Peonies and martagons are dug in the fall of the year, from September to October, when plants are entering their dormant stage. Plants transplant better, develop strong feeder roots, and do well in shipping: this is why we only ship in the fall. We ship healthy, large divisions with a minimum of 3 to 5 eyes with a root system that will support healthy growth the following year. The roots we ship are divisions from larger plants that are dug and divided. Our plants will bloom in the second year after planting, many in the first year. It is recommended to cut the flower buds off the first year plants to allow the root system to develop stronger for year two. This is sometime hard, but will reward you with a better plant the following year.
Martagon lilies usually have a sulking period the first year, after planting the bulbs. They will emerge in the spring, have a short growth period, and then growth is stopped, plants die back early. This behavior of sulking happens because the martagon bulb needs to develop a strong root system to support proper growth. The second year after planting, your martagon, will grow and flower normally.
In 2021 we will not be shipping Peonies or Martagon lilies to the USA. United Sates customs drastically extended processing times for parcels, so unfortunately we can not guarantee quality of roots, due to the fact our peony roots sometime take weeks to arrive to our customers.
We will consider shipping to the USA in the future, and will monitor how parcels are processed by customs. We speculate that Covid-19 and the reduced work force has led to longer processing times.