NOTEWORTHY PERENNIALS 



131 



Peonies — everybody's flower. 



Peonies are grown both for their flowers and beautiful foliage. 

 From the time the red shoots first appear early in Spring, when the 

 flowers in an almost endless number of colors are massed on the bushes, 

 and when the glossy green foliage takes on the autumnal tints of vivid 

 carmine, purple, amethyst and orange, Peonies are in great demand. 

 The average height is from 2 feet to 4 feet, each plant spreading out 

 to ahnost the same distance. The flowers are borne either singly or 

 in groups of two or three. There are single blooms very much like 

 a wild Rose, except in size; semi-double flowers and double ones which 

 are a round mass of uneven petals. Some of the flowers are so large 

 and heavy that it often becomes necessary to prop them up so that 

 the Spring rains will not dash them into the mud. The leaves are 

 smooth, dark, glossy and divided. The colors of the flowers range 

 from purest white with a mass of golden stamens in the center through 

 all the shades of pink to the darkest of reds and purples. There are 

 also some pleasing yellow varieties. Many of the newer varieties are 

 delicately rose-scented which makes them very much more valuable 

 because the ofl'ensive odor of the early red "Piney" has been done 

 away with. Some of the varieties do not last very long, but if early 

 and late varieties are planted, a succession of bloom can be had which 

 will last for six or seven weeks. The greater majority of them are in 



