10 
Z3l)£ Slower (Brower 
January, 1920 
The 
The Modern Garden Flower. 
By Frank B. Meyer 
(in Gardeners’ Chronicle.) 
T HE PEONY is the finest and most valu- 
able plant for the modern garden. In 
pronouncing it such the writer does not 
refer to the old-fashioned red “Piney.” Nor 
has he in mind the many other pink and white 
ones that are rather abundant in some door- 
yards. Nor yet does he mean those that are 
sometimes offered for sale on store counters 
at ten cents a root. And he does not advo- 
cate the planting of all the named varieties 
that are advertised in nurserymen’s cata- 
logues, for the recent vote of the more than 
two hundred and seventy- five members of 
the American Peony Society has ranked 
many of these below 5% on a scale of 10, 
and indicates that they ought to be discarded 
altogether. It is not strange, however, that 
some growers who have a stock of them are 
loath to throw them away, for they please 
some people who do not know the more ex- 
cellent sorts, and the Peony is propagated by 
division of the root. This is a slow process 
and a stock of a really meritorious variety 
can not be worked up in a hurry to -take the 
place of one cast aside. For this reason the 
superior varieties, with the exception of a 
few of the older ones that are not yet en- 
tirely displaced by some of the wonderful 
new ones, are not of low price. But they 
are worth their cost, even from the mercan- 
tile point of view. The writer is acquainted 
with a man near a large city in Ohio who, 
from a small tract of ground has annually 
realized, within a few days in June, from the 
sale of blooms, over $3,000 in cash. He has 
sold many roots also to persons who, seeing 
the splendid flowers, “simply must have 
some ” growing at their own homes. He 
wisely planted only very choice kinds and 
his investment has paid well. 
The Peony is rapidly taking the place in 
popular esteem heretofore occupied by the 
Rose. Its popularity, among those who 
know it, is attested by the fact that the 
American Peony Society holds annual con- 
ventions at which hundreds of dollars are 
distributed as prizes. A citizen of Akron 
has in the past five years spent a fortune in 
gathering what is perhaps the finest private 
collection of this plant in the world. He 
has in his grounds over 600 varieties, the 
majority of which are represented each by 
ten or twelve specimens. For some of his 
plants he has paid as much as $25 each. And 
a business man, Mr. Lee R. Bonnewitz, of 
Van Wert, Ohio, is so great a Peony “ fan ” 
that every year, after attending the conven- 
vention, he publishes and distributes, at his 
own expense, a large printed letter in an 
effort to help others to enjoy the delights 
that he finds in his hobby. 
There are several factors that contribute 
to the Peony’s rise in popularity. Tarking- 
ton Baker, an authority on gardens, declares, 
“ No flower is richer in beauty than the 
herbaceous Peony, and none is more easily 
raised by the amateur.’’ It is not injured by 
freezing. The editor of the Garden Maga- 
zine, commenting upon the condition in 
which gardens were found in the spring of 
1918, wrote : “ Last winter was the greatest 
vindication of hardy plants, particularly 
Peonies.” Then, too, it is practically im- 
mume to injury by insects or disease. It 
thrives in full sunshine and in partial shade. 
When once planted it may be left to in- 
crease in size and beauty and profusion of 
bloom for a generation or more. The fra- 
grance of many varieties almost equals that 
of the sweetest Roses. The blooms keep 
Peony 
in water better than perhaps any other 
flower of value. If cut in the bud stage it 
can be packed tightly into boxes and sent 
long distances to open as perfectly as it 
would have done upon the plant. In cold 
storage the buds may be preserved five or 
six weeks. By careful selection from such 
a list as the following it may be had in 
bloom in the garden for six weeks. 
The list gives the best, and generally most 
satisfactory sorts arranged according to color 
and time of blossoming. None of the very 
new and high-priced varieties, however, are 
contained in the list, with the exception of 
the one that is very desirable on account of 
its remarkable dark color. Those marked ** 
are among the first twelve Peonies, accord- 
ing to the vote of the American Peony So- 
ciety. Those marked * rank very high. 
The others all have distinctively charming 
beauty or other value. All have strong 
growth and bloom freely. All except three 
grow tall and bear flowers upon long and 
strong stems. These three, Octavie Demay, 
Marie Lemoine and the Officinalis, are some- 
what dwarf in comparison with the others. 
WHITE. 
**Festiva Maxima: Rose type; paper-white; center 
marked crimson. 
Duchess de Nemours : cup-shaped ; sulphur and 
greenish-white, 
Mme. de Verneville : bomb type; pure white; tipped 
carmine ; free-flowering. 
* James Kelway : loose rose-type ; rose-white ; very 
fine. 
