The peonies of Heze

Heze calls itself the Peony Capital of China, and the peony is the city flower. The flower appears in the Classic of Poetry, written almost three thousand years ago, and Chinese gardeners have grown it for medicine and for ornament since the sixth and seventh centuries. The plants are woody shrubs, from a quarter of a metre to three and a half metres tall, and each flower lasts only seven to ten days, which is why the season is short and the gardens are crowded. Heze is the country's largest cultivation base for the flower, sending plants to markets at home and abroad. In March 2012 the China Flower Association formally named the city the capital of the Chinese peony.