp on its own roots.
For other suppliers you will probably find the same thing for each area. More nurseries in US are actually starting to grow their own tps because plants that grow in a certain climate tend to be hardier in that climate.

Planning on doing experiments with gel on scions to see if will develope on roots with out the graft and how long it will take. I have two grafts that are peaking out of the ground just now vs one or none in the past. My record is terrible.

I have a row of beatiful tree peopnies that the deer have attacked. Apparantly they went after two with such vigor that they actually pulled whole woody branches off. Now I have six woody branches that were preparing to leaf out. I put them in water as soon as I found them. Is there any way to root these branches and save them to create new plants?

Bkavadias

I am afraid that the stems/branches that have been broken off are a total loss. They will not root and this is the wrong time of the year to use the current growth as grafting scions.

Sorry to be so blunt but the good news is that I am sure that the plant left in the ground will recover even if you don't get much leafage this year.

Leon

This is one of the things that I disagree with peonyman about even though he is better than I am at grafting.

If you still have the stems try two or more things with them. If you have access to peony roots that could be used for grafting try it. Just because something does not work for one person it might for another if the conditions are right. Remember to graft the old wood to the new root.

Second as an experiment get some of the crystals that are sold for water retention that expand when water is added to them. Wally world has them as do florists, your neighborhood nursery might also. Get two or three containers, I would use glass jars. Put the crystals in the containers to one add just water, the second add water plus aspirin or pieces of willow twigs, and to the third add water and use a small(less than 1/4 teaspoon) amount of fertilizer. Add the stems after cutting off the leaves and new stems. Put the jars in a dark warm area and see what happens. My thought is that if the containers are kept in a dark warm area for about two months and then brought out to the light roots should form along the stems. Since I heard of this experiment on other hard to root plants I have been wanting to try it. However with my deer and rabbits I have no stems this spring to try anything using old wood.

I would like to report that many of the tps that were eaten are sending up really healthy new stems.