THE BONNEWITZ GARDENS, VAN WERT, OHIO 
sent orders and their money to the English grower, and you and I know how 
they told their friends of the beauty of the plants they were importing. 
It is a wise providence that allows us to take pleasure in anticipation, and 
in this particular instance, the pleasure in anticipation was the only pleasure 
they received, for when the plants bloomed the first year, doubt came in, and 
when the second blooming season arrived, deep disappointment settled on every 
one of them. Not one of the many plants sent for, bloomed like the wonderful 
variety in the garden, and my most confident informant tells me there were 
eight different kinds sent, to fill orders for it. 
Although all these peony enthusiasts were angry, yet their disappointment 
was far, far greater than their anger, for they had great reason to believe that 
the most beautiful flower in the world was forever lost, for the original plants 
of the garden had been accidentally destroyed. The garden, being in a city, had 
been sold for commercial purposes, and in early March, when the time came to 
make an excavation for a basement, no one thought of the dormant roots of the 
glorious peonies. The roots were carted away with the soil, to make a fill, where 
a fill was needed. 
Some years later a lady from an eastern city visited some gardens in Chi¬ 
cago, and on her return to the east she told, among many other things, of having 
seen a peony which she thought very beautiful, particularly so, because while 
the main large bloom was nearly white, it was surrounded by four smaller 
blooms of pink, which looked like water-lilies. 
She had never heard of the long lost peony; but in the course of the autumn 
or winter her story accidentally came to the ears of one of the gentlemen who 
had been at the garden party, and who had tried again and again, to secure the 
plant in England. When he heard the water-lily part of it, he was at once 
interested and in due time he found that the plant which had delighted the 
visitor in Chicago, had been purchased from a hardware merchant in a little 
town in Indiana. 
Further investigation revealed the fact that this merchant was a peony 
enthusiast, and that he imported peonies direct from the same English grower 
who had disappointed so many eastern people. The eastern peony lover was so 
interested in the story and description of the plants in the western merchant’s 
garden, that when spring came he decided to see this western peony himself. 
One story lands him in the western garden a week before the buds began to 
open. 
We do not know how he spent the time in waiting, but we do know that when 
the blooms appeared, he was the happiest man in the country, for he had found 
that which was lost, and disappointment gave way to rejoicing. It is said he 
lost no time in notifying his friends who had sought with him this wonderful 
bloom, and that many were the letters that were sent to those who had changed 
their residence, but still held the memory of the garden scene. 
Now up to this point, all versions of the story have had to rely upon the 
myths and legends of peonydom, and without doubt somewhat upon imagina¬ 
tion, and I do not want anyone to judge of my veracity by his lack of belief in 
the truth of all the incidents here related, for I am giving it to you on just the 
same faith in which I tell it, and I trust you agree with me that it is an inter- 
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