Peonies should be planted in mid to late October when the soil cools. Go for it.

I have several P. Jaconicas. they still are planted in the fall, gives them time to get settled in before spring growth. It's a pretty little peony, hope you like it as well!

Thanks. And lizbest, are your Japanese peonies planted in full sun or shade? Since their hardiness zone is indicated 5-8, and my zone is 7, I was wondering if I can plant them in full sun

Heruga Since they are fairly expensive, $40+ if you can find them, they are best to be planted in dappled shade as your op stated. No full sun except from a slant. Be certain that if they form seed pods to leave the pods until they open. The inside can be several colors from orange red to a polished blue gray.

Maifleur is 100% correct, they need shade! They can handle dry(er, not arid) shade better than most shade plants, I've mine under pines, they probably only get 2 hours of direct sunlight a day.

Alright well I just bought one for 28$! Of course shipping fee was expensive too but I'll see how this peony works out for me. Thanks!

I've purchased a couple at around $30, even as low as $15, but they've been tiny seedlings. If they are seedlings and still have green top growth make sure you water them occasionally until the tops start to die, then probably not at all until spring. Treat them like you would a fernleaf after they start to die back.

The Japanese peony was just delivered to my house and I just planted it but it was dormant. Is that normal? Most other peonies I see are not dormant yet, it just has unsightly brown on them. Now I'm worried I've been scammed and they sold me a piece of crap. Inside the pot was just a tiny little piece of root which was 10x smaller than the pot. And even if it was dormant, are they even supposed to be cutting off the leaves?

Yes, the species woodland peonies (there are a few!) go dormant early like the fernleafs. And yes, cutting the foliage back after it's dormant is the healthiest thing for all peonies--you should even remove the leaves from tree peonies if there is any sign or chance of mildew or any issue that can be overwintered to haunt your plants in the spring.

I was trying to remember where I got my P. Japonicas, think it was actually 2 places because they were out at the first site when I wanted to order more, something like Homestead Farms and maybe Keeping it Green? Both times they came in 4" pots and the roots were small but both times they made it through just fine. The roots should be a healthy light tan color and be plump (or just not withered, how plump can a small root be, right?). Make sure you water it in well to eliminate the possibility of air pockets and mulch it well if you're in a dry spell. I use pine straw as that's what's on hand from the local trees, seems to work just fine. Move the mulch away from where the eyes as they come up in spring. Of course, if you're in a humid area you might not need mulch at all, go by what works for your other peonies.

Your plant is probably a seedling rather than a division. Absolutely nothing wrong with that! It's really rare to see any of the species woodland peonies offered as a larger division although I seem to remember seeing someone post a pic of a root they got this fall from either Brook's or Swensons? Remember kicking myself for missing it, especially since they said it was only around $40. The woodland peonies are a smaller plant than most of the herbaceous and have a smaller root ball when mature. You'll be surprised how quickly that tiny root will produce stems with flowers! I have 1 that came in a 4" pot that bloomed 1st year and every year since, just wish it'd make more stems faster! The others produced a flower 2nd spring.

I looked after you posted your price. You probably purchased from Plant Delights. I would like to suggest that you and everyone that has an interest in peonies do some online reading/videos this winter to prevent worrying bout things like your comment concerning it being dormant. Most peonies when shipped are shipped dormant in the fall. P. japonica here goes dormant in July. Best thing about Plant Delights is that most years they will send an email toward the end of the year offering a discount either on plants or their gift certificates. Probably not going to the APS meeting next year in North Carolina but hope for those that do go they talk Barry into opening for a buying tour.

Yea I actually looked it up online right after posting this and it said these peonies should get cut off after the leaves start looking bad. And yes you're right I purchased one from plant delights. But didn't know they go dormant that early on in the season! Thats a bummer. Well anyway I made an hour drive today and actually went to a peony farm and bought 2 large woodland peonies:) They had a couple of new shoots growing on them though. Would those also have to go completely underground? Or should the shoots stick out of the soil? The owner of the farm said it should go under

It's very unusual for peonies to have new growth this late in the season. Are they shoots or eyes?

Well they are sharp and kinda reddish. This is not mine but it looks like this

I think P. Japonica actually prefers a bit damper shade than I provide for it, my spot under pine trees probably isn't optimal. They still shouldn't sit in water, don't make the spot boggy, but the foliage would probably last a lot longer with more moisture. I've seen others post that theirs actually has nice early fall foliage and the seed pods are the prettiest of all the peonies IMO!

Ok well do you know if those are shoots or eyes? And do they have to be buried underground? Or can they stick out of the ground?

What ever that peony is it is not P. japonica. One think about P. japonica is that it grows it's eyes underground and send up a stalk. Most of the ones I have had only send up one or maybe two stalks when the plant is really healthy.

Those were eyes, now they're shoots! Was it like this when you brought it home? Sometimes when a new peony comes from a colder zone into a warmer zone it'll start growing, sometimes even put up a leaf or 2 before cold weather knocks them out. That's a lot of growth for this time of year, think I'd contact the seller in case it doesn't come back up in the spring. If it was like that when you purchased it and they said that the growth should be buried I'd follow their advice, would just mound sand or fine soil over it rather than replanting.

If I saw that kind of growth on my P. Japonica in the spring I'd be incredibly excited, I'm lucky to get 4-5 stems and mine's been in the ground for 3 years....

Is that one from Peony's Envy? One of the 3-5 eye large roots that they advertise?

The picture looks like either a tree peony or an intersectional and not P. japonica. These are buds that are rapidly turning into shoots. If it is a tree peony, looks like it because of the bark on the stem the plant needs to be dug and this part of the roots either discarded or planted in another spot as the buds appear to be herbaceous rootstock indicating the tp was planted shallow not allowing root growth from the stem.

Liizbest I agree with the wonderful pod color. Although most bloom in the spring I had one for a number of years until a neighbor became spray happy that did not emerge until late June. Flowered in July and kept foliage until frost. None of the rest that I have had over the years have grown like that.

No I said that its not my peony, I just found a random picture online that looked like the shoots my paeonia Japonica was growing. And yes its peoniesenvy!! How do you know!? God how do all of you know where I'm getting all my peonies from... anyway so just putting soil over it is fine? I think I planted it too shallow because those shoots are somewhat visible from the ground. But in the planting directions it said the higher the hardiness zone you're in, the shallower you plant. And the hardiness for Paeonia Japonica is 3-7 so I thought I could plant it pretty shallow.

I can not speak for anyone except for myself but having been a collector since 1993 except for some of the new companies I am aware of what nurseries, growers, etc. have available. Also which growers have their own private collection of plants. Some states have lists of plant growers listed either on their agriculture or secretary of states webpages. I looked at Dave's Garden to see which grower was selling P. japonica. Plant Delights was the only one. When I looked to see the price I saw the $20. Does not take a great stretch to realize that they were probably but not necessarily where you purchased your plant.

And I saw the different sizes available from Peony's Envy and knew it was in NJ, no great stretch! The woodland peonies are rare enough that only a few places carry them. I'd never seen one offered as big as PE advertised so it stuck in my head...Yes, you can cover those growing tips with soil, just don't tamp it down hard so they don't break off. You're just providing a bit of protection and moisture so hopefully they'll make it through to spring. And sorry, I see now that you stated that wasn't your peony, I was just too busy staring at what I assumed was your P. Japonica thinking "I NEED THAT"!!!