• THE COURT OF HONOR IN THE PEONY REALM • 
a wonderful report she had for her father who was the 
originator of the variety. I am quite sure that no 
exhibitor in all the history of the American Peony Society 
ever made such a winning record on one variety in his 
first National Peony Show. Think of it—Home Achieve¬ 
ment Medal, Silver Medal in Seedling Class, and three 
blooms of it in the COURT OF HONOR. 
But not one-tenth of the varieties which won prizes 
were exhibited in the COURT OF HONOR and I know 
of no keener enjoyment than discovering new varieties 
of peonies which have a particular point of beauty in 
color, in form, or substance which have not been found 
in any of the varieties exhibited in former peony shows. 
I spent much enjoyable time with many different friends 
discussing the quality and beauty of peonies some of 
which I had never seen before and some of which I was 
very glad to purchase for my own garden. 
At the age of seventy-three I am experiencing the 
same thrills of enthusiasm in the peony world which T 
experienced at my first p eony shov/ twenty-four years 
ago. I am just now finding a new field of use¬ 
fulness for myself as a peony grower. When I sent out 
my first price list in 1920, two decades ago, my very first 
sale was for one MRS. EDWARD HARDING at $100.00 
and during the first two weeks in which that little price 
list was in circulation I sold five MRS. EDWARD 
HARDING at $100.00 each, one MARY WOODBURY 
SHAYLOR at $50.00, three KELWAY'S GLORIOUS at 
$40.00 each, six JUBILEE at $25.00 each, three LE 
CYGNE at $25.00 each, two STANDARD BEARER at 
$25.00 each, one CHERRY HILL at $25.00, six PHILIPPE 
RIVOIRE at $20.00 each, two FRANCES SHAYLOR at 
$20.00 each, and other varieties at correspondingly high 
prices. 
But during the past years since the depression of 1929, 
I have not sold a single root of any variety of peony at 
$100.00, or $50.00, or $40.00, or $25.00, or even $20.00. I 
have found that my customers do not have the income 
nor resources to buy large three to five eye divisions 
of the new, the rare and the higher priced varieties. 
My sales during the months of August and September 
last year were so discouraging that I almost gave up the 
idea of continuing in the peony business. But during 
the very last week in September the idea came to me 
