406 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



feet deep, well fertilized with hen manure if you can get it. 

 Prepare it a few months before you plant, so the manure will be 

 well incorporated. 



Does it hurt them to crowd them? No. The better they 

 are treated the more vigorous they are ; left too long in neglect 

 the buds will begin to die. The plant can be entirely exhausted 

 so that it will throw up shoots but they will have no strength 

 to flower. If you get large fine blooms you must give the plant 

 something to make them of. You cannot expect your choice Jer- 

 sey cow to give the best results if fed only on straw. 



Some people ask "Why don't my paeonys bloom?" They 

 may be exhausted, or they may be cheap, shy bloomers. You 

 have two cows in your herd ; one gives you three times the results 

 the other does. So always get the best. 



There are four points to score in a thoroughbred paeony : 

 beauty, fragrance, readiness to bloom and a prolific breeder or 

 multiplier. For instance, J. Discaisne is a fragrant, lovely flower, 

 but it takes about five years to double itself. That don't pay. 

 La Tulipe is as fine a flower; two years ago I cut one two-year 

 root into seven ; this fall I cut up the seven and had twenty- 

 eight. That pays. 



I am now at work on an international paeon}- pamphlet, with 

 writers from Europe and America, and well illustrated. I design 

 it as a complete manual for the successful cultivation of this 

 glorious and hardy flower. 



Mr. Latham : I would like to ask a question in regard to 

 keeping the cut flowers of the peony. It is only in flower for 

 six weeks or two months. Is there any way of keeping the cut 

 flower for commercial purposes? 



Mr. Harrison: The flowers are cut just as the buds open, 

 with long stems, the leaves stripped off, then put in a tub of 

 water over night, carefully packed and shipped to their destina- 

 tion, where they are put in cold storage, where they will keep for 

 a long time. There is a very late one I got from a large grower in 

 Chicago. It is called the Richardson's Superba, and they have 

 kept for two or three weeks, and thus the season was extended. 

 If the leaves are stripped off and the stems left long, they will open 

 their blooms if cut in the bud. 



Mr. Loring: Do you fertilize very heavily? 



Mr. Harrison : The peony is about as patient as any flower 

 that grows. A neighbor of mine had some that bloomed for 

 twenty years, but the blossoms were small. It pays to take 

 the best of care of them. By the best of care I mean that the 

 ground should be spaded two feet deep, and thoroughly prepared 



