The brief, beloved bloom of the ‘King of Flowers’

At Salisbury Garden Center, potted peonies are beginning their brief but anticipated spring performance — heavy blossoms unfolding in shades of soft pink, crimson, magenta and white. Soon, the flowers will fill the air with fragrance as Northwest Corner gardeners admire the blooms many wait all year to see.

“We’re all a sucker for a peony plant,” Garden Center staff member Irene Cmuchowski said with a laugh, describing the enduring appeal of the flower’s oversized blooms, lush texture and unmistakable scent.

Despite changing gardening trends, peonies remain a longtime favorite in the region,

she said, not only for their beauty but for the emotional connection they often carry.

“People have them for decades, handed down from their parents and grandparents,” Cmuchowski said. In a sense, they become living heirlooms, she noted.

Under optimal conditions, peonies bloom for only about three weeks, leaving the delicate flowers vulnerable to torrential downpours, extreme heat or drought.

The Garden Center carries both traditional herbaceous peonies and woody peonies, also known as Chinese tree peonies, in colors ranging from delicate pinks and whites to deep reds and vivid magentas.

For centuries, Chinese tree peonies have occupied a celebrated place in Chinese culture, art and garden design. Often depicted in paintings, silk embroidery and poetry, the flowers became symbols of prosperity, beauty, nobility and honor. Their lavish blossoms — sometimes reaching nearly dinner-plate size — earned them the title “King of Flowers.”

Unlike herbaceous peonies, which die back to the ground each winter, tree peonies are woody shrubs that can live for generations, producing increasingly spectacular blooms as they mature.

Dan Furman of Cricket Hill Garden in Thomaston, Connecticut, a 7-acre specialty plant nursery known for its rare and unusual peonies, said tree peonies have long stood at the center of classical Chinese spring gardens.

“There are five flowering plants of the classical Chinese garden,” Furman explained. “Plum blossom in winter, tree peonies in spring, lotus in summer and chrysanthemum in the autumn. Of these, tree peonies certainly have the most impressive flowers.”

For Furman, the fascination with Chinese tree peonies runs much deeper than horticulture alone.

His parents, Kasha and David, established Cricket Hill Garden in 1989 and earned a reputation as being the most respected growers of Chinese tree peonies in the country.

“What first drew my family to Chinese tree peonies was their centuries-long cultivation

history,” Furman said. “There is a lot of culture there beyond just the horticultural.”

“Tree peony is a misnomer,” he added. “A better name would be woody peonies.”

The plants are deciduous shrubs that typically grow about 3 feet tall and wide, returning each year from permanent woody stems rather than dying back to the ground.

At Cricket Hill, enthusiasts travel from across the country seeking unusual and historic varieties prized for enormous blooms, nuanced fragrance and painterly colors.

Yet despite their reputation for elegance and rarity, peonies remain deeply personal flowers for many Northwest Corner gardeners — reminders of old homesteads, family gardens and spring traditions passed down through generations.

Their bloom may be fleeting, Cmuchowski noted, but their emotional hold endures.

“People wait all year for them.”