Intersectional hybrids are the newest peony hybrids. They are created by crossing peonies from one section with peonies from another section of the genus. Thus the name inter-sectional hybrids. For generations, such crosses were believed to be impossible. Professor A. P. Saunders (1869-1953), America's greatest peony hybridizer, considered this cross "the impossible dream". Although he had succeeded at crossing "just about everything with everything else" in the peony world, he assigned top place among the failures to the attempt to cross the tree peonies with the herbaceous type. Scores of others also had tried and failed over the past several hundred years. Then, after centuries of failure, somehow the seemingly impossible had happened. A Japanese nurseryman, Tochi Ito, succeeded in producing 4 herbaceous plants with large bright yellow double flowers. These extraordinary plants were the result a cross of a white herbaceous peony, Kakoden, with the beautiful bright yellow lutea hybrid tree peony, Alice Harding. These plants were discovered and imported into the US by Louis Smirnow of Long Island, NY in the late 1960's. They were sold and distributed under the names, Yellow Crown, Yellow Dream Yellow Emperor, and Yellow Heaven. These plants are available today from several commercial sources.

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