A BUSINESS MAN'S PLEASURE IN HIS PEONIES. 251 



A Business Man's Pleasure in His Peonies. 



LEE R. BONNEWITZ, VAN WERT, OHIO. 



One of my business associates finding me at work in my 

 peony garden asked with surprise, "Mr. Bonnewitz, why are you 

 doing this kind of work?" And I am sure he did not understand 

 my reply when I said, "My dear sir, I am working in these 

 peonies now so that when I am eighty years old I shall have 

 grown into a happy, likeable old gentlemen. It has taken some 

 observation, and a little of my own home made philosophy, to 

 enable me to realize that success in business will not necessarily 

 bring with it a happy old age, and that he who realizes his con- 

 nection with God's animate world can be happy at any age." 



And so I am realizing pleasure in the culture, care and ob- 

 servation of my peonies, from the first days in early spring, 

 when they so confidently thrust their heads through the earth, 

 until the winter winds call me to lay the ripened stalks as a cover- 

 ing for the new buds for the coming spring. 



The real peony enthusiast can see beauty in the plants as they 

 first appear, and I well remember my exclamation of surprise 

 as I one day saw a tiny clod of earth thrown into the air, and 

 saw a peony plant occupy the spot from which the earth had been 

 thrown. That peony had brought its own spring with it. 



One of my peony loving friends tells me he can recognize some 

 varieties in his neighbors' gardens just by their appearance as 

 they first greet the light. I have not yet arrived at this effi- 

 ciency of observation, but he gets a pleasure out of his efforts 

 to correctly name the varieties at this early time in their exist- 

 ence. 



I have read of a grower who layered her peonies in the days 

 of early spring, while the stalks were young and pliable, and who 

 succeeded in growing a root upon the bloom stalk at the point 

 where it was covered. It gave me pleasure to try that experi- 

 ment last spring, and while I did not succeed yet it will give me 

 pleasure to try it again next spring. It is the uncertain things 

 which keeps our interest aroused. 



As the buds appear we notice that some of them are round 

 like a ball, some are pointed like a rose bud, and others are flat. 

 One of my friends tells me that "Pleas" varieties have buds 

 which come to a sharper point than any of the English or French 

 varieties. It will be a pleasure for me to see if my observations 

 confirm the truth of his statement. The buds on Kelway's 



