It did, it really did. But my neighbor has them and Fernie posted a picture of them and those are not anything like the leaves I have comming up. The stem and leaves on mine are burgandy. And the leaves are "lacy" like thicker versions of a japanese maple maybe. And when the stem first comes up the leaves are all tightly packed like a little ball at the top of the stem.

Is this how a new peony starts? It sure must be some transition if it is.

Sounds like a peony to me

Definitely sounds like a peony to me too - quite a transition it goes through...I had no idea what mine were, and didn't believe neighbors that told me they were peonies - but they were right!

This was the best picture I could find of what almost looks like a sprouting peony

Hi Mary I couldn't get into Webshots. I would have loved to see the picture. It's been raining this week and the peonies have finally lost their burgandy color and the leaves are starting to flesh out so they look more like my neighbors. Thank you so much for responding I was starting to wonder.