24 
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The Peony 
An Amateur’s Winter 
Cogitations on the Peony. 
JOHN E. STRYKER (Pres’t Northwestern Peony 
& Iris Society) in Minnesota Horticulturist. 
Most professionals who devote themselves 
to the ornamental side of gardening are 
specialists. They either produce cut flowers 
or landscape material or collections of spec- 
imen plants. A few amateurs follow one 
of these specialties, but most of us attempt 
to secure more or less satisfactory results in 
all. Consciously or unconsciously there comes 
a time, however, when the amateur ceases to 
try to do everything. The space at his dis- 
posal is usually restricted, and his experience 
and skill are always limited. It follows that 
after more or less experimentation he is 
likely to devote himself primarily to one of 
the objects above suggested or perhaps to 
limit himself to the cultivation of one fa- 
vorite flower. If that flower lends itself to 
all the uses above outlined so much the 
better. 
All of us make obeisance to the Rose as 
the queen of the garden, but the service of 
the queen is a hard service and the glory of 
the garden is not dependent upon the favors 
of the delicate and much petted regal lady. 
Her democratic and progressively dangerous 
rival is the Peony. This does not mean that 
the modern Peony is cheap or common. 
Few flowers are valued more highly by their 
friends. But the Peony is hardy as an oak 
and is unexcelled as a subject for a collec- 
tion of choice specimens, or for landscape 
material, or as a cut flower. It produces all 
the tints of the Rose with greater variety of 
form, size and fragrance, while, unlike the 
Rose, with reasonable care, it is certain to 
produce in profusion a harvest of exceeding 
beauty. 
The Peony is a gross feeder, and the best 
soil is rich garden loam, but the manure 
must be thoroughly disintegrated and amal- 
gamated with the loam. In case long pre- 
liminary preparation is impossible, the best 
practice appears to be to dig a trench of, 
say, two feet in depth and fill the lower half 
with well composted manure and garden 
loam, mixing the two together in about 
equal proportion. This should be allowed 
to thoroughly settle, and then the trench 
may be filled with any fairly light, rich 
soil without manure, and the tubers may be 
planted with their crowns not more than 
two inches below the surface. 
Many catalogues would lead the amateur 
to suppose that the Peony may be planted as 
well in the spring as in the fall. The con- 
census of opinion, however, leaves no doubt 
that the only proper time to plant is after 
the Peony has thoroughly matured its foli- 
age in the fall. In this climate this is be- 
tween the middle of September and the 
hard freezing of the ground. If the Peony 
is divided before the plant has thoroughly 
matured in the fall, there is an apparent 
deterioration of the tubers, and if the plant- 
ing is done in the spring it takes so long to 
re-establish the growth that time is wasted 
as compared with waiting until the following 
fall, if not a year longer. 
Another error which frequently results in 
a failure of bloom is too deep planting. The 
crown of the plant should not be more than 
two inches deep after the soil is settled. The 
usual directions call for two or three inches, 
but in attempting to carry out this practice 
the gardener, having carefully loosened the 
soil for a considerable depth, finds that the 
earth settles with the tuber, and in conse- 
quence the plant, when it is finally estab- 
lished, is placed with the crown four or five 
inches below the level of the neighboring 
surface. The result will inevitably be a 
weak top growth and frequently so-called 
sulking, which results in the production of 
no flowers or very inferior flowers. 
Catalogues, and some alleged Peony ex- 
perts, advise the fall mulching with manure, 
but this is, in the opinion of the writer, the 
unpardonable sin of Peony growing. Re- 
peated experiments have shown that sooner 
or later it is sure to result in the rotting of 
the tubers, followed by fewer and smaller 
flowers and the necessity for lifting, dividing 
and cleaning the roots. 
If a properly planted Peony requires en- 
richment, the time to apply the fertilizer is 
at the beginning of the growing season, 
when it may be at once utilized in feeding 
the plant — and perhaps the best way to ac- 
complish this is by the use of liquid ma- 
nure. 
The three imperative “ don’ts ” for the 
Peony grower are, therefore : don’t plant in 
the spring or before the full maturity of 
growth in the fall ; don’t place the crown of 
the plant more than two inches deep; and 
don’t, either when planting or later, permit 
manure to come in contact with the stem or 
root of the Peony. If these rules are ob- 
served and ordinary tilth is maintained, 
even the beginner in Peony culture is sure 
to reap an abundant reward for every well 
chosen Peony which he plants. 
