The Peony, the emblem flower of Luoyang, is lauded as “Queen of flowers, with ethereal colour and celestial fragrance”. Since the Tang Dynasty no Chinese city has been able to rival Luoyang in growing peonies boasting nearly 10 million peony trees with more than 700 species - all thanks to improvements in technology of peony cultivation.

The yaohuang (Yao’s yellow peony) and weizi (Wei’s purple peony) are the “King” & “Queen” of all peonies. It has a history of over 1,000 years in the cultivation of peony trees. Their colours range from red, pink, purple, lavender and white to green, yellow, maroon and even black.

Peonies bloom either as early, mid or late season and the bloom time is not long, so you have to be here about mid April so that you can see the end of the early season, the mid in bloom and the late just starting to come.

The one I wanted to see the most was the green peony, because this one is not exported outside the country. They are just too rare. The red and white striped ones were very novel but for me the true beauties are rarest. I love the pure colours and the petals that are like tissue paper. So fragile and yet so exquisite while they are in full bloom. As you can imagine I had a very hard time picking flowers for this review.

In China, the peony symbolizes wealth and nobleness due to its large flowers. The first Luoyang Peony Festival took place in April 1983 and since then it has become a major annual event featuring flowers, lanterns, exhibitions of traditional Chinese calligraphy, painting and photography. Peonies and Plum blossoms are the traditional floral symbols of China. In 1903, the Qing Dynasty declared the Peony as the national flower of China. I show you just one elusive green peony starting to open…it was like it was giving us a peek as the beauty within…

Written by  Donna Dawson.

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