Definition
The peony is the most common spherical break: a ball of coloured stars spreading from the centre as bright points, without trails, then dying in flight. It gives the purest colours, since no charcoal layer veils the flame of the metal salts: red from strontium, green from barium, blue from copper, yellow from sodium. Colour-changing peonies, whose stars shift from one hue to another, are very common, as are peonies with a pistil, a core of a different colour. It exists in every calibre, from the 20 mm cake bombette to the 300 mm shell. Briefer and lighter than the chrysanthemum, it suits rapid volleys and tight sequences.
In practice, for the display company
The peony is the basic unit of coloured volleys: a row of 75 mm peonies fired a tenth of a second apart is enough to make a tableau. PyroDesk recognises colours and colour changes at import time, and PyroSimulator, with its colour-accurate rendering, lets you check that the chosen colours work together before ordering stock.