伊藤牡丹的传奇

伊藤牡丹，是一种漂亮的花儿，也是一个传奇故事！日本人种植牡丹的历史悠久，他们从中国引进了很多，又自己培育了许多新的品种。伊藤牡丹是一个爱极牡丹芍药的日本人经过上万次的试验种出来的。芍药里没有黄色的花，他就一心想把牡丹的黄色弄到芍药上去。把这两种花儿杂交，试验失败了许许多多次，最后成功培育出了牡丹芍药的杂交品种。可惜他自己没等到伊藤牡丹花开就死了。这个伊藤牡丹刚出来的时候卖到一千五百美元一株，因为稀有难得。感谢这些热爱园艺的人，现在这个伊藤牡丹变得可以让普通老百姓负担得起。除了黄色的，现在还有许多别的颜色，但是黄色最为经典。

一次又一次的失败，不言放弃。现在种了牡丹和芍药，知道难度在哪里了，牡丹通常比芍药先开花。牡丹开过花谢，芍药方始登场。要不戏曲里唱到：牡丹开，芍药艳。写词的人，是知道季节时令的。黄色的牡丹，是牡丹里最晚开的品种，堪堪可以和芍药初开搭个小小交叉时段。有了这个，才有了拉郎配的可能。

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植物学家Louis Smirnow。他得到伊藤博士遗孀许可，带了几棵回美国并且申请了专利。感谢这些人的商业精神，好东西要和普罗大众分享也要从大家手里赚钱。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.