Home on Tree Peony Hill

I’ve been madly in love with tree peonies since the first one I saw, which had an enormous ruffle of translucent petals the color of pale-raspberry sherbet and looked for all the world like a layered crinoline. At the very center was a mass of golden stamens surrounded by rich crimson splashes that flamed outward. The miracle was that there wasn’t just one of these magnificent, satiny blooms but more than a dozen weighing down the branches of a rather elegant-looking shrub. ~ Janet Davis