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tj

I was on my phone, I'm looking on my laptop now.

Festiva Maxima is an old variety that comes to mind, but I can't tell for sure from the pictures. Do the blooms have deep pink/cerise bits in the center ?

I added 2 closeups at the end of my images. There are some very colorful bits I never noticed before. I have a red and a white festiva maxima, bought those a couple of years ago, they're so small compared to these though and they are just the one color, red plant, white plant.

I'm trying t be exact, just explaining in case I'm sounding argumentative. I just looked it up and it appears that the festiva maxima introduced in 1851(?) is just one color, white. Mine have a light pink outer ring of petals and the inner petals are white and whiteish-yellow or cream color. My Sarah Bernhardt appears to be the only blooms that are larger than this one. Could it be a hybrid of the Festiva Maxima or something?

20 to 55 year old peony

==>> thats an odd set of years .... why did you choose those two numbers??? ... how long you owned the house.. and how old the house is ????

with most flowers... the further back in years you can get.. the less name options there are ... and you could narrow it further ... but in all reality.. you will never be sure of a name.. but i doubt that is truly important ... is any neighbor going to call you on it.. lol .. and what will they say.. after you whack them upside the head with the shovel for being so brazen .. lol ...

ken

Definitely NOT Festiva Maxima! Compare to Alba Plena, a very old variety (17th century).

Thank you all! It looks to be a Shirley Temple, so I'm going to call it that 😃 So beautiful, everyone loves it and now i get to share it with others. So many eyes and root pieces!!

I've had the house for 6 years and previous owners for 15 but they did not know how to care for plants so figured previous, previous owner planted it and he sold in the 90s, the house was built in '66 so knew it couldn't be a newer variety and thought his wife might have planted .

Look similar to Cora Stubs, Laura Dessert, Bowl of Beauty, or maybe Top Brass.

Shirley Temple is my guess.

Whatever it is, it's stunning!

It is absolutely and definitely NOT Shirley Temple. I have two Shirley Temple's that I've had for years. Shirley Temple is a small, neat upright plant and the blooms are a very light blush pink and smaller than the blooms on many peonies. Also, her blooms do not flop over like the one's in your pic.

At first glance, I would have said your plant is Festiva Maxima, due to the cerise pink in the centers, but I had second thoughts. I've had a Festiva Maxima and loved it, but don't have one now. However, a family member gave me a start of what she said was her grandmother's plant. I put it in the ground and it grew very quickly into a huge plant with tons of very large blooms, creamy white with a cerise center, that flopped over on weak stems. At first, I thought it was Festiva Maxima, but now I don't know. IIRC, FM blooms are all white, no pale pink outer petals like yours and mine, and the cerise pink can be other places besides the center. FM blooms late and so does Shirley T. My peony blooms so early that I sometimes lose blooms to frost or freezing, and is done before my Shirley T's even start. I guess our plants are still a mystery unless someone can tell us what they are with certainty.

This is what my Shirley's look like. https://www.bluestoneperennials.com/BPEST.html

Paeonia 'Madame Calot'