The Weekly Florists' Review.' 



May 18, 1911. 



before delivering them. Baskets filled 

 even a couple of weeks before being 

 sent out do, not have the freshly filled 

 appearance incidental to those just 

 made up, and there are occasional 

 stormy days, even in the busy month of 

 May, when this work can be done. Line 

 the baskets well with moss; either 

 sphagnum or sheet moss will answer, 

 and use soil well enriched with old 

 rotted manure. Remember the plants 

 have only a limited space in which to 

 root and if the soil is not good at the 

 start they will soon show signs of 

 starvation. 



Almost any of the pendent plants 

 used ordinarih' in window boxes are 

 adaptable for baskets, such as green 

 and variegated vincas, maurandias, gle- 



chomas, English ivy, Lobelia gracilis, 

 some of the begonias. Asparagus Spren- 

 geri, nasturtiums, ivy-leaved geraniums 

 and others which might be named. As- 

 paragus Sprengeri answers nicely by 

 itself where the location is somewhat 

 shaded and green effects are wanted. 

 Ivy geraniums also prefer a little shade, 

 as do fuchsias, which are excellent bas- 

 ket subjects. Among the finest flower- 

 ing basket plants where something out 

 of the ordinary and rather choice is 

 needed, are the achimines. These can bo 

 planted all over the basket. They must 

 have a shaded house to bring them 

 along and a fair amount of warmth, and 

 if giyefi^ a sheltered place under the 

 piazza they make a beautiful show, no 

 basket whatever being visible. 



PEONY CULTURE. 



[A paper by E. J. Shaylor, of WelleBley Farms, 

 Mass., read before the Gardeners' and Florists' 

 Club of Boston, May 16, 1911.] 



The peony is a native of cold coun- 

 tries mostly, and is hardy. The ancients 

 used both the roots and seeds in a me- 

 dicinal way. It is related that in the 

 Trojan war one Paeon used the roots to 

 heal the sick and the wounded, and 

 from him the name was derived. I re- 

 member vaguely that in my childhood, 

 .about sixty years ago, some of my 

 neighbors obtained some roots to be 

 steeped for medicine; so its use for such 

 purposes came nearly down to the pres- 

 ent. The roots, dried, were worn also 

 about the neck to ward off disease. The 

 seeds were taken inwardly to shoo 

 away the nightmare. 



We are all acquainted with a head 

 gardener of Wellesley, who, hearing a 

 workman complain of malaria, took 

 from his pocket some peony seeds, and 

 handing them to him in a joking way, 

 said, "Here, Tim, are some pills; try 

 them and maybe they will help you." 

 Sure enough, Tim took them regularly 

 for a few days, until the head gardener 

 thought the joke had gone far enough, 

 and then he asked him how he was. Tim 

 said he was better, and gave the pills 

 credit. Then the head gardener told 

 him what they were. To the ancients 

 it was dead earnest and no .joke. They 

 were cured, no doubt, by faith, a thing 

 which in our .'iv '"i" been capitalized 

 as a huge divi. ,'ml |:iviiij; leligion. 



'I he plautii.^ of jieoiiios should be 

 rl'-ne with care. It is not enough sim- 

 ] iy to dig a hole and put them in. 

 Trench the ground deeply and work 

 in old manure. It does good to mix 

 in some bone mca' or hardwood ashes, 

 or a potato fertilizer strong in potash. 

 The most successful field planting I 

 ever made was done in this way. The 

 patch was new ground which had been 



grubbed over in summer. In Septem- 

 ber furrows were dug to the depth of 

 twelve or fourteen inches and the loam 

 was piled along the rows in ridges. 

 In the bottom of the trenches old ma- 

 nure was put and chopped into the soil 

 with the spade. On the ridges of loam 

 that lay along the trenches we scat- 

 tered some air-slaked lime and some 

 potato fertilizer. As the roots were 

 set, this loam was filled in, thus mixing 

 the lime and the fertilizer well with 

 the soil. The next spring, when the 

 plants were just coming up, some bone 

 meal was scattered along ^ one side of 

 the rows, and some of the same kind 

 of potato fertilizer along the other 

 side, and these were cultivated in with 

 a hand cultivator. This planting gave 

 the best results, both in blooms and 

 roots, that I ever obtained. 



