Paeonia delavayi

For my files.

another good species one.

Treasure it! I read a book about Delavey who was a missionary in China in the latter part of the 18th century but spent a lot of time and effort plant hunting up in the mountains. Reading about the effort and hardships makes you really appreciate the plants he sent back. Some of those plant hunters collected large consignments of new plants and packed them up to send to England, only to have the whole lot lost in storms at sea.

Yes, we do tend to take all these plants for granted now, Yorks., don't we? A lot of what we buy we do without thinking. (Not just plants). Maybe time for a rethink of so many imports from China of 'stuff'?