伊藤牡丹，是一种漂亮的花儿，也是一个传奇故事！它的美丽来源于伟大的植物学家伊藤博士，经历了几千次的试验，一次又一次的失败，最后不言放弃而来。这个过程里面，充分体现了日本人的匠人精神和执着劲头。伊藤博士成功的将黄牡丹花粉授给了白的芍药并收获了种子。再从种子发芽，长成植株，长达八年以后始开放。可惜伊藤老先生没能看见他创造出的花儿。这样的精神，现在的快餐文化，会有几个人有这份沉着的心思，做这样的事情？
这份创造出来的美丽，真的是不可方物。把它成功推广并发扬光大的美国人。伊藤牡丹，真心值得拥有。
从一棵小小的植株，长成今天这样的繁花满枝，花了整整五年时间。
今年一共开了二十几朵花儿，有一半被剪来插花了
每一个看见这花开的人，都忍不住赞叹它的美丽。相对于它的亩母父系花期，它的花期挺长，可以说是吸收了他们的精华
不同的时间段，光影的变化
千姿百态，梦想成真
伊藤牡丹的传奇故事 https://www.americanmeadows.com/perennials/peony/all-about-itoh-peonies
The Fascinating Story of Itoh Hybrid Peonies
Itoh peonies began as a hybridizer’s fantasy—which was to cross tree peonies with herbaceous peonies and thus to produce a new kind of plant that offers the best features of both parents.
For many years and in several countries, hybridizers had unsuccessfully pursued this goal. One difficulty was because the bloom times for the two types of peony are several weeks apart, making cross-fertilization difficult.
Also, although tree and herbaceous peonies are both members of the huge genus Paeonia, genetically they are actually not that closely related, contributing to the problem of creating a cross that would produce viable progeny.
Because of these genetic differences between tree and herbaceous peonies, modern taxonomists have actually assigned them to different ‘sections’ within the main Paeonia genus. And for this reason, these modern hybrids are sometimes called ‘Intersectional’ peonies.
A dream came true
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.
He was totally consumed with this monumental hybridization challenge and made thousands of attempts. Finally in 1948 his dream came true—a few of his seeds germinated. 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.
