Very popular cut flowers, peonies (Paeonia) produce flowers in almost every colour known, except blue, and come back to delight you year after year. It’s even been said that a peony plant can last for a century. While the stunning and often fragrant peony flowers, which open in late spring or early summer, are the main attraction, the plant itself makes an attractive hedge or bush, even when the flowering is done. The glossy green foliage of Paeonia lasts all summer long, finally changing to a purplish or gold colour in autumn. Peonies like deep, fertile and moist soil with good drainage, and your peony bare roots should be planted in sunny locations where they are sheltered from the wind. Good companion plants for Paeonia are irises.