I love Peonies!

Especially Itoh

A long loved flower, peonies are known for their stunning blooms and sweet aroma. Varying form herbaceous, tree and itoh, peonies are vibrant in every sense of the word. Dr. Toichi Itoh, a Japanese botanist, toiling in the aftermath of the horrors of World War II, was the first person to successfully combine the pollen from a tree peony with the ovary of an herbaceous peony. But it would take over a decade of patient oversight before those seedlings grew to full size and produced flowers. Then in 1956, eight years after his successful crosses, sadly Dr. Itoh passed away. So it fell to his family to nurture those special plants, finally bringing them to flower in 1964. Eventually an American botanist, Louis Smirnow, got permission from Dr. Itoh’s widow to bring some plants to the USA where he patented four hybrid peonies—which he named Itoh hybrids— featuring huge buttery yellow flowers. There are currently 6,500 variaties of peonies, with new ones being introduced all the time.

Learn more on Better Homes & Gardens!