Historically this garden was planted with spring-blooming perennials such as delphiniums, irises, peonies, and poppies. Deadheading flowers with many petals, such as roses, peonies, and camellias prevents them from littering. The building is surrounded by a garden full of mulberry trees, peonies and tulips. Examples of this include tree peonies and chrysanthemums. Also nearby are flowerbeds of peonies and other flowers. Peonies tend to attract ants to the flower buds. Six types of flower are generally distinguished in cultivars of herbaceous peonies. Herbaceous and Itoh peonies are propagated by root division, and sometimes by seed. "P. tenuifolia" flowers earlier than other peonies, and dies down early too. Luoyang is also celebrated for the cultivation of peonies, its city flower. The garden is especially noted for its collection of over 1,000 herbaceous peonies. Peonies are among the most popular garden plants in temperate regions. Herbaceous peonies such as "Paeonia lactiflora", will die back to ground level each autumn. During the late 18th century it was recognized for its herbaceous peonies. As usual in peonies, there is a gradation between leaves, bracts and sepals.