It looks like slightly faded Morning Lilac Itoh. If color on your picture is off and it is more pale than I can see it here - it could be First Arrival Itoh peony.

Hmmmm.......the whole form just seems smaller than an Itoh. The flowers only have 8 petals and is probably less than two inches across. I don't remember ever purchasing any other Itoh than 'Bartzella'.

I wish I had a picture of the new foliage. Come to think of it, this peony sort of reminds me of my 'Early Scout' but blooms earlier and is a different color. Are there any other smaller, cut leaf peonies like 'Early Scout'?

Yep, the flowers are too small for Itoh and I did not notice that they are facing down.

Ok, I think you got me on the right track with species peony. Do you think it could be vetchii? I've just never seen this offered anywhere or in any gardens before, and purchased it a few years ago (sigh...I should really keep better track of plants), but I did just look up one of my favorite fairly local nurseries and they carry paeonia vetchii. I'm thinking I must have picked it up there, and when I Google, it really does seem to match the description. Especially the early spring growth being quite purple/red.

Paeonia veitchii v. woodwardii ?

Karen, the picture of my P. mollis is in a fern leaf thread by mistake. I thought I was posting in a more general peony thread. The peony here is not mollis, it has very short stems with the flower sitting almost on top of the foliage. Nothing in the least droopy about it.

Could it be P. Anomala? The color and downward facing flowers look right to me. Woodwardii is typically more of a magenta pink, isn't it?

The distinct nodding and the leaf look more like v w in my opinion. It seems the colour can vary.

Yours looks like stevelau1911's fernleaf peony, maybe you can ask him.
See the first picture posted by stevelau1911
http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/3050109/my-fernleafs-are-blooming?n=12

Thanks everyone for your thoughts. I think it boils down to a fairly local nursery sells vetchii, and the peony looks quite similar to it, so I'm going to call it that whether it's exact or not! LOL!

I have fern leaf peony and this is different from that.

Thanks again.

Looks like a peony tree. I have yellow one and thd leaves are the same

Another vote for Paeonia veitchii var. woodwardii. Looks like the one in my garden.