Cutting and Packing Peony Blooms for 
Exhibition 
1. Do not use flowers that are too fully expanded. Take them 
too young rather than too old. 
2. Do not let the petals get wet at any time, least of all when 
packing. 
3. Pack the blooms each one individually in paper, and lay them 
in boxes fairly tight so they will not rub together. 
4. When to cut. — ^The common error is to take blooms that 
are too far along. Buds that have any distance to go should be cut 
when they are just in the intermediate stage between bud and bloom. 
If the show is near enough to get your blooms there in an hour or two, 
fully expanded blooms may be cut, but it is important to put them 
in a cool dark place for a few hours before they are to be packed so 
that they may furl together as much as possible. 
5. Boxing. — Mr. Farr packs blooms as follows: He strips off 
the lower and larger leaves from the stems, tears across the bottom 
of a small paper bag, slips its mouth upward over the stem, brings 
the bag past the lower leaves and so over the flower; he then twists 
the top of the bag together. 
SOLANGE 
Solange, belov'd, 
Fairest of all the peonies my garden holds! 
When first I find you in the dawn 
Dew-pearled and sweet with all the kisses of 
the fragrant night 
Your amber beauty, blushing, radiant, rare, 
Moves me to sudden tears 
And my heart leaps upward 
With the music of the thrush's song. 
— Alice Harding 
62 
