Her earliest herbaceous peony forms a compact mound of deeply cut leaves that become smothered in late April with single magenta-red blooms. It’s called Little Red Gem, which just about sums it up.

Herbaceous peonies, also called Chinese peonies, are the common garden peonies.Most of them are cultivars of the species Paeonia lactiflora.They are clump-forming perennials with large flowers in ...

Of the 40 or so species, the popular herbaceous Paeonia lactiflora, the Chinese peony, was bred to produce huge double blooms, while Japanese hybrids were bred to produce simple flowers.