What you have there in your collection are actually itoh peonies, a cross between tree and herbaceous peonies. Other yellow itoh peonies that I have heard good things about are Yumi and Smith Family Yellow.

The only yellow double peonies (that I know of) that are truly herbaceous are Golden Wheel, Sunny Boy, and Lemon Chiffon.

So Karen, what are your favorites?

Lemon Chiffon should be the best? It is the most expensive yellow herbaceous peony.

Sonoma Halo probably the best yellow itoh? It is fully double, and the most expensive yellow Itoh peony, more than double the price of Lemon Chiffon.

Price doesn't mean best....price means demand and supply.

But Lemon Chiffon is the most beautiful yellow herbaceous peony to me, and Sonoma Halo

is the most beautiful yellow Itoh peony to me. It seems their beauty justify the price.

slimwhitman, I don't have a favorite at this time because the only yellow peony that I grow is Bartzella. I just don't have the budget to purchase all the yellow peonies to try. They are very expensive. Sonoma Halo looks like a very nice huge yellow one and it is very expensive. I guess I will have to wait another decade to be able to afford these peonies when they come down in price. I have heard that Bob Johnson, a peony hybridizer said that he has a few yellow herbaceous peonies seedlings currently grown and propagated by Adelman peonies to be sold in a few years. He showed pics of blooms from these plants at the seminar that I attended. Not only that these peonies produce huge yellow blooms 8 inches in diameter, but they also show superior stem strength to carry the blooms. And the yellow on them is a deeper yellow shade than even that of Lemon Chiffon. Perhaps I will wait and see what will come out in a few years before I buy another yellow peony.

Smith family yellow Itoh - it turned out not bad at all.

Wow, thanks for letting us know Sonoma Yedo. Last year it was sold at $200.00 at Solaris Farms. Don't know why it is cheaper than Sonoma Halo.

So many wonderful Itoh yellow peonies, even prettier than their parental yellow tree peonies.

Years ago I was so captivated by the soft yellow of 'Golden Wheel' (and, I'll confess, the lure of having a rare peony in my garden) that I shelled out nearly $100 for the plant at a local garden center. A week later it was dead. Fortunately, the garden center refunded my money (they've collected that much from me many times over since).

Talking with a professional peony grower recently, I learned that these yellow peonies just aren't nearly as vigorous as the other colors. So, for now at least, unless you're willing to take a big gamble, Itoh (intersectional) peonies or tree peonies are a much more dependable choice for yellows.

I am trying to grow Golden Wheel. This plant is definitely difficult to grow as it is not robust, From a tuber last fall, only two stems of 6 inches have grown on this plant. I wonder if this yellow is worth all of the fuss and babying that I have to give it.

I think Lemon Chiffon is more vigorous than Golden Wheel, at least in my area. Blonde Vision hasn't been mentioned, either, and it's really pretty. It's very frost sensitive though so needs a place that doesn't get late spring freezes/snows or has to be protected. It's not a crazy quick increaser but has had steady growth since I got it 2 years ago. I was very happy with the blooms I got this year, has a bit of that pink inner glow thing going on that I loved with Pastelegance. Sunny Girl is also herbaceous. My buds were killed off by late crazy weather this year. Bloomed single last year, only 1 bloom but it was first spring. Hoping to see the true double flower next spring. This one goes on my list of "keep a big, heavy pot nearby for weather protection"!

Bartzella. Her flowers last longer than other itohs in my garden. Possible because her flowers tends to be more double and larger than others. I'm waiting for Planteck to release "Duchesse de Lorraine" and "Caroline Constabel" to market. Duchesse De Lorraine suppose to be more double yellow itoh than Bartzella.

Wow, thanks for information on "Duchesse de Lorraine" and "Caroline Constabel", so many wonderful double yellow Itoh peonies!

P.S. just checked, "Caroline Constabel" is not yellow peony.

I just took a look at Planteck catalogue. THere are some really beautiful offerings there. Among the new offerings are Caroline Constabel", pink itoh, "Duchesse de Lorraine", a yellow and fragrant bomb of a bloom; and "Oochigeas", a apricot color, and a new herbaceous dark red peony named Estrellla. They look gorgeous from the pics. I will definitely watch out for them. At wholesale the company is selling $6/plant. WOnder how much the retailer is going to mark up?

