Seeing peonies in April is seeing a pageant: the flower heads are so large they bend the branches, layer after layer of petals turning outward, color thick as satin; when the wind passes, the whole flowering shrub sways, swaying the heart heavier too.

The Grandeur That Blooms at Grain Rain

The peony blooms around Grain Rain, the last stretch of spring’s bustle: the flowers are huge and layered, one blossom as wide as a palm, colors from plain white to deep purple, weighing the branches downward.

In a whole garden of flowers it is always the first to be seen. “King of flowers” does not necessarily mean the most beautiful, but the unignorable—it is hard to take your eyes off it.

— Liu Yuxi, Tang Dynasty, “Appreciating the Peony” —

Only the peony is truly the beauty of the nation—

when it blooms, the whole capital is astir.

It Is a Shrub, Not a Herb

Peony and herbaceous peony are the two flowers most often confused. The easiest way to separate them is the stem: the tree peony is a small shrub, its woody stems surviving winter and growing taller year by year; the herbaceous peony is a herb, its above-ground parts dying back in winter and regrowing from the root each spring.

The flowering times also differ by a stretch: the tree peony opens a little earlier, the herbaceous peony follows. Old practice often plants them together—first see the tree peony, then wait for the herbaceous peony, and the garden’s flower calendar runs for a whole month.

Plant Peonies at the Autumn Equinox

The peony likes dryness and fears damp; above all it hates standing water: plant it on raised beds, in well-drained sandy soil, better a little dry. The season for planting is around the Autumn Equinox, when the roots are still growing and can anchor before winter.

Its temperament matches its bloom: it wants light, nourishment, and air, and asks only that you not water it fussily. A garden proverb says the peony likes cold over heat, dryness over wet—set up its native conditions and it opens on its own.

• How to know it: Deciduous small shrub; woody branches; twice ternate compound leaves; large flowers solitary at branch tips, white, pink, red, purple, etc., blooming April to May.
• Season: Blooms around Grain Rain, each flower lasting about a week; the best planting window is around the Autumn Equinox.
• Caution: Avoid standing water; plant on raised beds for drainage; it tolerates cold but not heat and wet—cultivation in the south is difficult.

Luoyang and Heze

Luoyang’s peonies are the most famous—”peonies under heaven are best in Luoyang” has been said for a thousand years; Shandong’s Heze has become the modern largest cultivation and nursery region, one flower driving a local industry.

People hold flower fairs for it, paint it, write poems about it, staking a whole city’s spring on it. That a single flower makes people wait with such ceremony is rare under heaven.

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Keywords: peony · Grain Rain · Luoyang · ornamental tree