Peony help, pictures attached.

[lpalta]

My daughter-in-law gave me a Chinese Peony (Paeonia lactiflora 'Little Medicine Man') bush from Walmart's in 2005. I have two more bushes my neighbor gave me, name unknown. My favorite bush though (name also unknown), I bought from a stand . It grows very tall and does not need staking. It has a root more like that of a rose bush. The Chinese Peony bush has beautiful dark pink pedals with a bright yellow center and is every bit as delicate as a poppy. I broke open a couple of pods. They both had tiny black specks inside. A few weeks back I opened one on the plant I purchased from the stand. The pod had a wet ivory colored pea shaped seed. I read they are supposed to be black so I probably opened it too early. Last week I tried again as the pods on this bush are just starting to split open. The seeds are still very wet, but dark brow in color, not yet black. Today I opened three more pods--the seed in one is ivory in color; the other two pods were seedless? When do I plant, do they have to be black. I will be running out of pods if I keeping checking them and they are not black. I am in Zone 5, Ogden, NY--just outside Rochester. I have little luck starting seeds directly in our soil, but am pretty good at winter sowing. I will try both methods. Would love any advice you could give me.

[matkin]

Coming from WalMart, maybe the seeds are sterile so you can't plant them. All of the agricultural seed companies are making the corn and soybeans so that saved seed from the harvest will not produce. The big ag companies don't like the idea of third world countries being able to plant some of their harvested seed.

[herasday]

Sometimes they will split open on their own, sometimes they won't. I assume that ideally the seeds should be black or dark brown and quite hard, but not necessarily dry. But the real bad news is actually that you can plant a viable peony seed and wait five or ten years for it decide to sprout. LOL. If it ever does. I pretty much gave up waiting on tree peony seeds I had planted just as directed, in a pot sunk in the ground to keep track of where they were. I dug the pot up, dumped it out, couldn't find the seed or anything that looked like a seed anymore, and went on with life. A couple years later...peony sprout where I dumped the pot out. I had waited three years before dumping

I don't fuss with them anymore. If I see what looks like a ripe seed, I'll poke it in the ground near the parent plant and forget it. I've got a tree peony seedling from either a seed I poked in the ground or one that just dropped there from the plant.

Worse news yet. It can take years for a peony to reach flowering stage from a seed, even after it sprouted successfully. It might be the same as the parent plant it came from, in which case you have wasted five or ten years when you could have divided the root and got several plants. Or it could be something entirely different, but not attractive (can't believe I just said that a peony might turn out not attractive.) But raising peony from seed is a slow process. Which makes one appreciate the work that has gone in to developing different shades and patterns and petal arrangements.

Tree peony seeds are said to tend to sprout faster, more reliably and mature to flowering faster than herbaceous peonies.

The good news is that a peony plant, once it gets going, is likely to outlive you by a hundred years without ever having any care again. .

[Bird Lover]

Lucy, I don't have a clue with that one! I do have quite a few Peonies, and I've been able to divide & transplant some with no problems. Usually I cut off the dead blooms just to keep it neat looking, so I've never seen any seed pods. I tend to agree with Herasday, that germination to bloom would take far too long, if you're lucky enough to get them t germinate. The fun thing is, you have nothing to lose for trying. Even the "not quite ripe" seeds may as well get planted.
Hey, ya never know, right?

[lpalta]

One particular peony has more of a wood root. It doesn't come up with those little red tips each spring that grow into long shoots, like my Chinese Peony and other bushes do. So, I love your advice. I will stick seeds in the ground next to the parent plant and let nature--and time--do their thing.