This post is from a long time ago, but I thought I'd respond since I have a little update.
Truthfully, I have been calling it Cora Louise because it is the closest thing listed on websites that looks like my plant, but after purchasing other Cora louises (bc it really is a nice plant!) I have started to suspect it is might be something different. Maybe not an itoh, but a one off tree peony? I have purchased a Cora Louise from Monrovia and it just isn't as "beefy".
My mother purchased this plant from the NW flower and garden show here in Seattle, sometimes before 2004 and planted it. I am guessing sometime in the late 90s based on the shopping partner she named :). She has mentioned it was a tiny plant when she got it.
This past spring (2020) I moved the plant (neighbor issue, this was an absolute last resort) - the root system was impacted in the clay we have, so I just wanted to try and keep it as intact as possible for the transplant. The new site has less clay, but also a tiny bit less sun. The plant had been suffering from select shoots wilting after the buds emerged - I wasn't sure if this was nutritional (it sometimes over reacted to summertime watering - the clay) or fungal. I treated it with some fungicide after it was moved and did not see die back the rest of the summer. SO I am praying it makes it through to next spring given the transplant.
This is still my favorite plant in the yard.
