My neighbor here in the Birmingham area has some kind of double pink peony that is absolutely beautiful!! It seems to get bigger and bigger every year. She has 3 clumps of these. Now...she says her mother planted these about 15 years ago. I know for a FACT they've been there 10, which is when we moved into the neighborhood. It looks like a Sarah Bernhart. But I'm not sure exactly what it is..... Thank you for the info on Auburns study. I will be sure to tell her. I'd like to know myself what kind of peony this is!!!!

My mother has 5 plants in Chino Hills that have been growing and blooming for over 10 years. I really think it depends on your micro-climate and how you plant them. When we planted my mother's peonies, we put their eyes barely below the surface. In fact, in the winter when the plants are dormant, you can still see the eyes peaking above the soil line. They also are placed in a site that gets light shade almost all day. I just planted 3 plants here in San Diego and am crossing my fingers. I've had success with hostas, so I'm hoping that the peonies will also succeed. We'll see... Will

I have rustled peonies from my childhood home's neighbor's house ( my grandma's best friend lived next door to us and when they died, I dug up a clump of her peonies before a McMansion was plopped down on them) and from an abandoned, falling down homestead that had some bright fuschia peonies growing among the weeds, and I would drive by there each day on the way to work. I wish I could ID them, just for my own curiousity. One day I put my shovel in the truck, with some plastic bags, and I stopped on the way home and dug them all up. I planted them at my last home, and left many there for the next person when we moved, but I did bring along a chunk of each to my new house last year. Also, some places on the way to work, I see clumps of daffodils growing along the road, not in anyone's backyard. I want to dig them, but then I think: What if other people drive along that route, see them every day, and get enjoyment out of that ? If I dig them, I will be depriving potential others from seeing them and getting a little bit of happiness. Is that crazy of me to think or nice of me ? I think I will leave them alone... for karma's sake.

Yes Pierre. It could be Rhapsody. Both Rhapsody and Bowl of Beauty look similar. If you look at the pictures of Bowl of Beauty in the internet, a good number of pictures show it has yellow tone of the middle petals too. It also depends on which picture posted on June 10. The one at 21:41 is from spliting of Bowl of Beauty I did a few years back. I put it in a pot, forgot about it, and recognize the flower after planting it back into the ground in the pot luck area. The picture from Jun 10, 14 at 21:50, peony at the dish area was purchased from the Caledonia Garden Centre. It was mislabeled, so it could be Rhapsody, or Bowl of Beauty, or another look alike. Attached are some pictures of Bowl of Beauty in a pot luck area a few days after June 10. Even the shades of the flowers from the same plant could be different. The colour of the flower in the first picture fades as it ages. This post was edited by Moxx on Sun, Jun 22, 14 at 11:20