Herbaceous peonies are a garden plant that have been appreciated for a long time. Native to Central Asia, peonies have been grown in China for ornamental appreciation since the 7th century.
Introduced garden plants originate in the wild, and these flowers are very showy and can be fragrant, and could attract the attention of someone to dig it up and bring it home. Now, so well known, in his New York Botanical Garden Illustrated Encyclopedia of Horticulture, T. H. Everett says peonies are “too well known it would almost seem to need a description...”
Peonies can live for 100 years, so if the original garden peony were found in China, it would only have needed to have been replaced 14 times since its inception.
Sources:
The New York Botanical Garden Illustrated Encyclopedia of Horticulture, 1987
http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=q400