Bartzella Itoh Peony - should I overwinter inside?

I have had a nasty experience trying to grow this bulb. It came up last year and quickly got chomped off by rabbits or some such. This year when it started to emerge, I put a chicken wire cage around it and when it got a bit bigger, removed the cage. It was promptly chomped off again. Then it tried to rise up again but instead, the stem rotted and disappeared.

So I dug up what looks like it would have been a "pup" because it didn't look like the original and was indeed, shiny and new. I put it in a pot with wet soil, put it in the refrigerator for a month and brought it out to the light again.

It is starting to send up green.

I'm quite determined to get this plant to flourish because it cost me $80 for the one bulb plus I really like peonies and yellow is my favourite colour.

I don't want to risk putting it in the garden until it is more mature so is it possible to overwinter it by treating it like an indoor plant and then putting it out next spring?

 

I've never heard of it, looks like a nice plant, but yours seems to have got out of step with the seasons.
Seems its halfway between a tree peony and a herbaceous one.

If its starting into growth now I dont think you have much option about wintering under cover, but not sure how you get it back into sync with nature.

 

Hi

Itoh is a cross between a tree peony and a herbaceous peony, so it’s not a bulb.

may I ask why you put in the fridge as you are playing with its time clock ie what time of year it is September all my peonies tree and herbaceous are still in leaf and have stopped growing.

have you a greenhouse and keep frost free ? Over the winter and early spring.

they are expensive to buyin the UK also

Spruce

 

@Spruce I did the fridge thing because I just wanted to know if it would survive and try to grow again. I looked into my notes and see that actually it has been trying to grow for 4 years and continuously getting brutalized. I'm prepared to "raise it" insidd and plant it out in the spring.

I've just spent lot of time looking hopefully at dirt for a bit of green and then have my hopes dashed shortly after it emerges that I figured I'd find out if it was worth another try or just throw in the towel!

If it survives, maybe being more mature, it will flower before I'm dead!

 

Sorry, I didn't answer your question. I have a greenhouse however our temps go sub zero most of the winter and heating a greenhouse would be too expensive. I do have cellar areas that can mimic cool nights and have lots of grow lights that I can set the timers to fake natural solar cycles. I'm thinking of all sorts of silly ways to get this plant to survive. Desperation is stifling my grey cells!

 

Just my thinking but if you can keep it in the cellar with around a 12 day time and fairly cool.
Just wondering if it will just go semi dormant rather than trying to grow so it at least gets the idea that it's winter.

 

I think I'll give that a go @pete. At this point I have nothing to lose. The "bulb" pup that I discovered was a weird shape and I wish I'd taken a picture of it. Let's hope this is what I think it is and I don't go to great lengths to get a noxious weed or something!

 

Us gardeners throw in the trowel not the towel lol

 

Update. I sat myself down and decided to just go for planting it in in a week or so. It is still very mild here with daytimes in the mid 70's F so I'll wait until the conditions are not so warm. Then I'll make a chicken wire fortress around it and count on running out in the spring with hopeful anticipation.

Maybe I'll make little stuffed rabbits and stick voodoo pins in them in the late winter/early spring to increase my odds of success!