JUXK 1. 11)11. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review# 



17 



Thit Field of Peonies at Gilbert H. Vild's Contains Nothing but the Variety Queen Victoria. 



WHAT FLOWEE DENOTES 

 JUSTICE? 



Would you please tell me what flower 

 or flowers represent justice? 



J. J. L. B. 



The flower that is supposed to sym- 

 Isolize justice is the rudbeckia or cone- 

 ilower. In this connection, however, 

 the word "justice" appears to be 

 nearly synonymous with ' ' impartial- 

 ity, " aud some writers on the subject 

 prefer the latter word. As the genus 

 rudbeckia includes the Golden Glow and 

 also E. hirta, or the Black-eyed Susan, 

 the flowers themselves are surely well 

 known, thougn their significance may 

 be almost unkpown; the flowers them- 

 selves are common enough, though the 

 quality that they typify may not be as 

 •common as might be wished. 



Just why rudbeckias are emblematic 

 of justice may be something of a 

 •conundrum, which can probably be 

 solved as well by J. J. L. B. as by 

 anyone else. In the so-called "lan- 

 guage of flowers" there are many such 

 conundrums. The rudbeckia grows in 

 almost any kind of soil or situation, 

 in almost any temperate climate and 

 Tvith almost any sort of culture; in 

 that sense it is certainly impartial, but 

 the same is true of some other flowers. 

 Perhaps it is suflicient for J. J. L. B. 

 to be assured as to the fact that the 

 rudbeckia in some way typifies jus- 

 tice. If he wants more authority on 

 the point, he might refer to the back 

 part of the Standard dictionary, where 

 a list of flowers and their significa- 

 tions will be found, under the title of 

 "Symbolic Flowers and Gems." 



The coltsfoot, or Tussilago Farfara, 

 is said to represent the sentiment, 

 ■"Justice shall be done," or "You shall 

 have justice. ' ' Injustice, the opposite 

 •of the quality under consideration, is 

 symbolized by Humulus Lupulus, the 

 common hop. But here we are en- 

 countering more conundrums. 



Peony Golden Harvest at Wild's. 



SABCOXIE PEONIES. 



Where the Industry Originated. 



The present-day cut flower peony in- 

 dustry had its practical inception in 

 the town of Sarcoxie, Mo. The joke- 

 makers have rung the changes on the 

 ' ' show nie ' ' proposition for so long 

 that it is becoming just a little tire- 

 some to the Missourians. But in the 

 case of the Saycoxie nurserymen show- 

 ing them once was («nough to establish 

 the peony as« flist-class source of ready 

 money. James B. Wild was the one 

 who was first shown, and as he recalls 

 the circumstance the profit in peonies 

 was demonstrated to him by Kennicott 

 Bros. Co., Chicago, to whom a few 

 cases of early blooms had been turned 

 over by a South Water street commis- 

 sion house, which had received the 

 flowers in a car o£ strawberries. Mr. 

 Wild was the organizer of the Sarcoxie 

 strawberry industry. He arranged for 

 the first refrigerator car which ever 

 ran out of that town^ and in one season, 

 a few years later, as secretary of the 

 growers' association he shipped in one 

 year 263 carloads of strawberries. 

 Occasionally a case would be packed 

 with peonies, instead of berries. When 

 these reached the Chicago wholesale 

 florists, they sold so well that more 

 were wanted. As with the straw- 

 berries, a small beginning soon led to 

 great development. Now Sarcoxie ships 

 peonies by the thousands of dozens and 

 they go all over the country. 



While there are hundreds of straw- 

 berry growers shipping from Sarcoxie, 

 the peonj^ business is practically all 

 in the Wild family. There are others, 

 but they do not count by comparison 

 with the Wilds. Gilbert H. Wild has 

 probably the largest acreage of peonies 

 in the United States. His fields cover 

 almost twenty-five acres. With him is 

 associated his father, James B. Wild. 

 Their stock is shipped all over the 

 United States. This year consignments 

 for immediate sale were made to whole- 

 sale florists in New York, Brooklyn, 

 Philadelphia, Buffalo, Pittsburg, Cin- 

 cinnati, St. Louis and Chicago, though 

 the bulk of the cut still goes to Kenni- 

 cott Bros. Co., in Chicago, who store 

 it in anticipation of the Memorial day 

 demand. This year Gilbert H. Wild 's 

 stock in storage at Chicago, May 27. 

 amounted to 4,720 dozens. The accom- 

 panying illustrations are prepared from 

 photographs of Mr. Wild's fields made 

 in the early part of May of this year. 



Gilbert H. Wild cut this year not 

 more than one-third of the blooms on 

 that part of his stock from which 

 blooms are taken; part of his fields are 

 grown for the production of roots, a 

 large business having been worked up 

 in one and two-eyed roots for the mail- 

 ing trade. 



The next largest peony grower at 

 Sarcoxie is Wild Bros. Nursery Co., 

 which is conducted by Henry Wild and 

 his sons. This concern has something 

 over five acres in peonies, growing 

 both for cut flowers and for stock for 

 the nursery business. The cut flowers 

 are consigned to E. H. Hunt, of Chi- 

 cago, and a good part of them go into 

 storage to be held for Decoration day. 



The Frank Wild Floral Co. also has 

 about five acres of peonies, the cut 

 blooms of which are consigned to the 

 J. B. Deamud Co., Chicago. Another 

 acre of Sarcoxie peonies is grown by 

 Mr. Schull, who also is a member of the 

 Wild family, related through Mrs. J. 

 B. Wild. 



To northern peony growers, whose 

 season this year was anywhere from 

 one week to three weeks earlier than 

 usual, it will be interesting to note 

 that the Sarcoxie growers were nearly 

 ten days behind. In 1910 Gilbert H. 

 Wild cut his first peonies April 17 and 

 the last one April 26. This year the 

 first stock was cut April 25 and the 

 last shipment was made May 19. The 

 early stock realized fully as good prices 

 as ever before, but the season at Sar- 

 coxie was extremely dry and even be- 

 fore the extreme hot wave arrived the 

 stock showed the effects of lack of 

 moisture. When the heat came, ship- 

 ping difficulties were added' to the 

 difficulty of cutting the stock in prime 

 condition. The result was that the 

 crop of salable blooms was reduced 

 through a considerable loss in hand- 

 ling. The Sarcoxie growers did not 

 have this year nearly so profitable a cut 

 flower season as they had expected, but 

 tliey are men of wide experience and 

 not at all inclined to cry over spilled 

 milk; they placed the blame entirely 

 upon the shoulders of the weather man. 





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Peony Model de Perfection at Wild's. 



