February, 1918 
Obe Slower (Brower 
17 
THE PEONY 
Screens for Peonies. 
[From Horticulture, Boston.] 
The varieties of Peonies desirable 
in a small garden need screens for 
several reasons : 
First. At blossom time the atmos- 
phere is in a disturbed condition, violent 
rains are common and hail not infre- 
quent. Either ruin the flowers. Rain 
makes them so heavy the stems fail to 
support them, and browns the petals. 
After a violent storm the Peony gar- 
den is a heart-breaking scene, unless 
screened. 
lifted for the occasion. Surely the king 
of flowers is worthy of as much care 
as Azaleas or Chrysanthemums. Usu- 
ally the mistress of the house decides 
upon the arrangement of the house 
garden. If she considers screens dis- 
figuring, then plant a little Peony gar- 
den in the forest, especially for screened 
Peonies, as shown in the illustration. 
The plants in the middle foreground 
are Duff and Therese received from 
Shaylor in the fall of 1915. They show 
what to expect of well-grown roots 
the second summer. The size can be 
seen from the framework of the screens. 
tops of the uprights, to which they are 
fastened by screws to admit of quick 
erecting or removal. Where storage 
space is available, the whole roof frame 
with its attached sockets should be 
kept as one piece when removed, and 
if they are stacked one above the other, 
fifty occupy but little floor space. 
The roof covering is made of cotton 
drilling dyed of suitable tints to more 
or less exclude the actinic rays of the 
sun. At each corner is a grommet. 
To fasten the cover in place on the 
frame, cords are passed through the 
grommets and the eyes on the ends of 
the rafters, and tied. To ensure driv- 
ing the uprights in the correct posi- 
tions to receive the roof sockets, a 
form of wood in two pieces is laid on 
the ground, which has a guide slit at 
each corner, into which the 
end of an upright is inserted 
and driven a foot into the 
ground with a wooden mal- 
let. This sounds compli- 
cated but only six minutes 
are required for the com- 
plete erection of a screen. 
As the Peony shows always 
make new converts to 
Peony culture, it is a suit- 
able time to call the atten- 
tion of those contemplating 
planting this fall, to the im- 
portance of screens, that 
they may be made during 
the leisure hours of winter. 
William Rollins. 
Screens for Peonies. 
Second, All the most lovely light 
varieties fade quickly, many before 
they are fully open if the sun is bright. 
To preserve these delicate tints, Peonies 
are usually cut as buds at evening, 
kept over night in a cool, dark place 
and placed in the vases in the morning. 
This is the correct way to treat them 
unless they are grown under screens, 
but they never come to their full beauty 
in this way, because they have no 
nourishment beside water. The finest 
blooms can only be obtained by matur- 
ing on the plant. Moreover, though 
cut flowers are decorative, the true 
gardener gets his pleasure from well- 
grown plants with perfect flowers. 
Peony shows will never be artistic un- 
til the plants for exhibition are grown 
in large tubs sunk in the ground and 
The uprights are four feet above the 
ground, and about three feet apart. 
The screen represented consists of 
an iron frame and a cloth cover. A 
frame has four uprights of cylindrical 
iron, one-half inch in diameter, five 
feet long for the majority of Peonies, 
six feet for the tall growers. The roof 
has four rafters of cylindrical gal- 
vanized iron, one-quarter of an inch in 
diameter, three feet three inches long 
for the smaller plants, four feet six 
inches for the wide spreading varieties. 
The four rafters are held together at 
the apex of the roof by a cross-shaped 
bronze casting into which they are 
screwed. Each at its outer end is 
screwed into a bronze-eye. They are 
attached to the uprights by bronze 
castings made hollow to receive the 
Peonies from Seed. 
Comparatively few of our 
finest named varieties of 
Peonies ever produce any 
seeds in the U. S. I have 
grown Peony Officinalis 
Rubra for more than sixty 
years, but never could find 
a seed. Some others seed 
pretty freely. All single 
Peonies as far as I know, 
produce seed freely. The 
seed, if planted as soon as 
ripe before the shell hard- 
ens, will nearly always 
grow the following spring. 
A single Peony bloom five or 
six inches in diameter of 
gorgeous color is a flower not to be de- 
spised. Watching seedlings of Peonies, 
Gladioli or other choice plants develop 
is interesting. E. 
One day last fall the Editor was 
fortunate enough to be able to cut per- 
fect spikes of both Badenia and Mrs. 
Dr. Norton Gladioli, and these were 
displayed in a vase together. Anyone 
who has doubt about the beauty of 
either of these varieties should have 
seen these two in contrast. They are, 
of course, totally dissimilar, but yet 
the effect was the more striking. Ba- 
denia, as we all know, is almost out of 
the question on account of its being so 
subject to disease, but it is surely a 
fine thing when well grown. Mrs. 
Dr. Norton is so new that but few of us 
have seen it, but as it is a rapid in- 
creaser we expect to see much more of 
it in future. 
