perfect peonies

Most peonies available in nurseries produce big double flowers.  They are beautiful, they smell like heaven, but their heavy blooms are weighed down by the slightest shower and the plants need to be staked to keep them from hitting the dirt.  Plus, there is no way bees can penetrate those petals to find any pollen.

So I look for single varieties, which are much rarer, although I don't understand why.  There is just  one row of petals, with a yellow centre of stamens full of pollen that bees can find easily.  These varieties do not need to be staked - the stems are strong enough to hold the flowers through all kinds of weather.  The only down side is that there is no fragrance.

Dancing Butterfly  is the first single variety planted in my garden

A pink single struggles to break free of the surrounding buds

The most beautiful semi double - Coral Beauty
- the picture doesn't do it justice.

Tree peonies are another good choice for those who don't want to stake their plants.  Over the winter, their woody structure stays intact like a shrub, unlike other herbaceous varieties, which die down to the ground.
Unfortunately, these plants are more temperamental.
Some years their flowers are as big as dinner plates.  Other years, like this one, the flowers are smaller.   And last year, it didn't bloom at all.  They are also prone to dying for no apparent reason.  It's a challenge.
The best of both worlds is probably the Itoh peony, a cross between the tree and the herbaceous peony.  However, the Itoh is so expensive, that I have not had the courage to try them in my garden.