That isn't a paeony. Wouldn't like to hazard a guess what it might be (dubious eyesight) but I am pretty certain someone will be along with an ID.

Completely agree that that is not a peony!! Would need more detail/a closer photo for me to hazard a guess.

It looks very shrubby rather than herbaceous......

I was also wondering. The leaves look very different from my peony or tree peony plants

its not a peony .... need better pix if you want an ID ..

and btw... peony bloom in late spring.. not august ...

ken

Ditto, most certainly not a peony.

I'm with everyone else, if you got peony blooms from *that*, I'd be quite surprised.

Well that's embarrassing - It's definitely possible that I confused things as I brought a lot of different plants over. I just took a close up - any thoughts on the identification of this ? I can take additional pics if necessary. Thank you

Looking closer at the leaves, it almost looks like one of the white flower varieties of Hydrangea - Annabelle ?

It might be Deutzia scabra, a hardy deciduous shrub. Stop cutting it down and you should see flowers next spring. But it is a big thing and there may not be enough space there for it.

Looks like a hydrangea to me also.

Yes, definitely will leave it alone this fall/winter and see what happens next.

We have little sense of the size of the leaves. I thought they were no more than a couple of inches. was I wrong?

I had vaguely thought of philadelphus. If it is annually pruned, it would explain the lack of flowers since philadelphus flowers on the older wood. Pffft! absolutely no need to feel embarrassed - who amongst us has not lovingly nurtured what turned out to be a nasty weed? My latest was yet another willowherb. And I went for years, chopping off the flowering wood from a clematis.

I am a bit hopeless at screen idents and, as already been mentioned, scale is hard to judge.

The leaves are definitely small. I'm going to pay closer attention to it and provide more water. Like many others, we've had a very hot dry summer, and I've provided very little supplemental water to these plants. And I do see signs that the deer have feasted upon them.

I'm leaning toward Annabelle Hydrangea

Thanks again for all of the responses !

I am not very familiar with Anabelle but aren’t those leaves too small?

I have Anabelle hydrangea. Your plant does not look like it. The leaves should be much bigger, and the shrub not so compact. If your plant were Anabelle sure it would have bloomed with big white global flowers in spring over 10 years time and you definitely would not have missed them. I tend to think your plant might be one that either do not bloom or the blooms are small that you have not noticed. This is my Anabelle

I agree on leaf size but I don’t think the lack of blooms is an identifying trait. OP said they cut the shrub down at the end of every year. That would stop many shrubs from flowering and would make any shrub compact.

Floral you could be right. I did not notice OP mentioning cutting down the shrub. Annabelle would bloom on new growth but if pruning heavily precious year it might still affect blooming.

OP (Original Picture) looks significantly deer browsed to me. With shoots in shot with tape looking like hydrangea - discontinue hard pruning, try caging one or more of them and seeing what happens - a hydrangea should not normally be so dense and twiggy. And of course flowerless.