Where at first there had been pink buds, there now stood flowers. The peony flower is roughly 6 inches (15 cm) across with many more petals than the ordinary flower.

Here was a bud expanding into a flower, where the flower was just a mass of petals, and not yet a fully formed flower.

An ordinary north American black ant crawled over the petals of the expanding bud. This ant illustrated how huge these flowers could get.

A fully formed peony flower at the end of its long stalk. The flowers are so heavy that they bend the stalks far over.

Here was a dark pink peony flower just beginning to form from a compact bud.

A pink peony flower that was only 90% formed. It was surrounded by several buds that were also expanding into flowers.