Peonies as a Background for Annuals 
THE COLOR POSSIBILITIES IN MASSING AND EDGING—OVERCOMING BLIGHT—PRACTICAL HINTS FOR 
CULTURE—LISTS OF VARIETIES TO CHOOSE FROM 
Eloise Roorbach 
Photographs by N. R. Graves and George H. Petersen 
T HE peony is the king of flowers as surely as 
the rose is queen. By divine right of beauty, 
strength and vigor it dominates the garden. It is 
the first of the garden herbaceous hosts to advance 
testing weather conditions. Its bronze helmet 
pushes through the ground early in March, scout¬ 
ing, as it were, for skulking Jack Frost lances. 
By the time the peony is several inches above 
ground, conditions are favorable for the arrival of 
the less hardy. Peonies —noblesse oblige —not only 
dare lead the ranks, but stand back of their flower 
court all summer long, shielding the fair annuals 
from rude breezes, offering their dark green coat 
as foil for their beauty. 
There is no flower of the garden as dependable 
and altogether as satisfactory as this herbaceous 
rose. The blossoms are brilliant, gorgeouslv colored, as well as 
delicate of texture. The colors run the gamut of white, rose 
and red flower possibilities. Its fragrance is peculiarly haunting, 
reminding one of old-time home gardens. The foliage is rich, 
glossy and beautifully formed. Year after year it puts forth a 
profusion of superb blossoms 
with little or no attention. It 
endures the severest of win¬ 
ters without a murmur, re¬ 
turning spring after spring 
with the swallows to the same 
familiar trysting place. After 
its majestic blooming time is 
over it retires in favor of the 
rose, graciously content to 
serve the beauty of others. 
Peonies should be planted 
as a background for annuals, 
even though they did not bear 
those great blossoms of such 
striking beauty that they are 
regarded by some nations as 
sacred—symbolic of divinity. 
They protect the annuals 
from the rush of winds and 
make a most excellent foil for 
their tender colors. When 
they come up in the spring, 
their bronze and copper tints 
are as wonderful metallic sconces for the candle of crocus, torch 
of tulip and light of daffodil. The snowdrop huddles trustinglv 
under its shimmering tent of leaves and anemones seek its lee. 
Then come the colonies of candytuft, harebells, stocks, dwarf 
phlox, nasturtiums, petunias and asters. Flowers of every color 
can be planted against the background of peonies, for their dark 
shade of green makes most welcome contrast of color. 
Peony bushes reach a height of between three and five feet. 
The flowers are lifted still higher. This height, coupled with 
density and beauty of leaf, makes them the greatest of all border 
plants. The metallic spring tints are welcome when there is 
no other color in the garden and the rich masses 
of cool green make grateful shade in the summer. 
Because the polished leaves shed the dust, peonies 
are the finest of all herbaceous plants for dust 
screens by roadways and borders of paths. They 
are fresh and shining when other plants would look 
choked and miserable. Between the early-blooming 
single varieties and the late-blooming double ones, 
they make a long season of bloom, a bank of color 
for the road to flow through. They are better than 
box or fern, fill all gaps of shrubbery, make the 
center of individual beds against which the smaller 
plants can be graded. Lilies can be planted to ad¬ 
vantage among them. When rising on tall stalks 
above the sea of green leaves, they seem like gulls 
in flight across the garden. They are unrivaled for 
massing in landscape work of all kinds, as borders for roadways, 
edging for shrubberies, background for annuals, against the foun¬ 
dations of houses and as crest of retaining walls. They are also 
among the finest of cut flowers. 
Very little space in garden manuals is devoted to cultural 
directions of this superb 
flower, for very little is 
needed. According to a well- 
known authority, who has 
devoted twenty years to a 
study of these hardy, beauti¬ 
ful, fragrant and showy 
plants, they require almost no 
attention after the first plant¬ 
ing, demanding only to be let 
alone to multiply in their own 
way. His advice, surely the 
most reliable that can be ob¬ 
tained, is to plant the roots in 
a trench, so that the upper 
eyes are two to three inches 
beneath the surface. They 
should be set about three feet 
apart and in alternate rows. 
After blooming time is over 
the seed pods should be cut 
down, but not the leaves, until 
they fade of themselves in the 
fall. The leaves are needed 
to aid the plant in developing the eyes and the roots of the next 
season's growth. He also says that many peonies are killed by 
covering in the winter. They do not like to be “coddled" by 
mulches, for they tend to create blind growth. Do not disturb 
the roots until they show the need of it. This may be after six 
years, perhaps longer, because every disturbance sets them back 
from two to three years. The fall is the best time for planting. 
Almost any soil will serve, for their vigor is equal to anything: 
though, since they are great feeders, they must be given rich 
earth if their greatest glory is to be attained. Do not water in 
the fall when planted, and only a little in the early spring months. 
Armandine Mechin, a brilliant 
red peony of delicate fragrance 
As a border plant, peonies are perhaps without a peer, not only for their showy 
blossoms, but because the polished foliage sheds the dust, leaving them always cool 
and shining. Their long season of bloom is an added attraction 
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