Anyone?

Not certain what you are asking. Plants do what they want to do. If the top picture is from last year and the bottom was this years all that happened was the root grew.

I believe the question is why a plant with such a large root would have such a minimal amount of foliar growth. I imagine the answer to that would have a lot to do with soil and light conditions. Soil low in nitrogen, but high in phosphorus would be conducive to root growth at the expense of foliar growth, but this would be an extreme disparity. More than likely the plant is just being fickle. It could be that the plant attempted to produce more foliage, but the eyes were damaged or the emerging leaves died due to damp etc. I usually don't bother with plants that do not thrive in multiple consecutive years. I just conclude that I don't have the conditions that the particular variety likes and move on. Some plants just decide they are not happy in a particular place. Perhaps plant another cultivar and see how that does.

Cheers,

Werner

I’ve read and seen that you should break off pieces of a peony root to stimulate the plant to grow ...something you might want to try since you have so much root. Somewhere there’s even a video of Martha Stewart aggressively attacking her peony roots as she’s transplanting them.

Always remember with peonies, the first year they sleep, second year they creep (root grow), and third year they leap. It looks like great root growth. Be patient. Every time you dig it up, you interrupt its cycle. It must be in one sport 3 years to major growth and blooms.