PEONIES combine an exotic air and a blossoming feeling of eastern otherworldliness with a welcome resilience, a frost hardiness and a long life to bring us plants that are always tempting and that we can depend on for years of enjoyment.
All have large – sometimes very large – bowl-shaped flowers with a forest of golden stamens in the centre, although this sunny centre is sometimes transformed into a mass of extra petals. There are two main kinds.
Hardy perennial peonies
The majority of peonies are hardy perennial plants. They emerge in spring, flowering generously with single or double flowers, or various intermediates, in early summer. The flowers come in red toare also good for cutting. They die back to the ground later in the year, and the slowly expanding crowns will survive our coldest winters.
