For a short time towards the end of May this tree peony graces the garden with its fabulous blooms. Not many plants provide such outstanding, large flowers in this harsh climate zone. Not really a tree but more of a woody shrub, which does does not die back to the ground in winter, unless as in this case, a plant suffers through a severely harsh winter. The reason I am so thrilled with it this year is because this shrub did suffer through an erratic series of temperature fluctuations and severely cold temperatures(-40C) two winters ago. It revived last summer but did not bloom. This year it is back in full glory and is worth celebrating.

Tree peonies come in different colour variations and unfortunately the name of this one was not on it when I purchased it. It is not always easy to find them here. It is about twelve years old and might well grow to be four to five feet tall and the same wide, now that it is recovered. The down side to tree peonies is that their floral beauty is short lived, just over a week. However, their leaves provide a great backdrop all summer and turn reddish in the fall.