Why do I keep them???

I sort of hate peonies. They're big powder puffs of human-induced horticultural mayhem that has turned their boy parts (stamens) into petal. What's worse is that when it rains they promptly slump to the ground and rot from all the water their petal-stamens capture. This blip shows their lonely female parts surrounded by emasculated petal wanna-be's.

My mom had peonies when I was a kid. I used to watch the ants crawl over them. I'm not sure anyone knows why ants crawl on the unopened blooms, but I used to think the ants helped. It also means you can't bring them in the house. Ants like to hide in the many petals...