Although there are many cultivated varieties of peony, we deal mainly with the pure species. These have single flowers, mainly red or pink, perhaps with white varieties, but there are also fabulous ones with pale yellow flowers. They are all herbaceous, and it is a delight to see the dark red noses of the new stems pushing through the ground in late winter, two or three where there was one the previous year, and soon a great clump of them.

Paeonia cambessedesii is a gorgeous plant, the young growth suffused all over with red or purple tints. The dark green leaves have purple veins and are flushed red-purple below. Beautiful, wavy-margined, pink, bowl-shaped flowers are produced in spring. Although it comes from Majorca, it is frost-hardy.