FLOWERS FOR THE HARDY GARDEN 



3! 



"A wealth oj globed Peonies" 



Peonies 



II one may trust to his judgment in reading the 

 signs of the times, it would seem that the day of the 

 Peony had surely arrived. Now that every little 

 nursery is beginning to catalog some roots, and every 

 little florist to handle some blooms; when hundreds 

 of acres of flowers are cut every year for Decora- 

 tion Day; when we have "Peony experts" and 

 "Peony specialists" galore, and an American Peony 

 Society, with a special nomenclature committee and 

 a testing-ground under Government auspices at 

 Cornell University, with another about to be estab- 

 lished at Washington, — in view of all this it seems 

 to me that we can hardly say that the Peony is "a 

 much-ncgleeted plant," as some growers are still 

 cheerfully informing us. 



If the general public is still satisfied with mixed 

 pinks and whites (and I don't think it is) there is 

 certainly a limited group of connoisseurs who scan 

 the latest lists and exchange and collect the latest 

 novelties with all the ardor of a book-lover on the 

 chase for rare first editions. Yet I think this incipi- 

 ent Peony boom is no mere "craze;" it. is simply 

 the growing appreciation of a plant that is worthy 

 ol it in every way. Even the apparently high prices 

 paid for some varieties have a. justification in the 

 fact that the Peony is so hopelessly slow to increase; 

 that of many varieties there is comparatively 

 little stock in existence. But whether one pays 

 twenty-live cents for a plant of Queen Victoria, or 

 twenty-live dollars for one of the almost mythical 

 Lady Alexandra Dull', he is sure of getting something 

 that will be a certain source of delight throughout 

 his lifetime, and perhaps his children's as well. 



The improved Peony is a comparatively recent 

 development. Improbable as it may seem, all the 

 infinitely varied double sorts of today ( with l lie 

 exception of the Officinalis types) are descended from 

 the single white Paeonia ulbijltnu, a native of Si- 

 beria. Introduced into Europe about the beginning 

 ol the nineteenth century, it soon found its way to 

 I- ranee, where it was developed and improved by a 

 group of enthusiastic amateurs, and later by the 

 (anions nurseries of Dessert and Lcmoine. The va- 

 rieties sent out by the earlier Frenchmen form the 



backbone of every collection of today; those of 

 Lemoine and Dessert though the finest of all Peonies, 

 are still very rare and hard to obtain. 



In America, some notable Peonies have been 

 originated by amateurs like Messrs. Richardson, 

 Terry, and Mollis, but it is largely through the 

 efforts of growers such as Mr. B. II. Farr, Mr. Shay- 

 lor, Mr. George Peterson and the Good & Reese Co., 

 that the present great interest in Peonies has arisen. 



The famous English nursery of Kelway & Sons has 

 originated some almost perfect varieties, but unfortu- 

 nately no scruples seem to have kept the Kelways 

 from sending out several dilferent sorts under one 

 name. However, they were by no means the only 

 sinners in this respect; substitution used to be the 

 usual thing, until both by ignorance and intention, 

 Peony nomenclature became an almost hopeless 

 muddle. We should feel proud that it remained for 

 the American Peony Society to straighten out all 

 this, and from a welter of synonyms, to separate the 

 proper names for the really distinct varieties. It now 

 has this task nearly accomplished, so that collecting 

 Peonies is today a surer and much simplified process. 



The time-honored and ugly way of growing 

 Peonies in stilf clumps in the middle of the lawn 

 seems happily to be on the wane. Beautiful and 

 effective ways of using them are many; lo my mind, 

 their full beauty is brought out best when planted in 

 long, separate borders, arranged in sweeping curves 

 against a background of dense evergreens or shrubs. 

 If such borders can be made near the house, so much 

 the better. They arc also very charming bordering 

 each side of a broad grass walk, or in separate formal 

 beds. In the mixed border, they seem to me more 

 attractive in single, fairly isolated clumps, rather 

 than in masses; in fact, I think that very broad 

 masses of Peonies anywhere hardly reveal the true 

 form and character of the plant. But, however 

 planted, the Peony is a thing of beauty in itself, 

 and makes a splendid mass of green long after it has 

 finished blooming. In arranging color-effects, keep 

 the deeper pinks and reds away from the more deli- 

 cate shades. For massing, the whites are probably 

 the most ell'ective. 



