TREE-PEONIES IN MY GARDEN AND YOURS 
A. P. SAUNDERS 
Recording Secretary, American Peony Society 
A New Phase of Delight for the Gardener Who Likes to Know His Plants from Seed-leaf Time Onward_ 
Carefully Selected Seed and a Pinch of Patience the Best of Parents for These Glowing Oriental Beauties 
Editors’ Note: Nobody in America has a better under¬ 
standing of Peonies than Prof. A. P. Saunders, who in his 
enthusiasm has so well served the American Peony 
Society as its Secretary for many years. Making 
the Tree-Peony his special pet, he has a fa¬ 
miliarity with its manners and customs that 
gives particular weight to what he now 
advocates. That it is a perfectly prac¬ 
tical plan was co vincingly demon¬ 
strated to us last season during a visit 
to the Park of Rochester, N. Y., 
where the Tree-Peony forms a fea¬ 
ture display in its season. Starting 
with an imported selection of high- 
quality varieties seeds were saved 
by Mr. Dunbar, the Asst. Supt. 
of Parks, and the resultant plants 
T ALL the flowers 
that bloom in the 
spring, there is, in 
my judgment, 
none that can compare in 
beauty with the Tree-Peony. 
Known in commerce as the 
Japanese Tree-Peony, it is 
truly a Chinese plant which 
has been in cultivation in 
Chinese gardens for many 
hundreds of years, and was 
probably developed there to 
a state of high perfection 
centuries before it became 
popular in Japan. 
It was, however, principally from Japan that the plant found 
its way to Europe. It beca me known to European horticultur¬ 
ists early in the nineteenth century and they at once set them¬ 
selves to the task of raising new varieties from seed. Hence 
this marvelous flower has been known to us in more recent years 
through one set of varieties which we could, in the good old B. 
Q. (before quarantine) days, import from Japan and another 
set which we could import from France. The latter were 
mostly the sorts which had been produced during the nineteenth 
century by growers in France and Belgium; and the former, 
those which the Japanese offered us in commerce. But whether 
these latter were the results of Japanese horticulturists’ skill 
and patience or whether, like so much else, the Japanese had 
merely taken over what the Chinese had already prepared, it 
would be difficult to determine. 
It is natural to question why, if these are truly Chinese plants, 
we do not draw our supply of them from China? In answer 
to this, we are told that the Chinese from time immemorial have 
considered the Tree-Peony a sacred flower, and that they revere 
it to such a degree that they cannot be persuaded to part with 
it for money. 
The sentimental appeal of this statement is somewhat less¬ 
ened when it appears that the Chinese do not cultivate plants 
for sale at all. As far as I can learn, the nursery business does 
not exist in China. At any rate, the fact is that no source of 
Tree-Peonies is open to the American purchaser in China and 
he must therefore turn to Japan or Europe for his plants; and 
here his troubles begin. 
It must seem strange if the Tree-Peony is as beautiful a plant 
as I have claimed it to be—and it is so!—that one does not find 
FIRST BLOOM OF A SEEDLING TREE-PEONY 
“ For the really distinctive beauty of the Tree-Peony, I should always turn 
to the singles and the semi-doubles," says Prof. Saunders, whose long wait¬ 
ing was rewarded in June of 1922 by the appearance of such flowers as this 
now growing with full vigor, in a rich variety of desirable 
shades of color, doubles and singles to suit any critic’s 
fancy, may be seen by the visitor. There can be no 
question as to the soundness of Prof. Saunders’ 
argument, and American gardeners can have 
good, really good Tree-Peonies by compara¬ 
tively little exertion if the will to have 
and the patience to wait six or seven 
years be there. How true it is that 
real horticultural progress rests with 
the amateur! Seeing the results 
spoken of The Garden Magazine 
last year acquired a supply of 
seeds saved from selected American 
raised seedlings, and is now look¬ 
ing forward to the developments 
of time. 
it more commonly in gar¬ 
dens. 1 want to make clear 
what the difficulties with it 
are, and how they can be 
met. 
Why Grafting Brings Fre¬ 
quent Disappointment 
T HE Herbaceous Peony, 
the ordinary Peony of 
our gardens—also Chinese 
in its ultimate origins and 
therefore sometimes called 
the Chinese Peony—forms a 
mass of fleshy roots which 
come together at the top 
into a “crown,” just below the surface of the earth. On this 
crown buds are formed, and if the plant is cut up with a knife 
by dividing the crown, each piece of the crown which possesses 
a bud with a bit of root attached to it, will, when set out, grow 
and in time become a large plant. 
But the Tree-Peony makes no such crown. Its buds are 
formed on its branches; so much justification at least it has for 
its rather ambitious-sounding name. Between the roots below 
ground and the branches above there is, unless with quite 
old plants, usually just one thick woody stem. This is the 
situation that confronts the propagator who would like to make 
half a dozen plants out of the one which he possesses. 
Root division in this case would not be satisfactory because 
there are no buds on the roots, and while the Tree-Peony root, 
if detached, will often in time develop buds of its own, this is a 
slow and uncertain process. The propagator, therefore, resorts 
to grafting a bud. A little bit of stem is cut off and set into 
a piece of root in which a cleft has been cut, and after the join 
has healed, the plant begins to grow and establish itself. 
Now the question arises, what shall we use as the roots for 
this process of grafting? The Japanese have reasoned that the 
roots of the Tree-Peony itself should be used, and for the purpose 
they select a vigorous growing sort which, when allowed to 
develop its own blooms, produces a display of huge, brilliant, 
and terrifying magenta-red flowers from a sight of which it 
takes one some time to recover. Small plants of this sort are 
taken, the tops cut off, and the bud of a precious and delicately 
tinted flower is grafted onto the root. For a year or so all goes 
well, and perhaps one gets a few beautiful blooms; but pretty 
soon the stock underground begins to form buds of its own 
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