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This was blooming Thursday when I was visiting a new garden out a couple counties west of where I live. Itoh peonies trace back to a renowned horticulturist named Itoh in Japan who created an entirely new kind of peony by crossing a tree peony with a herbaceous peony thus the Itoh peony. They took 8 years to first bloom and by that time he had passed away. His widow did sell some stock to an American breeder in California who continued the work on them. The first ones came to market in the 1970's and sold for thousands. They are more readily available now but still command from $50 - $100 per plant. But they are spectacularly beautiful and fragrant.