I consider what you are seeing to be completely normal. Plants develop imperfections as they go through life. Think of these as pimples. They are ugly, but only temporary,and have nothing to do with the overall health of the plant. In fact, it's an important part of the regeneration process. As leaves get older, they get bruises and cracks and random spots. In nature, those leaves eventually fall off and become compost. Just cut off anything ugly. That will actually encourage the plant to produce more fresh, new leaves. You said earlier that you are compulsive about your plants and baby them to the point that you lose them to over watering. You're headed the same direction. Remember, plants live out in the wild with no one watching over them. Relax and enjoy your plants. My mother thrives on her daily cups of coffee as she makes her rounds of her plants with a pair of scissors so she can trim off any imperfections. She doesn't like how they look, either, but she doesn't worry about them. She just cuts them off. I hope that helps. Really, gardening should be relaxing and enjoyable. Martha

I think that Coral Fay, although it is considered semi-double, fits your description. Unfortunately I cannot say this from personal experience. The specimen I have has not bloomed yet. I think it may be planted to deep. I plan to dig it up and lift it higher this fall. Hopefully I will get lots of blooms next spring. Here is a link to a picture of Coral Fay Here is a link that might be useful: Coral Fay at Hollingsworth Nursery

The foundation is primarily a ruddy smectite clay. While digging, there seems to be a large quantity of mica and a lesser quantity of rather small (quail-egg sized) pieces of quartz although brick sized pieces of quartz pop up from time to time. I originally tried using sand and a quantity of gypsum as an amendment with composted leaf mould, sphagnum peat, sawdust and manure as organics. Notwithstanding that I think it's the muckiest substance I've ever seen, the clay does seem to percolate a bit and Japanese irises nearby were severely injured. And a small mystery--moss has no difficulty growing on the surface even though I'd thought that iron sulphate (which I'd assumed was acidic) is used to kill moss. Performance is a mixed bag w/regard to plants situated in the native "soil". Certain peony varieties, notably the corals :), have in fact done better than some lactifloras I brought in from China. I routinely shuttle failing peonies in the autumn up to my parents' property which has actual soil. The tree peonies are a total crapshoot--certain Chinese varieties have entirely collapsed whereas other ones have produced gigantic blooms. The Japanese varieties do modestly well but increase of all the TPs has been consistently slow. Regarding other plants, I stopped vegetable gardening after the first year--not worth the effort; even quinoa failed to produce anything substantial. Lilacs have had a harder time acclimatizing to the clay than the peonies--they don't die, but they grow sparingly and many of them decrease--I did do a lot of amendment in particular for them and I got the soil in their holes up to 6.5 pH; of course, the holes are surrounded by a sea of acidic clay. I learned from a neighbour that the area in which I put the lilacs had been used to grow tobacco which is hard on the soil. With plenty of amendments, daylilies have done very well, although there is substantial variance in performance around the property. In digging up failing daylilies to ascertain what's going on below the surface, I found oftentimes that the daylily roots had only a tenuous hold on the clay and that most of their roots were situated in the mulch I'd put down. Consequently, I replace up to 70/80% of the clay in areas with daylilies. Such a large removal isn't feasible for the peonies, in large part because the quantity of mica is great enough to prevent digging much deeper than a foot with a spade and oftentimes the mica is encountered a mere few inches below the surface. Camellias have been removed entirely from the lot, since a season or two in situ and the poor things are nearly on their death beds. Similarly, rhododendrons fail, but kurume azaleas and flowering quince do well. Japanese maples do not thrive, but dogwood, Prunus mume, pin oaks and silver maple grow alright. That's about all I can summarize about the soil and performance in it. Oh--one anecdote: the water is acidic enough that distinct copper sulphate routinely accumulates on my shower walls, though there is very little other mineral deposit to be found (I assume the copper is being leached from my pipes).

It is natural for the Itoh plant to grow higher, and bigger as the bulb/root underneath becomes larger. I would be alarmed if the leaves/flower are different than the rest of the plant. I have "suckers" coming from my tree peony but this is due to grafting, even after in the ground for many years. Attached is a picture of my Bartzella. There is a high stem coming out of it in the middle, though not as high as yours. Not that it matters, I am located in Toronto, and this Itoh is tissue cultured.