Peonies are herbaceous perennials arising from thickened tuberous roots. Hidden underground during winter, they are quite spectacular when they emerge in spring. Purple leaves push through the soil, rapidly unfurling and turning green.
In early summer the flower buds start to swell. They reach the size of a golf ball before emerging like a hybrid of water lily and rose. The traditional tints of garden peonies include white, pink, rose and red.
The name ‘peony’ comes from ‘Paeon’, the god of healing, and the roots, flowers and seeds were used to treat epilepsy and all kinds of convulsions and nervous afflictions. One wonders how many patients survived because, in fact, peonies are extremely poisonous.
I captured the bud of a garden peony in our garden yesterday.