Never use any fresh manure. One 

 year I made a mistake and set some 

 rows of peonies so that the rows ran 

 through a place where a pile of manure 

 had lain for six months. They were 

 set in the fall. The next spring I no- 

 ticed at once that the peonies where 

 the manure pile had lain were in 

 trouble. I took them up and scrubbed) 

 them off in a tub of water. The strong 

 soil was eating them up. They were 

 set out in another place and I saved 

 most of them. I have no doubt that if 

 they had been left where they were, 

 they would all have been lost. 



Be sure that your place has good 

 drainage. If the soil becomes sour or 

 soggy, good-by to your roots; I don't 

 know why, only I know that it will 

 either kill them outright or make them 

 worthless. After they are set out in 

 good shape, do not forget that you 

 must agitate the hoe about them quite 

 often. Clean culture is the best trick 

 to play in your garden. 



Diseases and Pests. 



Insects trouble them some. The cut- 

 worm likes them for breakfast, dinner 



and supper, and for lunch between 

 meals. I have received letters asking, 

 "What shall I do to keep the ants 

 off the peony buds!" My answer is, 

 "Nothing." The sap that is in the 

 stalk is like^. a sweet syrup, and it 

 exudes at the; top. The ants only 

 drink that. I presume the sweetness of 

 the stalk is the reason for the cut- 

 worms' partiality to them. The rose 

 bug comes about the time peonies are 

 ending, and they eat the petals off the 

 blooms. Generally, however, peonies 

 are over before these come in numbers 

 sufBcient to do much harm. 



Peonies have been considered iron- 

 clad, but my experience is that they 

 have their chills, the same as I have. 

 The black rot gets in and eats away 

 the roots. Air-slaked lime is the best 

 remedy I have found. Dig away the 

 loam, put in some lime and put back 

 fresh loam. If you can move thein to a 

 new place, then cut the rot away, dust 

 the roots with lime and reset them.v I 

 think this is caused sometimesyby 

 their being set entirely in the Made, 

 where dampnes8-does"1t^ iff-y<}ur)place 

 is shady, then set the roots four feet 

 apart, so the air can circulate freely 

 about them. I do not recommend set- 

 ting peonies in complete shade; they 

 should have half sun, anyway. 



Club-foot or Knotty Hoot. 



There is also the club-foot or knotty 

 root, which affects peony roots. I have 

 not been able to master this. Roots 

 have been sent to Professor Bessie at 

 Miami, Fla., one of the best govern- 

 ment experts; also to Amherst, in our 

 own state, and to Professor Whetzel, at 

 Cornell, and I have not had any help 

 from any of them. Professor Bessie ad- 

 vised soaking the roots in a solution 

 of formalin. This I did, but it did not 

 help me any. I wrote to A. Dessert, 

 and he said he had some of these af- 

 fected roots, from the same source from 

 which mine came, "for ten years and 

 they have never bloomed, and I con- 

 sider them lost. ' ' I got out of patience 

 with mine, and, after keeping them 

 five years, threw most of them on the 

 dump. In some extreme cases, some 

 of these roots have grown out of it. 

 As for me, I have some now which I 

 have had for eight years and which 

 are failures. 



I am not sure but there is a blight 

 that affects the leaf and stem and 

 causes the root to rot — something in 

 the nature of the potato blight. Some 

 few roots seem to be affected in this 

 way. I have never been troubled with 

 it except in a small way, and have 

 paid no attention to it. It could, no 

 doubt, be controlled by spraying with 

 Bordeaux mixture. 



Where the buds are blighted, it is 

 well to cut them off and burn them 

 up. The stem-wilt is a fungous blight, 

 but it does not live over winter. Plants 

 affected one year may be unaffected 

 the next. 



Japanese or Imperial Peonies. 



The varieties which are called Jap- 

 anese peonies, or imperial peonies by 

 the Englishmen, have their ups and 

 downs. They seem to go all to pieces 

 some years and do nothing at all. They 

 do not seem to be of good constitu- 

 tion. Peonies of this kind that are 

 grown from seed here in America may 

 be more vigorous. There are some 

 others, among the regular peony roots, 

 which go to pieces when they are 

 divided. They are weak. Most of 



