Question
In going over catalogs I have found several of these offered. I would like to get a yellow peony with bright yellow petals and/or a white peony with a bright yellow center.  I also want to get both the Chinese and the Japanese versions.  Are there any I ought to avoid or that you would recommend?

Answer
Gold Crown and Kinshi are two vivid yellow Tree and Herbaceous (Chinese and Japanese) Peonies.  They used to be astonishingly expensive.  After trade with China opened up, however, and the Chinese discovered how much their Peonies could command, they started making the prices less exhorbitant.  It is my understanding that once the plant patents expired, it was everyone's business.

Don't pay a lot of money for these.  Price is not a sign of  quality.  Charging people a king's ransom for these is simply a matter of supply and demand; newer cultivars and hybrids are rarer, so they are costly.  Save your money and spend it on good stuff.

And remember, these take time to bloom.  Get yours this year.  Buy the biggest ones you can find, and plant in the autumn for best results.

Good luck and let me now if you have any more questions.