last year's peonies

black dragon, first year, just one bloom

it starts off like this, then the edges of the petals darken

Last year the tree peonies took my breath away, providing three massive blooms on the black dragon and six on the yachiyotsubaki (pink). Both sets of flowers lasted almost a month, through heavy rain and gusting wind. Planting them on the east side of the garden stops the cold chills of morning damaging the plants and bruising the flowers, in bud or bloom. The width of the garden and the height of the fences stops most winds, and the hard blowing southwesterly prevalent in London doesn't get much purchase with the cabin and compost breaking the flow. It doesn't protect the back doors, still they are about two feet above the tree peonies.
Perhaps the hard winter made the tree peonies happy. The herbaceous bunch gave a mixed result in terms of blooms. I think that was due to mulching rather than weather.

Common wisdom is that peonies don't like being moved. I don't know why - I find they move very successfully, in addition every time I move one of the herbaceous peonies I find I've left some of the root  in the ground, so I get extras. I am more cautious when I move tree peonies, and move them with a lot of soil, but they have been happy and kept blooming too.

the pink one - eternal camellias, or Yachiyo Tsubaki