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ELLIOTT NURSERY COMPANY, PITTSBURG, PA. 
OLD SPECIMEN PLANT OF TREE PEONY (From the ••English Flower Garden") 
JAPANESE TREE PEONIES 
Last spring we were invited by one of our customers to see a collection of fifty Japanese Tree Peonies in bloom zhut we had imported for him 
from Japan some years before, and if we could write a description that would give any idea of their beauty the Japanese growers would not bo 
able to supply one-tenth of the demand for plants. We don’t wonder that the Japs have a special holiday for visiting the Peony gardens ; but 
we do wonder that we Americans, who boast of our education and refinement, should be content with the poor and commonplace bedding plants 
usually seen in our gardens, when such superb floral creations as Japanese Tree Peonies are to be had at a small cost. We have said this 
before, but the truth is so important to a lover of a garden and is so little known or heeded that we must keep on repeating it. The 
first cost of a fine hardy plant like a Tree Peony is its only cost, and it increases in size and beauty year after year, so that a plant that 
may have cost only fifty cents when purchased may become one in a few years that one would hesitate to accept twenty-five dollars for. 
Such a plant is the Tree Peony. We have seen one that had sixty-six open flowers on it at one time, and read a description of another that 
had over five hundred blooms in one season. Now, when it is considered that the blooms range from 8 to 12 inches across and are of the 
richest and most lovely shades of coloring imaginable, it can be understood what a floral wonder a Japanese Tree Peony may grow into. 
But one does not need to wait years for enjoyment of these flowers-a majority of these plants will bloom the first season planted and 
in the second season will produce from two to five flowers each. The flowers range in color from pure white to the darkest shade of 
purple, including all shades of scarlet, crimson, pink, some in solid colors, some curiously striped or marked. The shades of pink are 
the softest and most lovely imaginable. 
These Tree Peonies must not be confused with common herbaceous Peonies, which are so popular. Instead of dying to the ground 
every year they make a hard-wooded growth and in time become quite large shrubs. 
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form of well-trenched soil and well-rotted manure, and occasional top-dressing; ‘buY it'should" remainundisturbed 'as much as possible and 
be allowed to mature its shoots, which year by year add to the size of the plant until it becomes the grandest object in the garden Water¬ 
ing well before and during flowering greatly assists in the production of large, shapely blooms, and where mild weather in the spring has 
brought on very early buds, protection of some kind should be given from late frosts. The plant is absolutely hardy, but where it has been 
induced by a mild winter to put forth early flowers, the buds get an occasional ‘nip.’ Flowering season: May and early in June ” 
The above, taken from an English book, is not quite true about Japanese Tree Peonies. They are a little hard to establish, and if 
not planted in the fall, and they rarely arrive in time for fall planting, they should be planted as early in the spring as the ground’can be 
worked. Another difficulty is that the Japanese sorts are grafted on a single purple variety which suckers freely, and if the suckers are 
not removed carefully below the graft every season they will in time choke out the choice variety. The European varieties are grafted 
on herbaceous Peonies, which do not sucker, but, while very lovely, they are not so beautiful as the Japanese sorts, and the plants must be 
