This is Joanna Marlene and she's looked like this ever since being planted two years ago. All other peonies in this area are normal green ones! It has sun (not too much) and rain. Should I dig it up and put it somewhere else (assuming the roots look OK)?

Hi Val,
Has she bloomed? Did you buy it from a reputable seller? If so you may want to send them this photo and inquiry.

I would move it just to see if it grows normally next year.

Yes - purchased from a reputable Quebec nursery but has not bloomed. Good idea except I very recently queried another cultivar purchased from them at the same time so I may not be very popular right now

Hi Val. My Joanna Marlene plant looks the exact same every year in the late summer and fall, though it emerges with green foliage and remains that way in the spring. I used to think it was fungal or that something was wrong with it, but it comes back and grows fine in the spring every year.

Nick - Matheus just got back to me and he concurs Apparently this is normal in some Itohs but it's the first like this for me - but then I only have a dozen of them I have to say I almost like this colouration

I like the coloration! This beautiful colors do not happen every fall. Although leaves are green the whole growing season. I hope your Joanna Marlene flowers next year, Val!

Me too Anya

Peonies are fascinating plants and we are learning about them all the time. I like your plant Val! It may be due to its genetics? Or could it be a nutrient thing? I do not have Johanna Marlene…..but if I did……I might be trying a little Epsom salts to give it Magnesium? But it is a pretty fall colour as it is!

I think it's genetic. I have three Itohs directly adjacent that box Joanna Marlene in in the front of a bed and all are green while Joanna Marlene remains this distinct bronze colour in late summer. That's an interesting response that Val received as Joanna Marlene is the only Itoh I have seen turn this colour; Impossible Dream turns a deep red, Scarlet Heaven and Simply Red have the "red curse' that makes it look like they have a terrible case of measles, and all the others look like the herbaceous cultivars in fall, occasionally showing shades of yellow, red, and orange in their foliage but often remaining green.