Book  (1928)  Page(s) 61.  
 
A List of Sixty Choice Peonies of the More Expensive Varieties
Pink Varieties
Desire (Brand).  8.5.  A very large flower rather loosely built with long broad petals with stamens showing.  Color a delicate lilac pink fading lighter towards the edges.  Desire is a very beautiful flower that has had rather an eventful history.  The plant was first noticed in a large bed of seedlings in 1913.  It appeared so good that it was chosen as the best of the entire bed.  Blooms were cut from this seedling plant and taken to the show of the N. W. Peony society.  These blooms were staged in a large exhibit of splendid seedlings and were awarded first prize.  D. W. C. Ruff, the veteran grower of fine peonies, placed the awards.  Of Desire he said, “Here is a strictly first class peony.”
Our soil is quite spotted.  In our fields water pockets are apt to show up in the most unexpected places in the spring.  Three different times in succession it happened that we got our entire stock of Desire planted in such a place.  Inferior flowers were the result.  But the fourth planting was in the right soil and we were spellbound with the result.  The variety that year was a marvel.  It showed what the plant properly handled would do.  An outstanding pink of the first quality.

Book  (1928)  Page(s) 90.  
 
Descriptive List of Chinese Peonies
Desire. (Brand, 1923.) 8.5.
Double type; large; midseason. Soft rose-pink, slightly tinted with lilac; frequently develops a spreading crown surmounting a  narrow collar of waxy yellow; no stamens but some small petals bear aborted anthers; rich rose fragrance. Height 2 feet; medium growth; moderately floriferous. Foliage medium, light green, thrifty.
This variety is occasionally extraordinarily good, but flowers on young plants are apt to be rough and irregular.
"Not desirable."—Fewkes.
"Erratic—sometimes very good and sometimes very ordinary."—Little.