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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 ihut 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 be 
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 Moral 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. 
The Tree Peony is one of the noblest plants available for the garden; it is quite hardy and flourishes under the simplest treatment. 
The smallest shrub will flower m the most astonishing manner, bearing blossoms the size of dinner plates, and the plant increases annually 
in size until one plant becomes a veritable bank of living flowers. The Tree Peony is valuable for isolation on lawns and for borders and in 
nooks, backed by conifers or other shrubs. Any soil suits it and any position. It will repay those who afford it good treatment in the 
form of well-trenched soil and well-rotted manure, and occasional top-dressing; but it should remain undisturbed as much as possible and 
garden. Water¬ 
spring has 
it has been 
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 EuroDean 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 
