June is peony month, and the first peony that comes out in my garden is this luscious Japanese peoney. Unfortunately, I have lost the tag and so I have no idea what the cultivar name is.
Japanese peonies are actually a double form made up of five or more petals around a centre of stamens with non-pollen bearing anthers that look like a soft mound of small petals. They are sometimes called anemone-flowered because the stamens in the centre look like narrow petals.
Anyway, all that technical stuff aside (which I learned when I wrote an article on peonies for Canadian Gardening magazine), this is a sensational peony. Its bloom time is perfectly co-ordinated with 'Purple Sensation' alliums and I love the two together. What a great garden duet!
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