THE SPECIES OF LUOYANG PEONIES Peony,Luoyang's city flower,has been very famous for its varieties and the beautiful colors because of the moderate climate and soil in Luoyang,which is suitable for peony to blossom extra-large flowers bearing the fame of "the king of flowers""No.1flower among the flowers",and was appreciated by the famous ancient scholar Ouyang Xiu as "With the best natural conditions for the flowers in Luoyang,peony grows up to be a wonder in the world." Alegend about Luoyang Peony says that one winter in Chang'an,the empress Wu Zetian ordered all of the hundreds of flowers in her palace garden to bloom at once during the exact night.Every kind of flower obeyed except the unyielding peony who would follow the natural rule and was banished from the capital to Luoyang.After that,peony began to be the lover of all the people and was appreciated as "firm and unyielding""upright peony"by generations.Since Tang dynasty,peony reached its prime in Luoyang and was ranked"the first flower in the world"in Song dynasty by Ouyang Xiu's works "On Luoyang Peonies"campaignwith the peonies in China at that time,so comes the saying "Luoyang peony ranks first under heaven." The varieties of Luoyang peony always surprises the world,there were over 100kinds of them already in Song dynasty,the yellow of Yao and the Violet of Wei were the most famous ones as King and Queen.Now,there are more than 300varieties of Luoyang peony with colors of red,yellow,violet,white,black,pink,blue,green and other kinds of transitional colors,some of them bears extra large flowers with hundred of petals,some of them enjoys hundred years of growing age,some of them grows marvelously with various of changeable colors:double colors on one flower or different flowers on one plant.In addition,there are other rare species like "Green Dragon in the Dark Pond""Green as Pea""No.1Red","Drunken Beauty"and so on. Today peony has been planted and is growing in all the parks,gardens and street gardens,and is showing the beauty,the fragrance,the colors during every April and it makes the city more and more attractive and exciting."For 20days from blossoming to fading,all people in the city was crazy about it."April is the real happy season for the peony-lovers and all the people in the world .BRIEF OF THEPEONY FESTIVAL Peony is the Chinese famous traditional flower,which has been enjoyed as an old custom in Luoyang.Bai Juyi and Liu Yuxi,the poets in Tong dynasty,both wrote famous poems to vividly describe the grand occasion on enjoying the peony in the city:"For 20days from blossoming to fading,all the people in the city was crazy about it.""Only the peony can be the real flower to represent our nation,whole capital was moved before blossoming peonies." With the rising of the living standards and the development of the tourism,the people's enthusiasm towards the flower in Luoyang is rising day by day,and in every "Guyu"(Grain Rain,6th solar term),the peony blossoming period,tourists at home and abroad rush here to enjoy the flowers,which make a favorable chance for Luoyang's opening to the outside world. On the day of Sept.21,1982,Luoyang People's Congress approved the decision of entitling peony as the city-flower,and holding a peony festival in every April from April 15to April 25.Since 1983,Luoyang has successfully held 15peony festivals. For 15years,with "With the flower as the mediums to extensively make friends.To introduce Luoyang and to open it wide."as the guiding ideology,the City CPCCommittee and the City Government,"Having built stage in Luoyang and let thewhole province to play on it",made the peony festival into an general large-scale economic and cultural activity of enjoying the flowers and lanterns,touring and sightseeing,negotiating investment and exchanging trade. All these successes have encouraged the wide development of Luoyang economy and society with endless energy.The scope of the festival is getting broader year by year,the level,contents and the style of the festival are all improved and showed exuberant vitality.Luoyang Peony Festival has been the proud,grand festival for the people in Luoyang,during which magnificent celebration,colourful lanterns festival,and efficient economy and trade negotiation with propitious and happy festival atmosphere were conducted to deeply impress all the guests from all over the world.Peonies and Their Uses
Peonies in Landscape:Specialized peony gardens,peony terraces,peony belts.
Peonies in Interior Decoration:Peonies in pots,peonies in flower arranging,bonsai peonies.
Peony Production:Production of young peony plants,production of peonies in pots,production of Mudan for cut flowers,production of peony bonsai,Mudan in medicine and other fields.(The earliest recorded use of Mudan in medicine can be found in ¡®Shen Nong¡¯s Herbal Classic¡¯.The part of the plant for medicinal use is the bark of the root system,called Danpi or cortex Mudan.Danpi contains several medical components,the important one being paeonoside(C9H10O3).It functions as an antibiotic to diminish inflame-Mattoon,as a tranquilizer,analgesic,antispastic and hypotensor.Since it is an importantChinese herbal medicine,a great quantity is produced every year to meet demand in China and abroad.
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