Paeonia suffruticosa RE: Peonies

At our property in Sunnyvale on the UC Zone 17/15 border I've grown several tree peony cultivars for about 12 years. I ordered mine from Reath's nursery in michigan. These are various forms of Paeonia suffruticosa and hybrids with of this with P. lutea, I believe. I lost one plant presumably due to lack of summer water. They usually bloom beautifully. The soil is thick black adobe. They're all in an location south east of the house, sheltered from the wind but open to the night sky. Our particular location near the so-called Calabazas creek is in a bit of a frost pocket; hence I think it gets a bit more winter chill than most san francisco bay area gardens. I think a rule of thumb could be if you've been getting white frosts in this month precedeing the winter solstice, then your tree peonies will be happily chilled. They seem to not be picky about soil.
 
 I believe I've once seen herbaceous peonies once here in San Jose. I don't know how the gardener did it. Generally tree peonies will do O.K., but the hebaceous ones just croak.
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-medit-plants@ucdavis.edu [mailto:owner-medit-plants@ucdavis.edu]On Behalf Of William A. Grant
Sent: Sunday, December 10, 2000 4:47 PM
To: medit-plants@ucdavis.edu
Subject: Peonies

I could write a book about my attempts to grow peonies on coastal California. The native one, yes. But all the other scrumptuous, delicious, gorgeous ones - forget it!
Unless you are ready to try longer than I did. I even went to Oregon to a farm that had one they said would grow here. It did come up, and it did blossom - not very big. And then died.
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