The Eonnewitz Peony Gardens 
Van Wert, Ohio 
lover, passed our home carrying a magnificent extra 
large, silvery pink, double peony which he called M. 
JULES ELIE. We a'sked him the price of it. He told us 
he would furnish a 3 to 5 eye division for two dollars and 
we very willingly gave him his price for the most beau¬ 
tiful peony we had ever seen. 
• • • 
Tw O years later Mr. Germann asked us to step into 
his garden to see a new peony which a widow, Mrs. Sarah 
Pleas of Spiceland, Indiana, had grown from a seed. He 
told us that it first bloomed in her garden on the fiftieth 
anniversary of the day on which she had been married 
and that she had given it the name, JUBILEE. As I 
walked through his garden I suddenly came face to face 
with the largest, most beautiful, most entrancing flower 
of any kind I had ever seen. It was full nine inches in 
diameter with very long and lacy petals and in the very 
center of the bloom there were intermingled very beau¬ 
tiful shades of delicate pink and lemon yellow. The very 
large plant had a beautiful rustic support and was nearly 
four feet tall. 
My surprise at its size, its form, its color, and its 
beauty was so great that I experienced one of the four 
great thrills of my life. Every hair on my head seemed 
to stand erect and to tingle at its roots and cold chills 
ran up and down my spine and I immediately offered 
him ten dollars for the plant. I hope you, reader, have 
had a similar experience, yes, I hope you have had many 
of them, for events like this in my life are never for¬ 
gotten. 
Although I found later that the original price of this 
plant in Mrs. Pleas’ garden was not more than two dol¬ 
lars yet my offer for it was not accepted. Mr. Germ.ann 
told me that Miss Anderson, living on ouf East Main 
Street, had a plant exactly like his and I immediately 
went to her and offered her ten dollars for her plant but 
like Mr. Germann she would not dispose of it because 
Mrs. Pleas, who had grown it from seed, had moved to 
California, taken her peonies with her and no one knew 
whether or not another root of it could ever be obtained. 
• • • 
A WEEK latek Miss Anderson informed me that 
Mrs. Pleas’ daughter had a root of JUBILEE in her gar- 
