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Chinese peony

Paeonia lactiflora

Also called White Peony, Common Garden Peony, Garden Peony, Peony, Chinese Peony, Japanese Peony

Chinese peony
Photo: Ulf Eliasson, CC BY-SA 3.0

Chinese peony is a herbaceous perennial with large, fragrant, bowl-shaped flowers in late spring, widely grown in gardens. It needs a cold winter rest and full sun to bloom well, and it is long-lived once established.

Family
Paeoniaceae (Peony family)
Grows as
Perennial
Light
Full sun, Part shade
Water
Water deeply during dry spells, keeping the soil moist but never waterlogged.
Soil
Fertile, well-drained loam rich in organic matter, slightly acidic to neutral.
Temperature
Hardy to about -30 °C; needs winter chill, grows best where winters are cold.
How easy
Easy
Native range
SE. Siberia to N. & E. China
Climate
temperate

About

Paeonia lactiflora (Chinese peony, Chinese herbaceous peony, or common garden peony) is a species of herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the family Paeoniaceae, native to central and eastern Asia from eastern Tibet across northern China to eastern Siberia.

Safety

The leaves of many cultivars are high in oleanolic and ursolic acid.

Other Paeonia plants

Anomalous Peony · California peony · Paeonia cambessedesii · Paeonia corsica · Paeonia daurica subsp. mlokosewitschii · Tree Peony · Dian mu dan · Himalayan Peony · Paeonia ludlowii · Peony · Chinese Peony · Common peony

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Paeonia lactiflora by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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