
Mr. Germann then told me of the plant he had 
purchased for Miss Anderson and of course I 
went to see her and her JUBILEE. She would 
not consider selling her plant and she gave me 
the discouraging news that Mrs. Pleas had dug 
up all her peonies and had taken them with her 
to her new home in Whittier, California. Within 
a week or two Miss Anderson told me she had a 
letter from Mrs. Pleas’ daughter who had re- 
mained in Indiana and this daughter had writ- 
ten that she had a plant of JUBILEE which she 
would sell for $5.00. This was most encouraging 
news and so Miss Anderson kindly volunteered 
to get the root for me. I gladly gave her the 
money to order it. 
When I opened the box containing my pur- 
chase, I found a large vigorous looking root with 
four eyes and a one-eye division with a root no 
larger than the first joint of my thumb. I did 
not consider this one-eye root of any value, but 
I finally decided to plant it. I gave it a place in 
my best soil on high ground where no water 
could remain on it, covered the eye with only two 
inches of earth and watered it very thoroughly. 
I realized that such a small root needed water 
often because it would dry out quickly and so at 
least once a week in October and November and 
again in April and May I gave it an abundance of 
water. 
In the blooming season tne larger root to 
which I had given no special attention sent up 
four stems between 20 and 24 inches tall but 
produced no flowers, while the very small root 
sent up a vigorous stem at least 30 inches tall 
with several buds. I removed all the buds except 
the central one at the end of the stem which 
developed into a bloom of full size, great beauty 
and high quality. 
My recollection is that when these two di- 
visions were divided at two or three years of age, 
that the smaller one produced the best divisions. 
But unfortunately the variety was not JUBILEE 
but OPAL and as I knew that peonies do not 
thrive in Southern California, I knew I must pro- 
cure my JUBILEE from one of the two Van 
4. 
