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Propagating itoh peonies from dormant eyes

11 years ago

After having some dormant eyes that came broken off on my itoh peony purchase, I stuck them in the soil, and surprisingly, they are now rooting out and producing tiny leaves. Now the question is, how would I be able to force an itoh peony to produce more eyes so that I can purposely use some of their eyes to make more plants?

On my latest blog, I have a picture of one of these little plants, on the 3rd one down.

Here is a link that might be useful: Itoh peony pictures

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Comments (5)

Ginny McLean_Petite_Garden
11 years ago
Those little guys look pretty good. This is the first year I have potted up Itoh peonies in the spring and so far they seem to be doing ok. The roots I got through catalogue orders. I have more coming in the fall from a local grower. I hope they do well. :)

Ginny
stevelau1911
Original Author
11 years ago
Do you have a link to where you get your itohs?

After seeing how well these guys take off from tuber fragments, I want a good source of more species of itohs at a reasonable price. I got the 5 species on my blog for 177.29 shipping included, and from my research, they are supposed to come back the following year even stronger than what you would typically see from either herbaceous or tree peonies.
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Is it possible to graft woody stems of itoh peonies?
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"My guess is that if a division of an itoh peony is planted sideways in the ground, it will force the entire length of the woody stem to become tuberous, or at least produce roots/tubers from each underground eye." A woody stem may root, but the stem will not become tuberous (different cell structure). You will have greater success with root division and maybe grafting hardened stems (w/buds) onto herbaceous rootstock.
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Thanks LizinElizabeth. Please don't get me wrong. I never said I can't divide my Sequested Sunshine, but risks in unfavourable results for dividing a mature size Itoh. My Sequested Sunshine has 20 eyes or more and 1 trunk. My post above cited that Carol Adelman thinks it still be divided it by using a strong saw, Even digging it out and putting it back, the picture below shows the plant still has many buds, but the pants size is much smaller than the pictures in 2013. Lets hope it can make a full recovery with time. It makes no sense when I can leave this full size plant alone and buy another for $25. http://www.lesjardinsosiris.com/pivoines_itoh.html peonea05 is probably on the right track to see if a 3 yr old Ihoh can be divided. I brought Scarlet Haven from Plant World in Toronto last year, the same place where Sequested Sunshine was brought. An inspection shows Scarlet Haven is too early to divide this plant - see pic. So maybe a bit older Itoh is the right time to divide. Give it a try. If I didn't know any better, I think these plant tissue culture companies are making Itohs we can't divide! I am also doing some experiments in dividing bush (herbaceous) peonies, while it's in the growing phase in the spring. Some pieces, though not all, were growing from eyes, but without tubers and they are still growing strong. Maybe I'll post the details and results later in the summer. Picture of a much smaller Sequested Sunshine. Probably because it was disturbed earlier this year.
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Itoh Peony damaged in shipping?
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At the end of the season, each itoh develops buds (the white things) near and around the crown. They make no difference to next year's bloom. They were obviously knocked off during shipping for this plant. The root looks very nice.
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Are new eyes in the fall odd for an Itoh Peony
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Perfectly normal for all peonies. Some will continue to develop and live over the winter to erupt next spring. Some will have the outer layer turn a brown color and harden slightly. Some will simply fail to develop. Tree peonies start developing next years buds in June. Herbaceous will buds will start erupting as a small knot three years before they send a stem up from that bud. If you dug down on your intersectional you would find other buds some perhaps even larger than this one. In some areas of the country both tree and intersectional have been reported blooming this year but your bud is not that advanced.
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Ginny McLean_Petite_Garden
11 years ago
Everywhere I have bought Itohs from do not ship to the states. :( I now have 5, I think and about 12 more coming in the fall. The only one I have in the garden at this time is Bartzella and that one was just a little wee piece of root when she started. :) They seem to like the frozen north. Lol!

Ginny
stevelau1911
Original Author
11 years ago
I was able to get some itohs at reasonable prices from eBay, but most sources list them at $50-100 which is kind of crazy considering how easily they propagate, but I like itohs so I'll be collecting even more species once I get a chance.

I only have 8 of them so far. I like how they can easily be split up for viable divisions, even from small fragments, and I also have herbaceous peonies that I can graft the woody stems onto if I want to make more plants.
Ginny McLean_Petite_Garden
11 years ago
I have about 195 herbaceous peonies. I haven't tried tree peonies and most tell me they would be a waste of money. They don't like the extreme cold we get here. So the Itohs are my next endeavor. I can hardly wait till they bloom! :)

Ginny

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