‘Festiva Maxima’ is an herbaceous peony, both old-fashioned and extravagant. Its pure white blooms, dotted with red at its center, are fragrant and double. Its stems are strong, making it the perfect candidate for a vase. Peony bloom time is classified as early, mid-, and late; ‘Festiva Maxima’ is a midseason bloomer. It grows to 36 inches tall, taking on a shrubby appearance throughout the summer, then dies to the ground in the fall. Plant in sun to part shade with eyes no more than 2 inches below the soil. It is Deer resistant.

Peonies are popular garden plants, known for their stunning flowers, their cold hardiness and the huge variety of their colors, forms, and habits. They are divided into two main groups: herbaceous, which die to the ground in the fall; and tree peonies, which are deciduous plants with woody stems that they retain throughout the winter. A third category—the Itoh or intersectional peonies—display the extravagant blooms of tree peonies on herbaceous stems. All peonies bloom between April and June. Flowers on tree peonies appear one to two weeks before those on herbaceous peonies.