often.. last years plague.. is not really an issue the following year ... i wouldnt really use that in this years equation ...

that said.. that looks nothing like PM ... and pm wouldnt hit one frond of a plant ...

i might suggest a cold event ... but the same.. why one frond ... and why on a late emerging frond.. if thats the right term ... it most likely isnt.. but im rolling with it .. lol ..

what i want to know about.. is that wall.. cement.. whatever it is ... whatever happens... is it always over that stuff???

it almost looks like a virus... but i know NOTHING about peony virus ... see if any of these look similar ..

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=peony+virus.&t=ffcm&iax=images&ia=images

if it is.. then i might just get rid of the plant ... dont be attached to what the prior owner left.. if anything is a problem.. declare it a prior owners mistake.. remove it.. and plant your own mistakes... lol ...

ken

It does not match any virus I have found, even considering there were some new ones in your pics, Ken (thank you!). The leaves are, I dare say, as healthy as I could expect any leaves with so little chlorophyll to be. They are a bit thinner and weaker, and as you can see curling a bit at the edges, but otherwise are normal leaves. The cement is the porch step/stoop of the house, the peonies are in a foundation bed right next to the side door. The rest of this plant is healthy and has no appearance of problems. There are actually four peony (plants? bushes? not sure of the nomenclature) in a row in the foundation bed, this is happening only in the one area to the very rightmost end. The peony on the very left end has a very mild case of peony red spot/measles, which I will care for by removing and cleaning up diseased foliage. I don't think the red spot is related at all to these white leaves. Other than that all four plants look healthy and vigorous and produced an average of 7-12 blooms a piece this year. It did occur to me that the (frond?) might not have gotten enough sunlight as it emerged due to being shaded by the earlier emerging foliage. I'm wondering if the peonies are crowded and need to be divided, if they are competing with each other too much. I don't think this is viral, but anything's possible I guess.

I have to agree with lily that it does not look like any virus pictures that I have seen. However on fb the other day someone, perhaps you, posted a similar picture. I looked but could not find it. It might be a new virus so will keep looking for it. It is not lack of sun as those are mature leaves and while newly emerging leaves can look pale on any plant for this reason those leaves are past that stage.

There are several other possibilities but it would depend if the leaves were always like that or changed. Someone may have used something on the concrete that splashed on that stem even extra hot water could cause damage but not death. There may be something that is concentrating sunlight on that stem such as one of those decorative glass balls. A third possibility and one that my friends would love is that the portion of the plant is mutating from being a green plant to a variegated one. It is rare but it does happen. I would watch it but also check on other peony sites for similar leaves before removing it.

Maifleur, I have not posted any pictures of this prior to this thread, so I am interested if you find the previous pic. There is nothing I can identify, recall, or think of that would be concentrating sunlight there - nothing reflective. I will take a good second look around and see if there might be something. Last year's foliage, prior to the PM, looked quite normal all throughout on the plant. For now I will leave it as is, and watch to see what develops.

Oh - we learned this spring that there are tulip and hyacinth bulbs in the same area as the peonies. I can't imagine that would affect anything?

I will keep looking but given the number of fb sites I visit I may never find it. People often plant bulbs with peonies so that they will have some color before the peonies grow. A side of the peony growth is that if the dying foliage of the bulbs bothers you the dying leaf growth that will help the bulb bloom better next year will be covered.