THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



187 



PENNISETUM. 



Within a few years these free flower 

 ing dwarf grasses have become very 

 popular. There are many species, but 

 only a few are used in our summer 

 flower gardening, where they are a great 

 addition to our subtropical gardening. 

 The best of them all is P. longistylum. 

 They are easily raised from seed which 

 should be sown soon after New Year s, 

 Larger and stronger plants can be pro 

 duced by lifting some old plants be 

 fore frost, preserving them in flats dur 

 ing winter and dividing them towards 

 spring. 



PEONIES. 



While there are many species of this 

 popular genus there are only three that 

 have come into popular favor. These 

 are Pasonia albiflora, P. Moutan and P. 

 tenuifolia. Paeonia albiflora, the Chinese 

 hardy herbaceous peony, is the section 

 the florist is mostly interested in. P. 

 tenuifolia is interesting and can be used 

 with good effect in the herbaceous 

 garden. Its finely divided foliage is 

 very distinct, with solitary terminal 

 flowers. The typical color is scarlet 

 or crimson, but other colors have been 

 produced of late. 



The Moutan section is the so-called 

 tree peony. These varieties are shrubby 

 and much branched. The double forms 

 have beautiful flowers. Most of the 

 varieties now in cultivation have large 

 double flowers of various colors. They 

 are propagated by grafting the dormant 

 eyes on strong roots of the herbaceous 

 species. The tree peony makes a hand 

 some subject for the lawn, or is fine 

 in masses in a bed, and it also 

 is much used for forcing for conserva- 



A Nursery Block of Peony Festiva Maxima. 



tory decorations, but it will scarcely pay 

 the American florist to attempt the forc 

 ing of this showy plant. We have tried 

 it. In the first place the plants of 

 useful size are expensive, and if not 

 large enough to give you a profusion of 

 bloom they are not attractive. If the 

 practice of grafting the tree peony be 

 comes common in this country and 

 moderately bushy plants can be pur 

 chased from specialists at a reasonable 

 price, they would soon become popular 

 forcing plants. 



Pseonia albiflora, the herbaceous peony 

 of China, is the commercial plant which 

 of late years has grown greatly in 

 popular favor. It comes from China, 

 northern Asia, and Siberia. This ac 

 counts for the extreme hardiness. The 

 single varieties are the typical form 

 and have wide-spreading petals with a 

 bunch of yellow stamens and anthers 

 in the center, making a very showy 

 flower, but it is the double varieties that 

 are in fashion and demand. Of these 

 there are hundreds of garden varieties, 

 so a list of names given today may be 

 out of fashion in five years. All I shall 

 say about varieties is that at least 

 seventy-five per cent of all you plant 

 for cutting should be white and light 

 pink. There is great variation in these 

 shades, so consult the catalogues of the 

 peony specialists. 



If planting with the intention of 

 dividing and selling divisions of the 

 roots, they can be planted three feet 

 apart each way, or even closer in the 

 rows, but if planting for future cutting 

 of the flowers, then four feet apart 

 each way is little enough room. 



While the peony will exist in almost 

 any soil, it will give only poor flowers in 

 a shallow, sandy or gravelly soil and it 

 should be deep, heavily manured and 



inclined to be moist. To get the best 

 results the soil should be not only 

 ploughed or dug, but it should be 

 trenched to a depth of two feet, work 

 ing in thirty tons of cow manure to 

 the acre. Frequently in our northern 

 summers we get a protracted spell of 

 dry weatuer the latter part of May and 

 early June; then ~the peony blossoms 

 suffer. I have seen them much injured 

 at this time in a dry spell, so if plant 

 ing for cut blossoms it would be well 

 to choose a piece of ground with a 

 slight fall to the south, so that when 

 occasion arrives you can irrigate the 

 plot. No other means of watering 

 would be practical or efficient. 

 Peonies do very well in partial 

 shade. Bordering a plantation of hardy 

 shrubs and shaded by trees, they are 

 very satisfactory; but for the com 

 mercial man, give them the full sun. 



Next to a deep, rich soil is the 

 necessity of keeping the peony field 

 clear of weeds and, therefore, if the 

 plants are planted four feet apart each 

 way in straight rows, much of the clean 

 ing and cultivating can be done by 

 horse cultivator, leaving only a small 

 space to be tended with the hand hoe. 

 If the dandelion and other coarse weeds 

 and grasses are allowed to get a foot 

 hold in the crown of the peonies, they 

 will be very troublesome, so they should 

 be kept rigorously free of weeds. 



The herbaceous peony sends up long, 

 strong flower-stalks mostly terminating 

 in four to six buds. The largest and 

 most perfect bud should be selected and 

 the others removed unless you wish to 

 have some flowers later, when later buds 

 can be left and the others removed. 

 Peonies should be cut in the bud state 

 and kept for twenty-four hours in a 

 cool room or cellar. If allowed to pen 



