Jim: 1. IKll. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



17 



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



WHAT FLOWER DENOTES 

 JUSTICE? 



Would you iilciisc toll mo what liowcr 

 ■or liowers ri'prosciit justice .' 



J. J. L. B. 



Tlie ilow(>r tliat is supposoil to sym- 

 bolize justice is the rudbeciiia or coiie- 

 iiower. In this coiiiiectioii, however, 

 the word "justice'' appears to be 

 nearly synonymous with "impartial- 

 ity," fi-id some writers on the subject 

 prefer the latter word. As the ^enus 

 rudbeckia imdudes the (iolden (ilow and 

 also K. hirta, or the Jihudi-eyed Susan, 

 the flowers themselves are surely well 

 known, thoujjii their significance may 

 be almost unknown; tiie flowers them- 

 selves are common enouyii, though the 

 quality that they typify may not be as 

 common as might be wished. 



.lust why rudl)eckias are emblematic 

 of justice may be something of a 

 conundrum, which can proViably be 

 solved as well by .1. ,1. L. Ji. iis 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 temj)erate climate and 

 with almost any sort of culture; in 

 that sense it is certainly impartial, but 

 the same is true of some other flowers. 

 Perhaps it is sufHcient for .1. .1. L. li. 

 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 

 "Syndxdic J-'lowers and (Jems." 



The coltsfoot, or Tussilago l-'arfara, 

 is said to represent the sentiment, 

 ".lustice shall be done," or " Vou shall 

 have justice." In justice, the opposite 

 of the (piality under consideration, is 

 symbolized by Ilumulus Lupulus, the 

 <'Oinmon hoji. Hut here we are en- 

 countering inori* conundrums. 



Peony Golden Harvest at Wild's. 



SARCOXIE PEONIES. 



Where the Industry Originated. 



The i)resent-day cut flower jpeony in- 

 dustry had its practical inception in 

 the town of Sarcoxie, Mo. The joke- 

 maUers ha\e rung the (dianges on the 

 "show me" |)roposition for s() long 

 that it is becoming just a little tire- 

 some to the Missourians. Hut in the 

 case of the Sarcoxie nurserymen show- 

 ing them once was enough to establish 

 the jieony as a first class source of ready 

 money. James H. Wild was the one 

 who was first shown, ami as he recalls 

 the circumstance the profit in })eonies 

 was demonstrated to him by Kennicott 

 Bros. Co., Chicjigo, 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 2(3;] carloads of strawberries. 

 Occasionally a case would be pacdted 

 with peonies, instead of berries. When 

 these rea(died the Chicago wholesale 

 florists, they sold so well that more 

 were wanted. As with the straw- 

 berrieSj a small beginning soon led to 

 great develoj>ment. Aow Sarcoxie ships 

 jieonies by the thousands of dozens and 

 they go all over the country. 



While there are hundreds of straw- 

 berry growers shipi)ing from Sarcoxie, 

 the peony business is iiracticall\- all 

 in the Wild family. There are others, 

 but thev ilo not count bv comparison 

 with the Wilds, (iilbert'll. Wild has 

 probably the largest acreage of peonies 

 in tlH^ I'nited States. His fiidds co\fr 

 almost twenty five acres. With him is 

 associated his father, .lames 1>. Wild. 

 Their stock is ship]>ed all over the 

 I'nited States. This year consignments 

 for iinm(M]iate sale were madt' to whole- 

 sale florists in New ^'ork, Hrooklyn, 

 I'hiladelphia, liutValo. Pittsburg, ('in- 

 cinnati, St. Louis and < liicago, though 

 the bulk of the cut still goes to Keiiiii 

 cott Bros. < 'o.. in (hicago, who store 

 it in antii'ipat ion of the Memnrial da\' 

 demand. This year (iilbert H. Wild's 

 sto.'k in storage at Chicago, ^lay l'7. 

 amounte<l to 4,720 dozens. The ac<(iiM 

 ]'anying illustrations are iirejiared from 

 |diotogra]ihs of Mr. ^^'ild's liidds nuule 

 in the early i)art of May of this year. 



Ciilbert H. Wild cut this year not 

 more than one third of the blooms on 

 that ))art of his stock from wliiidi 

 blooms are taken; jiart of his lieMs are 

 grown for the i)roiluction of roots, a 

 largo business having been worked up 

 in one and two-eyed roots for the mail 

 ing trade. 



The next largest jteony grower at 

 Sarcoxie is Wild Bros. Nursery <'o., 

 wlii(di is conducted by Henry Wild and 

 his sons. This concern has something 

 over five acres in jieonies, growing 

 both for cut flowers and for stoidc for 

 the nursery business. The cut flowers 

 are consigned to Iv H. Hunt, of Chi- 

 cago, and a goo<l jiart of them go into 

 storage to be held for Decoration dav. 



The Frank Wild Floral Co. also has 

 about five acres of jieonies, the cut 

 blooms of which are consigned to the 

 .1. H. Deamud Co., ("hicago. Another 

 acre of Sarcoxie peonies is grown by 

 Mr. Schull, who also is a member of the 

 Wild familv, related through Mrs. J. 

 B. Wild. 



To northern peony growers, whoso 

 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 Cilbert H. 

 Wild cut his first peonies April 17 and 

 the last one April LMJ. This year the 

 first stock was cut Ajiril 2.1 and the 

 last shipment was made May 1!>. The 

 early stock realized fully as good prices 

 as ever before, but the season at Sar- 

 coxie was extremely dry and oven l)e- 

 fore the extreme hot wave arrive<l the 

 sto(dv showed the efl'ects of lack of 

 moisture. When the heat came, ship- 

 l»ing difKculties were added to the 

 dilliculty of cutting the sto(dc 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 

 lia\t' this year nearly so profitable a cut 

 llower season as they had expected, but 

 they are men of wide experience and 

 not at all inclined to cry oxer sjiilleil 

 milk; tlu'v jdaced the blame entirely 

 u(>on the shoulders of the weather man. 



Peony Model de Perfection at Wild's. 



