The former is the one most people think of when they visualize peonies in the old-fashioned cottage garden or perennial border. It owes its existence to crosses made primarily from Paeonia lactiflora, which is native to Siberia, Manchuria, and Japan, and P. officinalis, which originated in southern Europe. Peonies, with their heavy scent and huge blooms, make excellent cut flowers. Prized by the Chinese and Japanese for centuries, and often depicted in their art, the flowers of the tree peony are more open, with large yellow anthers in the center, and have a crepelike texture to their petals that adds a ruffled delicacy not found in their herbaceous cousins. And while garden peonies need full sun for best bloom, the tree varieties actually prefer dappled shade and make terrific understory plantings.
Tree peonies are also quite slow-growing, often taking several years to come into bloom.
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