THE BONNEWITZ GARDENS, VAN WERT, OHIO 
A Shaylor Story 
Every one who has read my jubilee story, knows that it was to Mr. Shaylor 
that I was indebted for learning early in the game, that I should grow kelway’s 
glorious, philippe rivoire and le jour. It was good advice which he gave me, 
and here is another story in which his advice brought very quick returns. 
Immediately after the National show in Philadelphia, I received a personal 
letter from Mr. Shaylor, from whom I had bought my very finest peonies, and 
who had always sent me the largest size divisions with the greatest number of 
eyes. In this letter he informed me, that although I undoubtedly had seen very 
beautiful peonies at the show, yet he had a new seedling growing in his garden 
under the Number “35,” a division of which would produce for me in my own 
garden, a finer bloom than anything I had seen in the show, and that for a 
remittance of $30.00, he would send me a division of this wonderful peony. 
Having implicit confidence in him, for every root he had previously sold me 
had grown true to name, and all the divisions had been of good size with at least 
five eyes, I immediately sent him my check. When the root arrived I found it 
pleased me perfectly, for it was of good size and it had six strong healthy eyes, 
and I well remember the happy half hour I spent in skillfully dividing this root 
into six one eye divisions, and you may be assured that each one of them was 
well planted and regularly given the necessary amount of water. 
The following year a prize of one hundred dollars was offered at the National 
peony show to be held in Cleveland, to be awarded to the grower who produced 
a seedling peony, better than any other seedling ever originated in America, 
and surprise of surprises for me, when the award was made, Shaylor’s seedling 
Number “35” was unanimously voted the winner of this, the best prize ever 
offered in a National Peony show. Its name was changed to MRS. edward hard- 
ing, and I was delighted to know that I had six, one year old plants of that 
variety growing in my garden. 
Two years later in 1920, I embarked in the business of selling peony roots, 
and during the first two weeks of my selling campaign, I sold from my original 
division of this now very famous variety, five full size divisions at $100.00 each, 
giving me a $500.00 return upon the original $30.00 invested, and allowing me 
planting stock for future business. 
I feel quite sure that I was the first grower in the country to realize the 
value of one eye divisions, but I believe that every grower in Van Wert realizes 
it now, because I have visited all six of the local commercial peony gardens, and 
in all of them the majority of the one year plants have but a single stem. 
It is my opinion that if in peony plantings, all but one of the stems which 
come up from the division the first year, were broken off, and the root allowed 
to expend all its strength on the single stem, that the plant would be more 
vigorous, and produce better divisions than if several stems were allowed to 
grow the first year. While I will continue to sell two eye divisions, I hope some 
of my customers will try two divisions of the same variety and size, and allow 
only one stem on one of them to grow, and observe whether their experiences are 
similar to mine. 
Jubilee and Peony Supports 
Readers who look over the varieties which may be substituted in my col¬ 
lection offers, will find that jubilee is included in the list. To garden lovers 
who are learning of jubilee for the first time, I wish to say, that while jubilee, 
if properly cared for, will continue to produce just as fine flowers as those I 
first saw many years ago, and as fine as those which won highest honors in 
National Shows, yet it has stems which are not strong enough to carry the very 
heavy, very large flowers, and no one should purchase and plant it, unless he is 
willing to give it the support which it needs, and which it deserves. 
The Adams Company of Dubuque, Iowa, build peony supports made of 
strong galvanized wire, which please me better than anything else I have seen. 
Your local hardware store can procure them for you. 
There may be better metal or wood supports for peonies than those I have 
told about, and if there are, I will be glad to know of them. 
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