70 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



his Martha Bullock, best known, was one of the prominent features 

 in the show last year. Among his many new ones I would mention 

 Mary Brand, Richard Carvel, and Francis Willard. E. J. Shaylor 

 of Wellesley Hills, is devoting his later years to raising new varie- 

 ties, and has already given us Georgiana Shaylor, Mary Woodbury 

 Shaylor, Wilton Lockwood, and a number of others which have 

 received certificates of merit at your shows here. We must not 

 forget to mention Cherry Hill by Thurlow of West Newbury, and 

 Karl Rosenfield, by Rosenfield of Omaha, Nebraska, as being two 

 American varieties of exceptional merit. Some of you may re- 

 member the splendid exhibit of some fifty new unnamed seedlings 

 made here two years ago by Prof. A. P. Saunders of Clinton, New 

 York. You will want to keep an eye on his work, for possibly one 

 of these days the long sought yellow Peony may appear in his 

 garden, for he is after it, apparently on the right track, and I 

 shouldn't wonder if he succeeds. 



It will be seen, therefore, that nearly all of our modern Peonies 

 are of comparatively recent introduction, and I am greatly im- 

 pressed by the fact that practically all of the fine Peonies we have 

 today have come to us through that remarkable group in France, 

 Calot, Crousse, Lemoine, and Dessert, most of them having a 

 family relationship, and the few enthusiasts in America, just 

 mentioned, who have taken up the growing of Peonies because they 

 found it intensely fascinating; for the Peony does not attract the 

 commercial grower. In its propagation there is no easy, royal road 

 to quick results. It takes from four to six years before blooms 

 may be had from seed, and if, perchance, one seedling in a thousand 

 has sufficient merit and distinction to justify its introduction as a 

 new variety, it takes many more years to raise by the slow process 

 of division, sufficient stock to be able to offer it to the trade. That 

 is why the new varieties are so expensive; unlike a new Rose or 

 Carnation, which in a few months can be increased to an unlimited 

 supply through cuttings. It takes years to acquire a few plants 

 from a Peony, and even today, some of the old varieties are still 

 scarce. 



The professional grower cannot afford to wait so long for results. 

 So most of the work with the Peony has been done by those whose 

 love for the flowers themselves, and the fascination of watching 



