40 



HORTICULTURE 



July 11, 1908 



A VISIT TO THE PEONY FARM OF 



J. F. ROSENFIELD, WEST 



POINT, NEBRASKA. 



This gentleman has probably the 

 largest and finest collection o£ peonies 

 in America, if not in the world. He 

 is a peony specialist and knows how 

 to keep them strong and healthy. He 

 has deep, rich, well drained sandy 

 loam. The ground is sloping to carry 

 off the rain, for it will not do for peo- 

 nies to have wet feet. He has found 

 it will not do to plant peonies after 

 peonies until the ground has had rest, 

 nor will it do to manure heavily. After 

 clearing the land, he sows a crop of 

 oats, and as I saw them, there was a 

 tremendous growth. This he plows 

 under in June and lets it rot, then 

 in September he plows very deep and 

 the ground is ready for peonies again. 

 He often puts some coarse manure 

 on the fall-planted ones. He thinks 

 there is no harm in this as the manure 

 does not come in contact with the 

 roots and the rains feed them liquid 

 manure which is safe. 



He has been raising seedling peonies 

 for about twenty years. Out of thous- 

 ands he selects the very best. The plat 

 is carefully laid out and each plant is 

 numbered, a record is kept of their 

 blooming qualities, those that produce 

 flowers annually are noted and the in- 

 termittent ones rejected. Perhaps, 

 under this close scrutiny, nine-tenths 

 will be rejected from the first careful 

 selection. The five points of excellence 

 must be met: 1st, robustness of the 

 plant and readiness to propagate; 2d, 

 annual bloomer regardless of frosts; 

 lid. fragrance; 4th, large, full, symme- 

 trical flower; 5th, good keeping quali- 

 ties. 



As I looked over his charts, I was 

 impressed with his patience and con- 

 scientious regard for his customers and 

 for the future of his creations. It is 

 very important to have a peony that 

 will multiply readily. J. Descaisne is 

 a beautiful flower, but it is very brittle 

 in the root and with me it takes four 

 years to double itself, while Baroness 

 Schroedcr will easily double every year 

 and I have cut four good roots from 

 oik in a single season. So this is 

 cheaper at $5 than the other at twenty- 

 five cents. A peony that is an inter- 

 mittent bloomer, though of equal 

 beauty, is not worth half price. I have 

 had some of Kelway's best and have 

 had to wait five years for a blossom. 

 That don't pay. Yea's ago, Mr. Rosen- 

 field found a late pink with flowers of 

 exquisite beauty. I bought half of it 

 and mine never bloomed. His were 

 such intermittent bloomers they have 

 been utterly discarded. One trouble 

 with European propagators is they put 

 their favorites on the market too soon. 

 It is a fact that young peonies are in- 

 clined .o wabble till they are estab- 

 lished. Many of Terry's seedlings vary 

 widely in color from the descriptions 

 first given. Among my seedlings one 

 year I found one of marvelous beauty — 

 one of the most charming variegated 

 flowers I ever saw. A press repre- 

 sentative saw it and said: "Now, let 

 me name this.'' He called it Exquisite. 

 I planted a strong stake beside it with 

 the name on it. Next year the stake 

 was there and the same plant but no 

 Exquisite. That identical plant had 

 the impudi nee to throw up a tall stem 

 with a worthless single flower. I wait- 



ed for years for Exquisite to come 

 back but she never came. Another 

 time I found one of the most magnifi- 

 cent flowers in the whole collection. 

 It was an immense compact bloom 

 of violaceous, vivid, deep red. It was 

 a splendor. I marked it. The next 

 year it had an inferior bloom and for 

 five years it has not bloomed at all. 

 Now, if on the first blooming I had 

 commenced propagating, what a disap- 

 pointment my customers would have! 

 I am convinced that right here is where 

 the trouble lies with our French and 

 English growers. They rush things 

 on the market before they have been 

 fully tested. 



Mr. Rosenfield is so conservative 

 and exacting that he has selected only 

 eight out of thousands, in twenty 

 years. His Golden Harvest and Floral 

 Treasure are well known. They went 

 immediately to the front. Delica- 

 tissima and Floral Treasure are much 

 alike. The latter may be a seedling 

 of the former but it was born years 

 after. Mr. Rosenfield never had a 

 Delicatissima on his place till long 

 after Floral Treasure was born. Again, 

 Golden Harvest and Jeanne d'Arc re- 

 semble each other when there are forty 

 years difference in their birth. They 

 do look alike, but they are not the 

 same. A row of Jeanne d'Arc planted 

 last fall did not produce a flower. A 

 row of Golden Harvest of much smaller 

 roots, planted the same time, was cov- 

 ered with fine blooms and they always 

 bloom. A good many years ago, Mr. 

