Foreword 
The Royal Iris Gardens are this year offering another perennial which is fully as 
popular and familiar a garden plant as the Iris—the Peony. It has always been our 
intention to offer Peonies as soon as possible, for they have always been a favorite plant, 
ever since we first saw them twenty years ago. And now we get great satisfaction out of 
offering them to the public, and knowing that they will get the same enjoyment out of 
them that we have been deriving. 
Irises are beautiful in mass, but the Peony is essentially an individual bloom, and 
has an even more regal and queenly aspect than the Iris—there isi something breath-taking 
about a well-grown bloom of Solange, or Le Cygne, or Tourangelle. 
As with Irises, we offer the public the benefit of twelve years’ intensive work with 
Peonies while with Colonel J. C. Nicholls, of Ithaca, N. Y. During this period we studied 
Peony culture, care, disease prevention, fertilization, digging, dividing, packing, and ship¬ 
ping, covering every point in the handling of Peonies. So the purchaser has the assurance 
of receiving good stock that long experience in handling a plant guarantees. 
It is a particularly auspicious omen that this same year that we are first offering 
Peonies, the first of Colonel Nicholls’ Peony seedlings to make a public appearance has 
just been given the highest award attainable by a Peony—the Gold Medal of the American 
Peony Society, and also the Achievement Medal of the American Home Magazine, for the 
finest seedling of the year. 
This Peony is named “Harry F. Little”, in honor of Mr. Harry Little, former presi¬ 
dent of the American Peony Society, and is a large, beautiful, pure white. It will prob¬ 
ably be introduced three years from now, both by Colonel Nicholls and ourselves. 
This year I realized an ambition of long standing, and visited the hybridizers’ gardens 
in California and other parts of the West. It has become more and more necessary in the 
last few years that the Iris breeders of each section know the results that those in other 
sections are obtaining, in order to avoid duplication of colors; that was the reason for 
my trip. 
As the Iris season was late in Louisiana, and early in California, I went first to 
Los Angeles. In that vicinity I saw many prominent Iris gardens,, those of Mr. C. G. 
White and Mr. S. S. Berry, both of Redlands, Mrs. L. M. Lothrop’s garden at San Ber¬ 
nardino, Mr. F. E. Reibold’s garden at Pasadena, and the Southern California Iris Gardens 
of Mr. C. S. Milliken, also at Pasadena, as well as the Pasadena Iris Show. After a short 
stay in that vicinity, I continued on to San Francisco and spent a very enjoyable week 
at Salbach’s Gardens at Berkeley, also visiting the nearby gardens of Professor Sidney B. 
Mitchell, and of Professor E. 0. Essig, and those of my cousin, Mrs. Elizabeth Hardee, at 
Kentfield, and Mrs. J. B. Scudder, at Novato. 
Upon my return I stopped again at Southern California Iris Gardens at Pasadena, 
and at Mr. White’s garden at Redlands, where Mr. White had a beautiful seedling of 
William Mohr blooming for the first time. And then it was necessary to hurry on to 
New Orleans, where I collected the Louisiana Species for a few days, and continued on to 
Nashville, Tennessee. 
At Nashville, the gardens of Dr. J. H. Kirkland, of Vanderbilt University, were at 
their best, and full of beautiful seedlings. Mr. Clarence Connell, Mr. T. A. Washington, 
and Mrs. Stahlman also had many fine seedlings. I enjoyed Mr. Williams’ Iris City 
Gardens, which were beautifully laid out; also, the Nashville Iris Show was very interesting. 
At Chattanooga, Mr. McDade has one of the finest collections of Iris in the country, 
containing all of the latest novelties, and Mr. Sam Graham’s garden at Rome, Georgia, 
had the best colors seen anywhere on the trip. It was then so late that I had to hurry 
straight to Ithaca and Camillus, not stopping at the gardens of Mrs. Hires and Mr. Wister, 
and others near Philadelphia, as planned. 
In Colonel Nicholls’ garden at Ithaca I found it as necessary to take notes as in any 
visited on my trip; his garden was full of fine seedlings, nearly all of them better than 
any similar ones seen on my trip. As is usual, they were all clear colors and were admired 
by everyone, being the highlights of his garden. 
He is introducing a number this year, the most striking being Crown Jewel, a beau¬ 
tiful burnt orange, that was the most admired Iris in the whole garden. Next would 
come Oxheart, a beautiful strawberry purple, then Jolly Roger, a rich and bright deep 
blue purple. Snow Shadow, a new type of white,, Creole Belle, a Bishop’s Purple in two 
tones, and Sun Mist are all exceedingly fine, and very distinct. Blazing Star is a much 
larger Primrose, better than Chromylla or the other new yellows. Besides those he is 
introducing this year, he has many fine ones to put out later—Battleflag, Desert Wraith, 
Caballero, Black Watch, Mirador, Tuscaloosa, and Blood Royal all being wonderful new 
colors. 
These and others are of such outstanding quality as to place Colonel Nicholls as one 
of the leading breeders of the country, In fact, having seen the gardens of all the leading 
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