The Weekly Florists' Review. 



Junk 25, 1008. 



was elected: A. H. Fewkes, B. H. Farr, 

 R. T. Brown. 



Following are the awards: 



Largest and best collection of varie- 

 ties, one flower of each, T. C. Thurlow 

 & ('o., first. 



Best fifty blooms, dark pink or rose, 

 T. C. Thurlow & Co., first, on Dorchester. 



Best fifty blooms, flesh or salmon pink, 

 T. C. Thurlow & Co., second, on Baroness 

 Schroeder. 



Best fifty blooms crimson, T. C. Thur- 

 low & Co., on Marechal Vaillant. 



In the amateur classes the awards 

 were : 



Collection of not less than twelve vari- 

 eties, one of each, Prof. A. P. Saunders, 

 second. 



Best and largest collection of white 

 varieties, one bloom of each variety, A. P. 

 Saunders, second. 



Best collection of rose pink varieties, 

 one bloom each, A. P. Saunders, first. 



Best collection of salmon pink varie- 

 ties, one bloom of each variety, A. P. 

 Saunders, first. 



Best collection of tricolored varieties, 

 one bloom of each, A. P. Saunders, sec- 

 ond. 



Best collection of crimson varieties, one 

 bloom of each, A. P. Saunders, first. 



Best six blooms of any variety, A. P. 

 Saunders, first. W. H. A. 



A VISIT TO ROSENFIELD. 



J. F. Kosenfield, at West Point, Neb., 

 has one of the largest and finest collec- 

 tions of peonies in America, and that 

 •neans in the world. He has 700 vari- 

 eties, besides thousands of seedlings on 

 the way, and, 1 should judge, if all were 

 cut up and replanted this fall, lie would 

 have half a million. 



He is a peony specialist, understand- 

 ing all about them, and knows how to 

 keep them strong and healthy. He lias 

 deep, rich, well-drained, sandy loam. 

 The groun<l is sloping, to carry off the 

 rain, for it will not do for the peonies 

 to have wet feet. He has found it will 

 not do to plant peonies after peonies 

 until the ground has had rest, nor will 

 it do to manure heavily'. After clearing 

 the land, he sows a crop of oats and, 

 ns I saw them, there was a tremendous: 

 growth. This he plows under in June 

 and lets it rot; then, in September, he 

 plows deeply and tlie ground is ready for 



peonies again. He often puts some 

 coarse manure on the fall-planted ones. 

 He thinks there is no harm in this, as 

 the manure does not come in contact with 

 the roots and the rains feed them liquid 

 manure, which is safe. 



' 7 His Methods. 



He has been raising seedling peonies 

 for about twenty years. The plat is 

 carefully laid out and each plant is num- 

 bered. A record is kept of the bloom- 

 ing qualities. Those that produce flow- 

 ers annually are noted and the inter- 

 mittent ones rejected. Perhaps, under 

 this close scrutiny, nine-tenths will be 

 rejected from the first careful selection. 

 The five points of excellence must be 

 met : 



1. Robustness of the plant and readi- 

 ness to propagate. 



2. Annual bloomer, regardless of 

 frosts. 



3. Fragrance. 



4. Large, full, symmetrical flower. 



5. (lood keeping qualities. 



As I looked over his charts T was 

 impressed with his patience and con- 

 scientious regard for the future of his 

 creations. It is important to have a 

 peony that will multiply readily. J. 

 Descaisne is a beautiful flower, but it 

 is brittle in the root and with me it 

 takes four years to double itself, while 

 Baroness Schroeder will easily double 

 every year, and I have cut four good 

 roots from one in a single season. So 

 this is cheaper at $5 than the other at 

 25 cents. A peony that is an intermit- 

 tent bloomer, though of equal beauty, 

 is not worth half price. I have had some 

 of Kelway's best and have had to wait 

 five years for a blossom. That don't 

 pay. One trouble with Kuropean propa- 

 gators is, they put their novelties on the 

 market too soon. It is a fact that young 

 peonies are inclined to wabble till they 

 arc established. Many of Terry's seed- 

 lings vary widely in color from the 

 descriptions first given. Among my 

 seedlings one year I found one of mar- 

 velous beauty — one of the most charm- 

 ing variegated flowers I ever saw. A 

 press representative saw it and said, 

 "Now, let me name this." He called 

 it Exquisite. T planted a strong stake 

 beside it, with the name on it. Next 

 year the stake was there and the same 

 plant, but no Exquisite. That identical 



plant had the impudence to throw up a 

 tall stem with a worthless single flower. 

 I waited for years for Exquisite to come 

 back, but it never came. Another time 

 1 found one of the most magnificent 

 flowers in the whole collection. It was 

 an immense, compact bloom of viola- 

 ceous, vivid, deep red. It was a splen- 

 dor. I marked it. The next year it had 

 an inferior bloom and for five years it 

 has not bloomed at all. Now, if on 

 the first blooming I had commenced 

 propagating, what a disappointment my 

 customers would have! I am convinced 

 that right here is where the trouble 

 lies with our French and English growers. 

 They rush things on the market before 

 they have been fully tested. 



Mr. Rosenfield is so conservative and 

 exacting that he has selected only eight 

 out of thousands in twenty years. His 

 Golden Harvest and Floral Treasure are 

 well known. They immediately went to 

 the front. Delicatissima and Floral 

 Treasure are much alike. The latter may 

 be a seedling of the former, but it was 

 born years after. Mr. Rosenfield never 

 had a Delicatissima on his place till long 

 after Floral Treasure was born. Again, 

 Golden Harvest and Jeanne d'Are re- 

 semble each other when there is forty 

 years' difference in their birth. They do 

 look alike, but they are not the same. 

 A row of Jeanne d'Arc planted last 

 fall did not produce a flower. A row 

 of Golden Harvest of much smaller roots, 

 planted the same time, was covered with 

 fine blooms, and they always bloom. A 

 good many years ago Mr. Rosenfield se- 

 cured some of the choicest seed from an 

 eastern grower and it is probable that 

 among them were seeds of those two 

 varieties which nearly reproduced them- 

 selves, and though they look alike it is 

 only a family resemblance. They are 

 not the same, as you will find by planting 

 side by side and watching them year by 

 year. Golden Harvest is the most con- 

 tinuous bloomer under adverse circum- 

 stances that ever was born. 



After years of waiting and testing, 

 Mr. Rosenfield is now putting six more 

 on the market. They are: Karl Rosen- 

 field, crimson, large, tall, early, fragrant ; 

 .\k-sar-ben, crimson maroon, tall; Grace 

 D. Bryan, large pink, double, fragrant, 

 robust, late; Crimson Vietory, tall, full 

 crimson ; Prairie Splendor, tall, large 



The Exhibition of the American Peony Society, Ithaca, N. Y., June 19 and 20, 1908. 



