I think that most Don Smith's itoh peonies are propagated by tissue culture. He developed these plants and sold the rights or plants to a tissue culture company in Canada. This company then uses the plants' genetic materials to produce tissue culture plants. I read this somewhere on his website. Whereas itohs developed by other peony hybridizers are propagated by a grower or growers until there are enough for sale. The advantage of doing this way is the gardener gets a piece of the "original" plant but the disadvantage is that it is rather slow and labor intensive as well as expensive initially. Thus, it depends on your preference, whether it is important that you grow the original or a tissue culture version. In any case, if you want a Don Smith itoh peony, you will just have to accept tissue culture plants.
