PEONIES FOR THE FLORIST. 91 



them for cut flowers. I took them up some eight years ago in order 

 to have a medium priced, showy, cut colored flower, for calls that we 

 have in abundance for our Decoration Day business. This is one of the 

 biggest days the -florist has in the year. The demand is much heavier 

 for a medium priced flower that will make a good showing than at any 

 other time of the year, and as peonies seem to fill the bill better than 

 anything else, I first got 300 to start with. They were not named, but in 

 colors they were pink, white, and red, and that was all the names I had 

 for them. I do not know the names of the varieties. 



We planted them in the fall, and the next spring we did not get any 

 flowers to speak of. The following spring we got a big lot of flowers, but 

 we found that it did not pay to grow anything that did not give a pretty 

 fair share of its blossoms before that time. So we got three hundred of 

 the Officinallis varieties. They were white and pink and red. 

 .The red is the best of the lot, and while it is short stemmed, we find that 

 if there is a late season when the main crop or the standard varieties did 

 not get into full crop, that the earlier blooming and smaller varieties help 

 out materially. 



Last year we had 240 plants that were from four to five years old. 

 That is, we had them that had been planted and not disturbed for four 

 or five years. And then we had two or three hundred plants that were 

 two or three years established, and from that little block of ground, 

 about the size of this room, we sold over $300 worth of peony blossoms. 

 They not only w'ere a good thing financially, but they helped us out so 

 we did not have to turn down any orders, and if there is anything we hate 

 to do is to have some one hold out a dollar to us and be unable to get it 

 because we do not have the flowers. It does not look like good busi- 

 ness. Then in the fall we took up 120 of these plants that had been 

 established five years. We took up two rows of these and sold a little 

 over $40 worth of stock, and we planted 420 plants. 



The $40 we got for these plants would pay for the cultivation and 

 care, grpund rent for the entire block for the year, and for the replant- 

 ing this new lot. We did not solicit any orders. 



We got as hi^h as fifty or sixty flowers from one plant. We have 

 one light pink variety that we call Genevieve Lord, probably because 

 that is not the name of it, but it is almost the identical shade of the 

 carnation which you remember a few years ago by that name. And 

 when we divided those plants up, we just simply made dozens from one 

 plant. I did not keep any account of it at that time, but we found it in 

 a limited way very profitable. 



Now one of the main things we had to learn, and we have not finished 

 learning it yet, or anything else in regard to them as far as that is con- 

 cerned, was how to have them at the right time. The main thing is to 

 get an early start in the spring. As soon as the crop is cut in the summer 

 time, we give it a heavy mulch of pretty well rotted manure and after- 

 ward stirring the ground, and then they do not get any further care for 

 the winter. 



