I grow peonies of all kinds, but all with the short e, emphasis on the first syllable, probably the same as you. I have heard a few people call them pee-OH-knees. Cambridge dictionary online gives an audio at http://dictionary.cambridge.org/pronunciation/british/peony.

I'm with you! PEE-uh-neez. My husband is from South America and he's not allowed to say shed or beach, but he can say peonies if he can remember what they are! We are in Nebraska and the peonies are later than usual this year. It's been cold. The irises have put on quite the display, though, with the cool temps and rains.

Heidi

(Laughing because it took a while to figure out what was going on here) Tell him to cut you some peonies behind the shed on the beach! Thanks, I have been saying "pee-uh-nee'" for 62 years and will not change. Agardenstaate, thank you for the audio by the way. I can hardly wait, most shoots have buds. If I remember in time I usually disbud all but the largest. Hope I can remember to post pictures.

Oh, more power to you, Sue, for being able to disbud. I don't think I could bring myself to do that. At what point do you remove the smaller buds?

I used to grow African violets and if you wanted lots of blooms you disbudded and kept the plant disbudded for a while. I don't always get to my pee-uh-nees in time. Usually it's when I mow around them but for some reason took extra time yesterday. As soon as you can see that it's a smaller bud on the side of the main (terminal?) bud just pinch it off. Yeah, it hurts but the results are larger blooms. Worth it for me. My house gets crowded with flowers when they bloom.

I see you folks in the East raving about this flower, and have no clue what it even looks like, but here in Southern California I call it pee uh nees. It just seems logical to me. I'll eat my citrus and figs while you enjoy your peonies!!

Lizbest1, you rock! I spent a morning at Fieldstone Gardens (Google them some time, their site is good) and wanted to buy some heucheras, you know, "who-share-uhs". Well, every time I said that the sales kid kept saying "hyoo-ker-uhs". It took me a few days to get what he was talking about because I didn't want hyookeruhs. But the plants were close to what I wanted so they followed me home. When I moved they followed me here.

Besides, I am a bit sensitive to being corrected after a former 25 year marriage.

Suzi, if you just once smelled a "Festiva Maxima" you would think you'd have died and gone to heaven. But figs are one tree/plant I've always wanted to grow.

Well, not sure how I could wangle a sniff of Festiva Maxima. It's just to hot and dry here with maybe one night of freeze every other year. But I'd love to get the chance some day!
Many GW gardeners do grow figs in the NE. They choose varieties that are cold hardy. One such fig is Hardy Chicago. It has a short fruiting season, so it's ideal. Figs do not like snow, so most Figgers in the North East grow figs in pots and bring them inside in the winter when they are dormant. In spring, they bring them outside again in full sun. They are very pretty trees and can be pruned to any size.

I wish I had someplace to bring them inside. No garage, etc. I've seen folks dig a trench and bend the tree down into them for the winter, or that's what I remember.

Just remembered what I thought last night: choose the best smelling rose you can think of and multiply it by ten and that's what a F.M. smells like!

Sue, I assume you're talking about a fig tree. There are some pretty cold-hardy varieties available; in addition to Hardy Chicago, there's Brown Turkey. The unnamed variety in my zone 7 yard (grown from a cutting from a friend's grandfather's tree that came across the ocean with him) did fine until our last two colder-than-usual winters. It's coming back from the roots, but probably won't have time to produce a crop this year. It might have been fine if I'd wrapped it, but I'm not one to coddle my plants.

For sheer lushness, it's hard to beat a peony. A grower in our state has a lovely site: www.peonysenvy.com There's also a lot of cultural information there. I've visited her farm in the woods of north Jersey and it was just delightful.