A peony is a garden plant loved for its big, round, often ruffled flowers — dark red, white, or pink, sometimes so full they look too heavy for the stem. They open in late spring and early summer, and a single bloom can be as wide as a bowl. Some kinds grow from a soft stem that dies back in winter; some are woody, like a small shrub. Gardeners fuss over them because ants often walk on the sticky buds, and because a hard rain can knock the heavy heads into the mud. It is a plant of old gardens and of gifts, not a wild roadside weed. People treat it as a little grand: not as everyday as a daisy, not as thorny as a rose, though the flower can look as packed as a rose.