Here is the PDF link:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CB8QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.planteck.com%2Fben%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F06%2FPLANTECK-2015-CATALOGUE-US.pdf&ei=7JqFVf6VLJCbyASbzoGwBA&usg=AFQjCNEm2zseHyQzXWqC7kNGXOFUsNnXTA&bvm=bv.96339352,d.aWw

Garden Centre in GTA, Ontario supplied by Planteck are selling them between $49 - $59 regular price depending on who sells them.

Planteck says their plants are 2-3 years from blooming, so not the size garden centres can use. Those years add to the retail price.

Your right! The itohs selling from garden centre are ready to flower by next year but not all. Some, I have to wait 2 years for them to bloom after planting..

Checked buds today and Lemon Chiffon's was decimated by our last hail. Sucks but there's always next year! Didn't have a lot of yellow herbaceous blooms this year so it's easy to say Blonde Vision was my favorite for spring 2015!

I have two yellows, Bartzella and the herbacious Claire de Lune. Bartzella outperforms Claire by a long shot: thirty three enormous blooms over a long period, versus six main blooms and some little ones in a short time. Still, if I could keep only one, it would be CdL.

Although it dies back to the ground in winter, Bartzella is not an herbaceous peony; it is an intersectional peony - a hybrid of herbaceous and tree peonies. Some call them Itoh peonies, after the hybridizer Toichi Itoh, who first successfully crossed these two species ... though, unfortunately, he did not live to see the successful results.

Sorry to hear about Lemon Chiffon, Liz! Amazing that Blonde Vision, a peony that is not supposed to be hardy was able to produce a decent bloom for you this year. Hopefully, the weather will be better for you next year.

I know that Bartzella is not an herbacious peony, that is why I wrote "Bartzella and the herbacious Claire...", but this whole discussion has been about both kinds of yellows. I think I am the only one to throw a single yellow into the pot, and a herbacious one to boot ;-).

Dear gdinie,

why you prefer Claire de Lune over Bartzella?

Littlebin, I love the simplicity of the single flower, like also in my pink P. mollis and my single fernleaf hybrid. CdL has a beautiful colour, with soft yellow petals and a gently contrasting golden centre.

And while Bartzella has a reasonably good fragrance, it is not nearly as pleasant to my nose as the mild hyacinth scent of CdL.

So, though I like Bartzella, and it does very well for me, I have a very big soft spot for my beautiful Claire de Lune. I bought it in 1999 for $100 minus 30%, by far my most expensive plant at the time, still, I think. I had fallen in love with it a few years before, and when I got a 30% off coupon, I took the plunge. It grew well, till I had at one time 13 big, beautiful flowers out at the same time. After a few years of that, it slowly diminished in size and health, probably because the apple tree near it gave more and more shade. A few years ago I dug it up and divided it. It is in the sun now, but it never yet did as well as in its first years. This year I have given it more elbow room, and I hope it will do better again in the future. Compared to CdL, Bartzella's flowers are very much in your face, and beautiful as they are, they do not affect me as does Claire.

Have any of you seen the yellow version of Silver Dawn? That one is confusing because there isn't a single color, but a mix. Don't mean to say it changes color but that there are several different colors it can come in but the flowers have the same shape and have a crepey petal. Someone posted a pic here around 3 years ago and I fell in love. I bought 2 a couple of years ago. They both bloomed 1st year but I was gone, don't know if I got a yellow or not! Neither bloomed this year so I still don't know! Look up Silver Dawn Mix and tell me what you think.

I have Claire de Lune and it's probably my least favorite yellow herbaceous. Here it's a very pale, washed out looking bloom and it's small. I've had mine in place for around 8 years now and it's never produced more than 2 flowers. Gdinie, yours is much more yellow than mine, guess CdL doesn't like my soil! Sunny Day is another herbaceous yellow single that normally does pretty well for me, got beaten completely down by the hail this year, though.

Karen, I gave Blonde Vision quite a bit of cover this year because I knew it was frost sensitive, didn't do anything for the ones that typically do fine. This spring was so extreme here with all of the rain and hail storms every other day or so, culminating in the golf ball sized stuff that did Lemon Chiffon in, that stuff that is typically pretty hardy failed. I think this year has turned me in to a "protect the peonies" gardener! I'll be putting up supports for those that typically hit the ground, maybe even as early as this fall. And I'll cut them back this fall instead of leaving it for spring, way too much damage done by all of the rain to leave it. And you turned me in to a fertilizer convert! There were several established peonies that had MASSIVE blooms this year--the thing I did different was the BulbTone! Love it, thanks for the tip, Karen!

