Paul J. Ciener Botanical Garden

Butter yellow blooms reaching up to six inches in diameter make ‘Bartzella’ a flashy highlight of late spring. A product of the legacy of hybridized peonies, pioneered by Dr. Toichi Itoh of Japan. Through tens of thousands of experimental crossings over decades, Dr. Itoh at last successfully crossed Paeonia lactiflora, the herbaceous peony, with Paeonia suffriticosa, the tree peony, to create the “Itoh peony”. Sturdy upright stems support the massive blooms, which emit a light, lemony fragrance. While Bartzella peonies are becoming more widely available than they were after their initial introduction in the 1950s, they are still rare in the typical home garden.