I'm in Illinois, less than an hour north of the Kentucky border. Technically we're zone 6b, but most years it's more like gardening in Tennessee.

The previous owners are friends of ours -- I can ask if the peonies ever bloomed for them. If they've been there for decades and soil has built up over the crown, would that have the same effect as planting them too deep, I wonder? There wasn't a single bud on either of them.