Much more than a one-trick peony

Described as having “flowers like inward-facing white clouds with purple spots and a centre the colour of the setting sun“, the tree peony sold as ‘Joseph Rock’ still commands attention and admiration.

FAR away, in parts of remote Bhutan, near the eastern end of the Himalayas in places I shall never see and can hardly find on a map, live the ancestors of the tree peony.

These have long been revered in Chinese paintings, textiles and porcelain apart altogether from their attractiveness and great beauty.