Milton Hill is one of the latest 
flowering peonies. The beauty of 
its salmon-pink petals cannot be 
even faintly suggested in a photo¬ 
graph 
habit of growth and in quality and 
size of bloom, it leaves nothing to 
be desired. Tourangelle and Souv. 
de Louis Bigot are two compara¬ 
tively recent productions of great 
promise from this master hand. 
Among many introductions of 
very great merit, Lemoine has given 
us Le Cygne and Solange, two va¬ 
rieties which have climbed to the 
top rung of the ladder; in fact, the 
first variety is usually considered 
by connoisseurs the acme of per¬ 
fection in the peony. 
America, where the peony is 
grown to a greater state of perfec¬ 
tion than in Europe, was slow in 
seeing the possibilities of this 
flower. It is true that Terry, work¬ 
ing apparently at random but in 
quite a large way, brought into 
being a large number of varieties 
during a half century of labor, 
most of which, however, proved 
worthless. Among other American 
producers, the names of Richard¬ 
son, Hollis, Rosenfield, 
Shaylor, Brand and Pleas 
are associated with varie¬ 
ties which have proved their 
worth. The names of others 
will doubtless soon have to 
be added to this list. 
New Varieties 
Before going into the sub¬ 
ject of cultivation, it may 
not be amiss to state here 
briefly how new varieties 
are produced, especially as 
there seems to exist a quite 
general lack of knowledge 
on this phase of the subject 
among amateur growers. 
The peony does not come 
true from seed, but does al¬ 
ways come true from a por¬ 
tion of the root. I particu¬ 
larly mention this latter, 
since not infrequently some 
A splendid 
early peony 
for general 
planting is 
Madam Ca- 
lot, blending 
flesh color, 
blush, crush¬ 
ed straw¬ 
berry and 
white in its 
petals 
| 
I 
1 
I 
A dormant 
peony root as 
it appears in 
the autumn 
when ready 
for planting. 
The small 
buds or 
“eyes” will 
develop into 
next year’s 
flower shoots 
A distinct and impressive sort is Eugenie Verdier, one of the 
grown. Its color is flesh pink shading to a white center. 1 
habit of the stems are characteristic 
most beautiful peonies 
he length and drooping 
i The flowers of Jubilee are ex¬ 
ceptionally large, fairly fragrant, 
flat in form and long-stemmed. 
The color is creamy ivory white, 
jading to pure white 
one has told me that he or she has 
been informed that if varieties of 
different colors are planted in the 
same bed or proximity, sooner or 
later the characteristics and colors 
of these different varieties will 
change. My answer to this is 
briefly: “Not in a hundred years.” 
Producer and Public 
The raising of new varieties is a 
fascinating and interesting work, 
and, in my opinion, should not be 
indulged in by the public distribu¬ 
tor of roots. Just as a parent is not 
a fair judge of the merits of his 
child, so the producer of a new va¬ 
riety is not, as I see it, competent 
to pass on the value of his produc¬ 
tion. Were it possible to limit the 
production of new varieties to those 
who would first have to sell them 
to a distributor, the planting public 
would be saved disappointment. 
Seeds are usually gathered in 
August and may at once be 
set 2" deep and about T 
apart, rows to be from 2' to 
3' apart. Most of the seed 
should sprout the next 
spring, although some of it 
will lie dormant another 
year. You will have to wait 
about four years for blooms 
to appear, and it will take 
at least five years from the 
time the seed is sown to de¬ 
termine if you have a really 
desirable new variety. If 
there is one such to every 
thousand plants, you will 
be fortunate. It will thus 
readily be seen that the 
growing of new varieties is 
not a profitable commercial 
undertaking. Of course, 
where the flowers are skil¬ 
fully hand-pollenized, the 
chances of getting a good 
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