Recently, the American Peony Society (APS), the international certification authority for new peony varieties, has registered 10 new peony varieties cultivated by Professor Liu Yan's team from the College of Landscape Architecture at Beijing Forestry University. These new varieties represent years of dedicated research and development efforts by Professor Liu Yan and his team. The newly registered peonies exhibit unique characteristics such as full flower shape, fragrance, tall stalks, and abundant blooms, making them suitable for both cut flower production and garden cultivation.

Peony, a renowned traditional Chinese flower, holds significant economic value as a cut flower and is considered one of the major cut flowers developed by the National Forestry and Grassland Administration. Professor Liu Yan's team has been dedicated to researching, applying, and promoting traditional peonies, with a particular focus on addressing practical issues within the peony industry. These issues include the identification of peony resources, ultra-low temperature preservation techniques, post-harvest freshness maintenance of cut flowers, industrial production technology, and new variety breeding. Furthermore, the team actively collaborates with industry representative enterprises and leverages basic research findings through the Science and Technology Academy of the College of Landscape Architecture to apply them in practical settings.

Currently, several new peony varieties have transitioned into production. Notably, "Xiangtiange" (Sing towards the sky/song to heaven), a cut flower variety cultivated in Heze, Shandong, has garnered the gold medal at the 10th China Flower Expo Exhibit in the fresh cut flowers category. Going forward, Professor Liu Yan's team will concentrate on further research to expedite the production, transformation, and application of these novel peony varieties.