Interested to hear if anyone has any luck growing peonies in the Dallas area. I'd like to giv ethem a try but don't want to waste my time if it's a lost cause.

My down-the-alley neighbor bought the house that had belonged to a lady who taught me a lot about gardening - and she had beautiful, pink, shaggy-headed peonies. And I know that those peonies survived at least one season after the present inhabitant bought the house...and that these peonies had gone almost two full years of little care while the house was in probate and before the man who lives there now bought it. I know this is a complicated answer, but these were the only peonies I have ever seen in Dallas - and the late Mrs. Z. was a great believer in organic gardening.
so - it can be done, but may be difficult to get peonies started in Dallas. Our dirt in my part of town (N . Dallas) is mostly black gumbo clay that eats compost.
drchelo

We have a peonie that we started from my wife's grandmother's bush that came out of Ohio. First full year with it and it is growing and green. No flowers this season, but we started from the rysome (sp?) and I don't think the flowers come on for a couple of years.