THE BOOK OF THE PEONY 



the plants should be sprayed in addition to the 

 watering. As soon as the flowers open, water 

 should be applied to the roots only. The flower- 

 ing season will be quite long if the tree is strong 

 and has set many buds. After forcing, tree peo- 

 nies require two or three years for recuperation. 

 Because the blooms of double-flowered varieties 

 last longer upon the plant, those varieties are 

 best for forcing. Reine Elizabeth, Lactea, Jules 

 Pirlot and Lord Macartnay are excellent for this 

 purpose. 



Propagation 

 grafting 



The usual method of propagating tree peo- 

 nies is by grafting. In China and in France they 

 are grafted upon the fleshy roots of herbaceous 

 peonies. In Japan the practice is to graft upon 

 the wild moutan stock, but this is far from satis- 

 factory. The wild moutan stock is so strong and 

 persistent that a constant struggle is necessary 

 to prevent the graft from being choked out. The 

 graft sometimes makes roots of its own and thus 

 becomes established, but it is at the price of eternal 

 vigilance on the gardener's part. At the present 

 time I know of but one grower who imports the 



214 



