July 13, 1918 



HORTICULTURE 



Letters From an Old to a Young Gardener 



A Method of Increasing New Peonies Quickly 



In one of ray letters to you, printed in HorticdlturEj 

 it was written that when disease had destroyed the 

 crown of a rare variety of paeony, new plants could be 

 raised by cutting out the diseased ends of the remaining 

 roots, and planting the budless fragments near the sur- 

 face, keeping them moist. Photographs were enclosed 

 showing new plants produced in this way. After the 

 roots had been dug to photograph them, they were im.- 

 paled on nails to hold them in position, and later re- 

 planted. Notwithstanding this harsh treatment they 

 made a good growth the next year. With this letter I 

 send you a photograph of the larger of these roots, the 

 one that had three buds, to show you what developed 

 from them the following June. Though this method is 

 old, it is not generally known, therefore I call your 

 attention to it, because it will enable you to quickly in- 

 crease any new seedlings you may raise that are promis- 

 ing. Reproducing a choice seedling from roots with 

 buds is at best a very slow method. Even an old variety 

 hke Therese is hard to obtain from my correspondent. 

 Monsieur Dessert, the originator, and he wrote me this 

 was true of other large budded varieties. 



; 



Tamworth, N. H. 



llliavwK<>Uiu*3 



Peony Totjkangelle f ro:w a Bi-dless Root 



Sweet Pea Floradale Fairy 



Sweet pea specialists have made many attempts in 

 their hybridizing to evolve a yellow sweet pea, but so far 

 all attempts have to date been abortive. Some of these 

 enthusiasts have even tried to get this color by using in 

 their hybridizing relatives of Lathyrus odoratus which 

 had the desired canary yellow color. In Floradale 

 Fairy, however, we believe the nearest approach to yel- 

 low has been made. When this magnificent variety is 

 bunched and in certain lights the color tone is decidedly 

 light yellow. 



In addition to its magnificent color the flowers are of 

 immense size and no variety we know of is more beau- 

 tifully crimped or frilled, and what in our opinion adds 



to the great beauty, of the flower is the fact that so many 

 of the blooms are duplex or have double and sometimes 

 triple standards. It is one of the "good doers" as the 

 plant is particularly vigorous and free flowering, while 

 the flowers are borne on very long stems. The bunches 

 of this variety exhibited at the American Sweet Pea 

 Society's Exhibition in Philadelphia were greatly 

 admired. 



Doylestown, Pa. 



iTood 



Food 



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