** Baroness Schroeder: rose-type; flesh-white and 
baby-pink ; rose fragrance. 
*Albatrc ( Avalanche ): crown type; snow-white; 
lovely carmine penciling. 
Marie Jacquin: semi-dbl. (Water Lily) ; rose-white; 
golden stamens. 
Mans. Dupont : flat rose type ; milk-white ; large 
crimson splashes. 
Couronne d'Ur : rose, type; tipped carmine; showy 
golden stamens. 
* Marie Lemoine: rose type ; ivory-white ; cream 
center, massive. 
* Grandiflora : flat rose type ; rose-white or sea-shell- 
pink. 
PALE AND MEDIUM PINK. 
Octavie Demay: flat crown type; very pale pink; 
dwarf ; charming. 
**Mme. Emile Lemoine : globular ; glossy white and 
satiny pink ; lovely. 
*Asa Gray : high rose type ; imbricated petals ; rose 
and pale lilac. 
La Perle : globular; very light pink; blush and 
carmine ; pretty. 
* Venus : high crown type ; very delicate pale pink ; 
rose fragrance. 
*Mme. Emile Galle: flat rose type; sea-shell pink, 
heliotrope and lavender. 
* Albert Crousse; bomb type; formed like a carnation; 
sea-shell pink. 
Dorchester : rose type ; delicate hydrangea-pink. 
DEEP PINK. 
Edulis Superba : loose rose type; even dark pink ; 
rose fragrance. 
**Mons. Jute Elie: ideal glossy pink and silvery rose. 
*Claire Dubois : rose type ; clear violet-rose; silvery ; 
lacinated petals. 
RED. 
Officinalis : brilliant crimson ; good for landscape 
effect. 
*Mons. Martin Cahuzac: semi-rose type; dark gar- 
net ; back reflex ; striking. 
Felix Crousse : bomb type; clear brilliant red. 
* L' Etincelante : single; bright purplish carmine; like 
a Darwin tulip. 
YELLOW SHADE. 
Philomele : soft pink with golden yellow center ; 
distinct ; good keeper. 
The Peony should be planted in the fall, 
before the end of September, if possible. 
The soil should be very deep and rich. But 
manure, if used at all, must be well rotted 
and thoroughly mixed with the soil some 
time in advance of the planting ; or it may 
be put in a thick layer in the bottom of a 
trench and then covered with a foot of soil 
in which the plants will be set. Bonemeal 
is most lasting and safest, for it does not in- 
jure the roots, as manure is apt to do, when 
it comes into immediate contact with them. 
The eyes should be so covered with earth 
that they are buried not more than two or 
two and a half inches when the ground has 
settled. During the first winter they should 
be overspread, after the ground has been 
partially frozen, with a protecting mulch to 
prevent their being lifted out by alternate 
freezing and thawing. From that time on 
they need no care other than the ordinary 
cultivation of the soil. 
Mrs. Pleas’ Estimate 
of Her Own Peonies. 
BY SARAH A. PLEAS. 
[ Written expressly for The Flower Grower . ] 
[The following has been extracted from a letter 
written by Mrs. Pleas to the Editor and it is pub- 
lished with her permission. The article on our front 
cover page in the December issue entitled “A Plea 
for Seedling Peonies,” and the verses on page 124 
entitled “The Peony and the Sparrow,” were both 
written by Mrs. Pleas when in her eighty-fourth 
year. The Pleas Peonies are so well known that they 
need not be mentioned. Pleas Jubilee Peony is one 
of the best known high class standard varieties. A 
discussion of her own varieties by the originator 
after a lapse of years will certainly be interesting to 
Peony growers.] 
As for myself I sold for early spring 
planting exclusively until I got the 
florists interested and they soon dis- 
covered fall was the better and more 
convenient time as to weather; and the 
roots are not then trying to grow. 
But roots set in the spring will bloom 
better the next spring, than those set 
next fall. That is, the sooner they 
are planted the sooner you will have 
bloom. They start into growth very 
early before the weeds, so should be 
Mrs. Pleas’ Peony Little Nell, photographed 
with the original Little Nell for whom it was 
named, after she had grown up. 
set soon as ground thaws if possible, 
and yet they will live and do well if 
they have made a few inches growth. 
In having my plants here reset, the 
labels were removed and the record 
lost, much to my chagrin and deep 
sorrow, so I can have no idea what any 
one is, but the few that have bloomed. 
Of these Elwood Pleas, Queen of the 
Pleasance, Quaker Lady and Wild Rose 
are unmistakable, happy to say. While 
there will be a majority in every 1000 
seedlings that could be appropriately 
named Wild Rose my own sold under 
that name, is by far the largest and 
best I have seen and I did not bring 