 Rosenfield secured some of the choicest 

 seed from an eastern grower and it 

 is probable that among them were 

 seeds of those two varieties which 

 nearlj reproduced themselves, and 

 though they look alike it is only a 

 family resemblance. They are not the 

 same as you will find by planting side 

 by side and watching them year by 

 year. Golden Harvest is the most con- 

 tinuous bloomer under adverse cir- 

 cumstances that ever was born. One 

 year, for forty-eight hours, when near- 

 ly ready to bloom, it was wrapped up 

 with a heavy coat of sleet and it 

 seemed as if the whole plant would 

 die. When it thawed out, it looked 

 sick, pale and wilty, and I said, "No 

 blooms this year." But not many days 

 after, the whole plant was covered 

 with a mantle of exquisite beauty. 

 Now, a plant like that is worth hav- 

 ing I give a description of six new- 

 candidates for popular favor. 



Karl Rosenfield. — This proved to be 

 the grandest among seven hundred 

 varieties. Large flowers are often 

 coarse, but this is a glory — a ball of 

 glistening velvety crimson. Most of 

 this color are tardy or shy bloomers. 

 This blooms on the least provocation 

 the first year, and all the years. It 

 is quite early and very fragrant, scor- 

 ing the five points of excellence. 

 Ak-sar-ben. — Nebraska spelled back- 

 wards. Crimson maroon. Grace D. 

 Bryan. — Large pink; very double and 

 fragrant: very late. Crimson Vic- 

 tory. — Forty-five inches tall, an annual, 

 bountiful bloomer, fragrant; very fine 

 in bud and respendent in bloom. 

 Prairie Splendor. — Majestic dark pink, 

 delieiously perfumed, very vigorous 

 and a good multiplier. Prairie King. — 

 A sure late bloomer, flower deep, 

 violaceous red, fragrant. 



Some years ago Mr. Rosenfield 

 bought one hundred and twenty-five 



varieties from an English concern for 

 which he paid $180 besides freight and 

 duty. He finds not over ten of them 

 of any real merit and all the rest must 

 be put on the cheap list or be dis- 

 carded altogether. Here are some of 

 the peculiar methods of this firm. He 

 did not order any Festiva Maxima and 

 yet they were sent in the place of 

 four other varieties. He gave no order 

 for Andre Laures, the old late rose. 

 He had thousands growing himself, 

 and in three instances these were put 

 in the place of high-priced ones. See 

 pages 41 and 52 of peony manual, 2d 

 edition. 



I think he has one hundred and fifty 

 varieties from Dessert of France. While 

 he considers him a conscientious and 

 careful propagator, he finds only about 

 one-half of his worthy of attention. 

 He has put too many on the market. 

 He thinks that ultimately, we will 

 come down to about seventy-five varie- 

 ties. It surely is better to patronize 

 home-grown that have been carefully 

 tested rather than bring in those of 

 doubtful merit and run the risk of 

 importing that terrible fungoid disease 

 which hangs like death to the plant. 

 C. S. HARRISON. 



York, Nebr. 



THE CULTIVATION OF GLADIOLI. 



(Read before the Philadelphia Florists' 

 Club, July T, 190S, by Arthur Cowee.l 



It is with much pleasure and a high 

 appreciation of the honor at being 

 requested to address you this evening 

 upon a. subject, which in spite of other 

 business cares and responsibilities has 

 been uppermost in my ambition and 

 desire to excel, that is, the cultivation 

 of gladioli. 

 Qualities of the Modern Gladiolus. 



Doubtless some, if not all, of you 

 are familiar with the exceptionally 

 rapid development of this flower dur- 

 ing the past ten years or so. Especially 

 do I refer to the artistic forms and 

 coloring of enormous flowers properly 

 arranged on a gracefully bending spike. 

 The time was not long ago when prac- 

 tically the only gladiolus bulbs com- 

 mercially offered were of one type. 

 the Gandavensis, with stiff, straight 

 spikes, comparatively small flowers 

 arranged closely together, all of the 

 buds developing at about the same 

 time. The variety of colors also was 

 limited and it is no wonder to me 

 that except for massive decorations the 

 average florist has been slow to take 

 up the growing of this flower. 



To such hybridizers as Groff and 

 Lemoine are we indebted for the many 

 types of beautiful and artistic flowers 

 which have been recently introduced 

 and upon which (although it may seem 

 impossible) improvement is constant- 

 ly being made: these modern hybrids 

 which from their cheapness and adapt- 

 ability to any kind of decoration, 

 either large or small, are yearly tempt- 

 ing more and more the artistic, criti- 

 cal and exacting florist. I do not wish 

 to appeal- in the light of condemning 

 the entire Gandavensis family. Such 

 is not my intention, for among the 

 hosts of named varieties of this class 

 are many which I value highly on ac- 

 count of some particular attribute or 

 attributes which render it invaluable 

 for certair purposes, for instance, I 

 have fovnd the varieties Shakespeare, 

 May, Augusta and Brenchleyensis the 



