Peony for your thoughts...

 As loyal readers you should be aware that TPP has a thing for Magnolias.  And he also has a thing for tree peonies.  They aren't really trees, but they have rather short-lived woody stems.  They also have some pretty spectacular flowers, huge flowers and in vivid colors.  TPP discovered tree peonies while in grad school, when he pruned a much over grown peony (the foliage is similar to herbaceous peonies) and it burst into flower the very next year and a botany professor with horticultural leanings explained what it , a new discovery.  TPP has to say that tree peonies are not easy to grow and they tend to be a bit expensive.  Oh, did TPP mention that some of them have yellow flowers!  Wow!  Yellow varieties tend to bloom a bit later.  Here's a bouquet of some of three pink to coral-colored flowers. Each flower is about 9-10 inches in diameter.  The Itoh hybrids between tree peonies and herbaceous varieties are now pretty common and pretty easy to grow (although still pricey).  The flowers are pretty big, some are yellow, but not quite the same as tree peonies.