Growing Itoh Peonies from Home Depot - Will they bloom in their first year?

As much as I try to emulate southern gardens up here in New York, there's one northern plant that grows beautifully up here, much to the envy of southern gardeners - peonies. Peonies bloom for just a few weeks out of the year and come in 2 different growth habits, tree peonies & herbaceous. 

But I'm a rule breaker, so when I saw these Itoh Penoy roots at Home Depot I had to get them. You see, Itoh peonies - also known as intersectional peonies, are a hybrid of the tree and herbaceous species. Tree peonies don't die back in the winter and grow to a much larger size. Herbaceous peonies die to the ground and are a great choice for smaller gardens, but don't have the flower power that tree peonies have because they only bloom on the top of stalks. These hybrid peonies take the best of both parents - allegedly giving a month of plentiful flowers on a relatively tiny shrub. It should be fun! 

Mid March 

Here's what the roots look like right out of the packaging. I'm pretty excited to see multiple shoots already starting to grow out. I've been told not to expect these to bloom in the first few years, so I'm keeping my expectations low and hoping for a nice surprise in a few weeks! 

Under my Crape Myrtle, I planted a Bartzella Peony

Next to the Air Conditioner unit, I planted a Cora Louise Peony and a Hawaii Coral Peony (Hawaii Coral is  herbaceous, not intersectional)

Spring Update!

Here we are in the first week of June! The Bartzella Peony was the only one to bloom. It's just a single flower, but it was worth the wait!

June 3

June 5

 The other two peonies had very weak growth. We'll see if 2024 is their year!