You're welcome, Liz. I am glad that the bulbtone worked out for you. I have started applying the bulbtone in the spring last year and noticed that most of my new peonies had multiple blooms that spring. I did the same for my iris and I got blooms on iris that had not bloomed in previous years. And all it took was 1-2tsp.

Now I know why your Blonde Vision was able to bloom. That makes alot of sense. I guess winter protection is the best way to go for your area if you are to have any blooms. I believe that you will have a spectacular peony bloom season next year Liz. Since all the food that is supposed to go into forming flowers have not been used, this will be redirected into growing roots.

Liz and Karen, I just ordered Bulb Tone. That might be just what I need to get Claire de Lune back to where it was. Thanks for the tip. Liz, I saw in an old thread that you had ordered P. Mlokosewitschii. How is it doing for you? I had one many years ago, but it just dwindled and died after a year or so. I think I read somewhere that it tends to do better in Europe???

Karen, Amazon is selling Espoma BT4 4-Pound Bulb-Tone 4-10-6 and Espoma Bulb-Tone 3-5-3 Plant Food - 20 Pound. Which one you have been using?

Karen, I sure hope so! Don't know if I can take another spring like this one! I have a lot of work to do this fall, want to move Bartzella and Morning Lilac and replant several herbaceous higher so they won't be as waterlogged by melting snow next spring. Still need to get more tomato cages to cut down for my weather mitigation project, too. The first few years out here were good peony springs, had good increase in the size of the plants and lots of blooms. If I have a few more like those I'll be happy!

My P. Mlokosewitschii are seedlings, ordered 2 from Brooks last fall. They've never bloomed so they don't guarantee color so I have no idea if they'll be yellow or pinkish. They're both doing well but are a few years from blooming. I also got seed from APS last year and have 1 1st year seedling of Molly, too!

I got an email from Hollingsworth as part of their mailing list and Don Hollingsworth recommends fertilizing as soon as blooms are done with a 10-10-10 fertilizer. It's not 10-10-10 but I'm thinking of applying Milorganite to stimulate root growth and to deter deer. Has anyone ever used it like this? I've put it on the grass to deter deer and to green up but haven't tried it around blooming plants. I ASSUME that the high nitrogen content won't negatively impact bloom production applied post bloom....Maybe just in one bed where the deer are most pesty.....

Alex, I have been using the 3-5-3 Bulbtone. For some reason, none of the places that sells bulbtone in my area carry the 4-10-6. I have not tried the 4-10-6 so I don't know how peonies like it.

I apply fertilizer to my new plants, plants that are slow to establish, or plants that are transplanted or moved. I stop fertilizing some peonies that are too vigorous. This year I did not apply fertilizer to Mackinac Grand, Pink Luau, Nick Saylor, Nova, and many others. OMG, my Henry Bockstoce is a monster. They are getting too big too quickly for me. They are outgrowing their spaces! Also, too much nitrogen can weaken the stems. The best thing to do is a soil test to determine what your soil is deficient and what it has in surplus. Too much of anything is not healthy. If you don't do a soil test, then just apply fertilizer twice a year, once when the feeder roots start to develop, around end of August to Labor Day for my zone and in spring when the peonies start to grow.

Thanks, Karen.

I found back this picture of my Claire de Lune. Just because it is winter and we need something to look forward to:

Wish it was spring...

Your Claire de Lune looks great, much more yellow than mine! And fernleafs are always special...

It is my favourite. The colour is never washed out, just a soft yellow, and it has a great light hyacinth scent.

Liz, I am hoping to see some Molly flowers from you one of these years. I had one seedling years ago, but it died. I still want Molly, and I now have better soil and better drainage. Who knows...

I'm hoping to see some Molly flowers from me, too! Mine are probably 3rd or 4th year seedlings, hoping to have blooms in the next spring or 2. Since mine are seedlings instead of divided roots I don't even know what color they'll bloom. I'm tempted to order a root from Solaris just to ensure I'll have a yellow one.

gdinie, love your Claire de Lune with the little forget me nots backdrop. They really set off the yellow bloom nicely.

My favorite yellow is Alice Harding. It is a tree peony, The blooms hang downward, but I love the color. Unfortunately it is not a prolific bloomer.

Try amazing Sunny Girl

or Sunny Boy,