(2007)  Page(s) 151.  
 
The aesthete Emperor Hui Zong (r. 1101-1126) who had created a special office called "Net of flowers and stones" hua shi gang, to collect the strangest and most beautiful things in the empire, ordered a man named Liu You, from what is today Sichuan province, to come and live sevwral months at the capital to work in the imperial garden because of his fame as an extraordinary grafter. Among the marvels he produced there was a five-colored blackberry rose (Rosa rubus Lev. et Van. = Rubus commersonii Poir.)....

(2007)  Page(s) 153.  
 
...it is remarkable that the wonderful results obtained by grafting peonies during the Song dynasty were actually considered with caution by the professionals. There is one example, reported by Zhang Bangji in a monograph on tree peonies, about an extraordinary pale yellow mudan flower which appeared in the nursery of the Niu family in 1112. Here is an excerpt of the translation of this text by Joseph Needham and Lu Gwei-djen...
Grower Niu named it 'Gold-thread yellow' lujinhuang. He built a marquee of bamboo matting around it, with suitable barriers, and spread caerulean silk decorations at the gate, after which guards weere set so that only those who paid 1000 cash were allowed to see it. In ten days the family made hundreds of thousands of cash. I myself was one of those who managed to get in and see it.
Later the governor of the prefecture heard about it, and wanted to send up a cutting in presentation to the imperial court, but all the nursery men maintained that he must not do so, saying that this was no ordinary flower and might only too easily change. After a while the governor renewed his suggestion, wondering how best to react to the phenomenon, and proposing that a divided root should be presented but the nurserymen replied politely but firmly the same way as before. Next year when the flowers opened they had all reverted to the previous (common) variety. This was truly aqueer marvel of the plant world.

This "Gold-thread yellow" was probably a chimera or a mosaic.

(2007)  Page(s) 151.  
 
The aesthete Emperor Hui Zong (r. 1101-1126) who had created a special office called "Net of flowers and stones" hua shi gang, to collect the strangest and most beautiful things in the empire, ordered a man named Liu You, from what is today Sichuan province, to come and live sevwral months at the capital to work in the imperial garden because of his fame as an extraordinary grafter. Among the marvels he produced there was...hundreds of different kinds of tree peonies mudan (Paeonia suffruticosa Andr. = P. moutan Sims.), and herbaceous peonies shaoyao (Paeonia albiflora Pall.), some with different kinds of flowers on the same plant, some with the same flowers but of different colors; and golden lotuses with double flowers, an indescribable luxuriance of fragrance and beauty.

(2007)  Page(s) 151.  
 
The aesthete Emperor Hui Zong (r. 1101-1126) who had created a special office called "Net of flowers and stones" hua shi gang, to collect the strangest and most beautiful things in the empire, ordered a man named Liu You, from what is today Sichuan province, to come and live sevwral months at the capital to work in the imperial garden because of his fame as an extraordinary grafter. Among the marvels he produced there was...hundreds of different kinds of tree peonies mudan (Paeonia suffruticosa Andr. = P. moutan Sims.), and herbaceous peonies shaoyao (Paeonia albiflora Pall.), some with different kinds of flowers on the same plant, some with the same flowers but of different colors; and golden lotuses with double flowers, an indescribable luxuriance of fragrance and beauty.