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PEONY GROWERS ARE jur 

 iir AFTER THE AMATEURS 



The American Peony Society, at its thirteenth exhibition and meeting, 

 held in New York city last week, made a special effort to interest amaieur 

 growers. Membership gains are steqdy.'Jmt participation in meetings and 

 exhibitions does not increase, Plan^for ij^xt; year show no change. 







THIETEEN is a proverbially 

 unlucky number and may 

 in a measure be responsi- 

 ble for the lack of interest 

 displayed last week in the 

 thirteenth annual meeting 

 and exhibition of the 

 American Peony Society, 

 held in New York. On the 

 other hand, the absence of 

 trade interest may in some part have 

 been due to the announcement by Sec- 

 retary Saunders in the preliminary pre- 

 mium list that "a special effort has 

 been made this year to provide a list 

 that shall offer something attractive 

 to the amateur who has only a few 

 plants of peonies, and not alone to the 

 professional growers and to amateurs 

 with large collections. Those who have 

 only small collections will find in the 

 'Limited Amateur Classes' a place 

 where they may be almost certain of 

 winning something. It is earnestly 

 hoped that these classes will bring out 

 a large number of entries. If more 

 amateurs realized the interest and in- 

 centive in staging blooms for competi- 

 tion there would be no lack of exhib- 

 itors. Amateurs with large collections 

 should understand that they as well as 

 the professional grow- 

 ers may enter any of 

 the open classes." 



Little Competition. 



But no amateurs did 

 enter in the fourteen 

 open classes and there 

 were only four trade 

 growers who exhibited 

 in them; four of the 

 fourteen classes failed 

 to bring out a single 

 entry. The Harding 

 prize of $100 for an 

 American seedling of 

 outstanding merit was 

 not awarded. 



The amateurs made 

 a slightly better show- 

 ing than did the trade 

 growers, numerically 

 at least, as seven par- 

 ticipated, three in the 

 regular amateur classes 

 and four in the "lim- 

 ited ' ' classes, where 

 only three blooms were 

 required. Only one 

 amateur class failed to 

 get an entry and this 

 was the amateur ar- 

 rangement for effect, 

 the prizes being cash 



OFHCERS RE-^feqTED 



■' ■ .;"t^ ■"•' ' Pjresidcnt, ''■ - ' "^ '*'■ ■ 

 Bertrand H. Farr , 'Wyomissing, Pa. 



Vice-Preskl«5nt». 



A. H. Fewkest Newton Higfidands, 

 Mass. 



' Tfeasurer, '■'■„ ?^' 



J. H. Humphreys^ Germantown, Pa. 



Secretary, ,■ ''^ 



A. P.' Saunderst Clinton, N. Y.'. 



J 91 7 Meeting Place, 

 Philadelphia, Pa. 



medals offered by a gardening magazine. 

 The appearance is that the trade's 

 interest in the peony has subsided with 

 the passing of the boom of a decade 

 ago, when florists and nurserymen were 

 planting peonies by the acre, for cut 

 blooms and for stock, and that the 

 amateurs have not been impressed with 

 the advantages that accrue with the 



and 



achievement' 



Best Vase of 100 Peonies at the 1916 National Exhibition. 



winning of from $3 to $6 with a dis- 

 play of only three flowers. It is the 

 fact, however, that the peony now 

 stands higher . in public appreciation 

 than it ever did before and that, on 

 the whole, florists are selling more cut 

 blooms and both florists and nursery- 

 men ^re selling more roots each year 

 than in the years before.. The Peony 

 Society has done much- good work, but 

 a change in direction evidently is need- 

 ed. For instance, all other exhibitions 

 nowadays feature the retail florists' 

 decorative displays and demonstrations, 

 but last week's peony show ignored 

 the retailer and his work; there was 

 no attempt to show the use of the 

 peony as a cut flower. 



Nomenclature. 



President Farr called the annual busi- 

 ness meeting to order at the Hotel 

 Astor, Friday evening, June 9. He had 

 prepared no address, but spoke extem- 

 poraneously on the needs of the society 

 and on the perennial question of no- 

 menclature. The society's trials at 

 Cornell University have pretty well 

 settled questions as to synonyms, most 

 of these now being matters of published 

 record, but President Farr suggested 

 there is a good work 

 to be done in the sim- 

 plification of names. 

 He deplored the habit 

 in Europe, whence have 

 come the majority of 

 our most generally 

 grown varieties, to use 

 long names, frequently 

 those devoid of mean- 

 ing, as in cases of the 

 use of names of per- 

 sons. He urged that 

 short, descriptive 

 names are much bet- 

 ter and suggested that 

 the secretary be in- 

 structed to write the 

 principal peony inter- 

 ests in Europe stating 

 the American society's 

 attitude, urging that a 

 name of one word be 

 used in most cases, 

 with never more than 

 two words in the name 

 for a new variety. 



The Business Yoar. 



Prof. Saunders, sec- 

 retary, reported that 

 thirty-four new mem- 

 bers had been added to 

 the list since last 

 year 's meeting. The 



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