"MASTERLY INACTIVITY" IS . 

 THE BEST THING FOR THE PEONY 



RE ID HOWELL, ?#& 



An Enthusiastic Amateur Summarizes His Experiences and Observations in the Suc- 

 cessful Cultivation of This Flower. The Information Here Conveyed Is the Digest of His 

 Own Work and the Recommendations of the Most Skilled Specialists in the Country. 

 This Article Was the Substance of an Address Before the Ridgewood, N. J., Garden Club 



^i^jHE time to order Peony roots is August; planting 

 Wm v should be done in September. There is nothing diffi- 

 w-jjl'll cult about their cultivation. As a matter of fact, 

 ehlFHsP you may stick your Peonies in the ground, never 

 giving them another thought, and the probabilities are that 

 year after year they will struggle through the weeds and 

 grass and produce a very fair display of flowers. They are 

 neither Orchids nor Roses and are literally easier to grow than 

 a Geranium. 



Peonies indeed will resent nursing and coddling; they don't 

 like much stirring of the 

 ground about their stems. 

 Briefly, about the principal 

 "culture" consists in letting 

 them alone, except to keep 

 them clear of grass and 

 weeds. 



Many of the disappoint- 

 ments experienced are due 

 to some of the eyes having 

 been destroyed, either by 

 hasty or rough planting or 

 a stirring of the ground di- 

 rectly over the plants in 

 early spring. No weeding 

 or raking should be done 

 near the plants until the 

 shoots are well up out of 

 the ground. 



Planting is a simple job. 

 There is no need of "ex- 

 cavating to the depth of 2| 

 to 3 feet" for the planting 

 of those roots, unless you 

 want to do it for your health. 

 It isn't necessary. Some 

 hysterical horticulturist 

 wrote this a hundred years 

 or so ago, and every Peony 

 man since has seemed to 

 think it necessary to copy 

 it. Imagine excavating to 

 the depth of 2\ to 3 feet 

 for a bed of 160 Peonies, 

 or even 50! It brings 

 visions of steam - shovels, 

 straining horses, shouting 



men. The duffer who first wrote that ought to have 

 added, "and if you change your mind about the Peonies, 

 and decide to have a house instead, you will have an ex- 

 cavation ready for the foundations." Simply dig a hole 

 for each individual root. The hole need not be "as deep 

 as a well," nor "as wide as a church door," but just large 

 enough for the root to go in, with some little space to 

 spare all around it. 



The rest of the advice that experience has taught me can 

 best be presented in the negative form of what NOT to do! 



N 



FASHION FAVORS THE SINGLE PEONY 

 Even though the bloom soon falls the single flower gains yearly in popular- 

 ity. "Japanese" type, shown here, has showy golden petaloids in the centre 



24 



Don't Use Manure 



EVER use fresh manure 

 in any way, shape, or 

 form, unless as a mulch after 

 planting, and even in this 

 case, it must be kept away 

 from directly over the crown 

 of the plant. If your ground 

 has been prepared with ma- 

 nure a year in advance of 

 planting, it will be an excel- 

 lent thing; otherwise, when 

 you come to set your roots, 

 don't use manure at all. Pe- 

 onies can be, and frequently 

 are, overfed. Assuming that 

 you have just ordinarily good 

 garden soil, 1 would advise 

 against enriching it in any 

 way except by the addition 

 of pure raw bone-meal. And 

 if where you are planting the 

 soil is not good, 1 suggest re- 

 placing it to the depth of two 

 feet or more with good gar- 

 den soil. 



Don't Plant Carelessly 



Don't plant too deep. Too 

 deep planting is responsible 

 for many partial to complete 

 failures. If roots are set with 

 eyes much more than three 

 inches below the level of the 

 soil when planting is com- 

 pleted, the plants may fail to 



