Chinese versus Japanese plants. The Japanese cvs have been propagated almost exclusively (at least commercially) by grafting a simple, but iffy technique involving the scion of a tree peony grafted to an herbaceous root under-stock as a temporary nurse root. Commercial cvs are those that tend to grat easily and later produce their own roots easily. Some TP are far more difficult to graft and much slower to produce their own roots independently. The Chinese cvs have been developed for propagation by a different methods, but primarily by divisions. Until the last 2 or 4 years I never saw a grafted Chinese plants. Stock plants are gown in a way to encourage shoot growth and later division. This has been developed over a very long time. These plants in my opinion are not handled well for export. They might do fin for resale in China or locally, but exported plants seem to be dug long before they get to the target buyer, roots and top growth severely stressed. As Jim says they need TLC and a mild climate. But don't give up yet and try some of the rockii selections coming from NW China. Much better garden potential. The "so-called winter blooming peonies' are real. They are primarily cvs developed in southern parts of Japan and S.E. China where they can bloom as early as February. In Japan gardeners may go go to extremes to protect the fragile bloom by placing paper umbrellas over the entire bush or a straw enclosure on 3 sides. Then again in both Japan and more so, in China, the TP is held in extremely high regard above most other flowers. Even in the US TP remain poorly represented in most gardens. Jim W. -- Dr. James W. Waddick 8871 NW Brostrom Rd. Kansas City Missouri 64152-2711 USA Ph. 816-746-1949 E-fax 419-781-8594 Zone 5 Record low -23F Summer 100F +