The Court of Honor 
in the Peony Realm 
By LEE R. BONNEWITZ 
Twenty-four years ago, in June, 1916, I attended my 
first National Peony Show which was held in New York 
City and the memory of the blooms I saw in that show 
bring very pleasant thoughts to me today. LE CYGNE, 
THERESE, PHILIPPE RIVOIRE, JUBILEE, SOLANGE 
and KELWAY’S GLORIOUS were then the rising stars 
in the peony world. But that little show of long ago 
would fill a very small corner of our 1940 National 
Peony Show. 
This great show was held in the air-conditioned Mayo 
Civic Auditorium in the city of Rochester, Minnesota, 
on Saturday and Sunday, June 22nd and 23rd. It un¬ 
doubtedly was the greatest peony show ever held any¬ 
where and it has made a mark of achievement which 
it will be very hard for any future show to excel. The 
fact that the auditorium was air-conditioned preserved 
the flowers in such fine condition that when I left the 
auditorium at eight P. M. on Sunday evening the show 
was still very beautiful. 
For the benefit of future exhibitors, the persons 
responsible for the complete success of this show should 
write a carefully prepared article telling all of the plans 
which were so successfully carried out. 
The object of this folder is to tell you of some of 
the winning varieties and especially those which occupied 
the COURT OF HONOR, an elevated exhibition place 
in the center of the hall against a background of ever¬ 
greens. There were, I believe, eight varieties exhibited 
in that COURT OF HONOR and the seven members of 
the Peony Society who exhibited them had great reason 
to be proud of the exalted station which their blooms 
occupied. 
^ A. B. Franklin 
One grower, L. R. Fischer, whom I did not have the 
pleasure of meeting, was fortunate enough to have two 
of his blooms selected from the thousands of exhibition 
blooms as winners of the highest honors in the show. 
He exhibited in the COURT OF HONOR a very large 