Anyone who is asked to talk about the 
Peony is expected to state which are the 
most desirable varieties. When we consider 
that there are several thousand of these 
varieties, obviously the answer must be more 
or less empirical or merely express individual 
tastes. There is no best variety and no best 
twenty varieties for everybody. After grow- 
ing a hundred carefully selected kinds, and 
studying several hundred other varieties, 
both in growth and at flower shows, the 
writer is free to confess that he finds a new 
variety each season which to him seems the 
best. The superlative merits of individual 
plants are seen only in propitious seasons 
and under favorable cultural conditions. 
Then where there are so many charming 
rivals for one’s affection, constancy ceases to 
be a virtue. The present reigning favorite 
in the white section is LeCygne, and Therese 
has long been close to the throne among 
the light pinks. Baroness Schroeder, Eliza- 
beth Barrett Browning, one of the numerous 
Lady Alexandra Duffs and even the quite 
common Marie Lemoine are almost perfect 
whites. La France, Eugene Verdier, Rene 
Hortense and Martha Bulloch, when at their 
best may be dangerous rivals of Therese. 
In the rose or deep pink class it is difficult 
to name anything as fine as LeCygne or 
Therese, but Madame Geissler is immense 
and imposing ; Madame Ducel is exquisite in 
form and color ; Modest Guerin, A Ibert 
Crousse and Monsieur Jules Elie are beauties. 
In the reds, Felix Crousse, Karl Rosenfield, 
President Roosevelt and Mary Brand are all 
superb, while Monsieur Martin Cahuzac is 
the darkest and one of the most interesting. 
Of course the division of Peonies into 
white, light pink, dark pink and red groups 
is only a rough classification. There is an 
almost infinite variety of shade and tint 
within each of these groups. It is also true 
that many flowers open as pink Peonies 
and when full bloom become pure white. 
Then there are exquisite varieties like 
Tourangelle and Asa Gray which cannot be 
classed accurately as belonging to either 
color group. They are illusive, changing 
and delightful combinations of tints which 
are indescribable in words but are usually 
spoken of as blush. The unique and mar- 
February, 1920 
velous Solange is sometimes called coffee- 
colored and sometimes orange-salmon, but 
the truth is that it is indescribable. Others 
have guard petals of one color, a colorette 
of another and a crown of a third. To ade- 
quately describe a limited number of varie- 
ties would fill a book. If the color schemes 
are complex, fragrance, form and habit of 
growth are equally diversified. In shape 
alone, there are eight classes of Peonies: 
single, Japanese, semi-double, anemone, 
crown, bomb, semi-rose and rose types. 
The so-called six points of Peony excel- 
lence are usually scaled by judges as fol- 
lows : 
Color 20 points 
Size 20 points 
Stem (including length, strength 
and foliage) 20 points 
Form 15 points 
Substance 15 points 
Fragrance 10 points 
100 
Tested by this scale three of the leading 
varieties, mentioned above, have been scored 
by experts as follows : 
LeCygne 99 per cent perfect 
Therese 98 
Tourangelle 97 “ 
No flower is more diversified in form, color 
fragrance and habit, and few plants will give 
a longer period of bloom. They will in this 
climate, if we include early, mid-season and 
late varieties, unfold their charm from mid- 
May to mid-July, and when not in bloom the 
plants are symmetrical and attractive when 
other garden material is hopelessly untidy, 
ragged and depressing. 
Truly to those who know them well, the 
Peony is the glory of the northern garden, 
and perhaps Kipling had been working in an 
English Peony garden when he wrote : 
“ Oh, Adam was a gardener, and the God who made 
him sees 
That half a proper gardener’s work is done upon 
his knees. 
So when your work is finished you can wash your 
hands and pray 
For the glory of the garden that it may not pass 
away ! 
And the glory of the garden it shall never pass 
away!” 
| Northwestern Peony 
! and Iris Society. j 
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We in Minnesota have passed a 
rather strenuous winter season so far, 
with at least two cold months ahead of 
us before we can feel the winter season 
has passed. With the mild weather 
prevailing during the holiday season 
our mind has wandered unconsciously 
toward garden activities that will be 
entered into with such zest when con- 
ditions warrant. A generous fall of 
snow gives us assurance that ample 
protection will be afforded many a plant 
that otherwise would suffer from 
neglect. 
I take great pleasure in presenting 
to the readers of The Flower Grower 
a paper prepared by Mrs. Wm. Craw- 
ford, of La Porte, Indiana, for our mid- 
winter meeting. Mrs. Crawford is a 
well known dealer in Peonies and has 
a splendid collection of all the best 
sorts obtainable and is exceedingly 
well qualified to speak on the subject 
assigned her : 
“ My Experience With the Peony.” 
“ When a friend who lived in the country, 
gave me a piece of her red ‘ Piney ’ thirty 
years ago, she never dreamed she was the 
innocent cause of the Peony mania with 
which I am now afflicted. 
