Matt wrote: "My second advice ( or third!) request is a Peony issue - Paeonia californica." The advice which has been posted so far is good, but let me add one more very important point, important to those of us in the summer-wet east. As soon as the foliage dies down naturally, keep the plant dry until late fall. That at any rate is what I did with the seedling I got from from John Lonsdale) last year. This plant spent the winter in a cold frame - not so much for cold protection as to enable me to regulate the water. In this its second season here it's doing well. Jim McKenney Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where the first lightning bugs of the year are flashing tonight.