HARDY PLANTS. 
187 
beautiful flowers are not grown more than they are in English 
gardens. Even the smallest of gardens cannot be said to be 
florally complete without its clump of paeonies. It matters 
little whether the garden be situate in town, suburbs, or 
country, the herbaceous paeony will not fail to make itself 
at home and yield a glorious wealth of blossom during May, 
June, and July, if it be only accorded fair treatment. It is 
par excellence the flower for amateur gardeners to cultivate. 
They have only to plant judiciously at first and then the paeony 
will go on, prosper and thrive for a much longer period than 
any other hardy perennial. It is one of those easy-going 
plants that abhors interference in the matter of frequent 
disturbance. Leave it alone and merely give an annual mulch- 
ing of good fat manure, and an occasional dose of water in 
very dry weather, then it will flourish and 
“ Undaunted to the sunbeams spread 
Her flame-like rays and mantle red.” 
In sun or in shade we have always found the paeony to do well. 
It loves a deep rich soil and abhors a dry hungry one. There- 
fore, the fortunate possessor of the former need not do more 
than dig deeply and add a fair quantity of well decomposed 
manure to ensure success. The dry and hungry soil may 
easily be improved by the addition of a little clay or loam and 
some good fat cow manure before planting, and further 
success insured by giving a good thick mulch of manure 
every spring. As to the hardiness of the herbaceous paeony 
there can be no question ; it is as hardy as the commonest 
perennial weed. 
In gardens of fairly large extent the herbaceous paeony 
should always be grown on an extensive scale — in bold masses 
in the herbaceous border, in beds by themselves, in large 
groups in the shrubbery, and in clumps on the lawn. There is 
no other plant that will make such a magnificent display of 
colour, or give so much satisfaction in return for the trouble 
involved in its cultivation. 
In the grouping of paeonies it is necessary to remember that 
they succeed best when the plants are set well apart, and three 
feet should be the least distance allowed from plant to plant. 
This affords scope for blending other plants with them. To 
illustrate what may be done in that way we will describe a bed 
that was much admired. In the same bed were golden daffo- 
dils, which were admirably set off by the dark red stems and 
leaves of the paeonies. On each clump of the latter were strewn 
a handful of bulbs of the pretty little dwarf squill, Scilla 
sibirica, which grew and flowered well, deriving, also, addi- 
tional beauty from its setting, and did not interfere in the 
