135 ACRES OF GROWING PEONIES 

IN 1885, MY GRANDFATHER WILD PURCHASED $45.00 WORTH OF 
PEONIES FOR HIS SON GILBERT, WHO WAS EIGHT YEARS OLD. 
GILBERT CONTINUED TO GROW PEONIES THE REMAINDER OF HIS LIFE. 

ALLEN WILD AND DAUGHTER, Shirley Gene, at work in a seedbed that contains 60,000 seedlings. This is an experimental field for the 
yellow peony which the Wilds are trying to develop. 
Greetings 
We are very pleased to present our Fall 1949 - Spring 
1950 catalog, featuring Iris, Peonies, Daffodils and He- 
merocallis to our new as well as to our former customers, 
because we are certain that we have something well 
worth your careful study and comparison. 
In 1885, my Grandfather Wild purchased $45.00 worth 
of Peonies for his son, Gilbert, who was eight years old 
at the time. These plants were planted back of the 
house; and at the age of eleven, Gilbert Wild shipped 
one crate of Peony cut flowers to Omaha, Nebraska, in 
a carload of strawberries. The wholesaler sent Gilbert 
$3.00 for this first shipment. In 1887, $3.00 to an eleven- 
year old boy was considerable money, and being a lover 
of flowers Gilbert continued to grow Peonies the remain- 
der of his life. 
In 1938, Gilbert H. Wild passed away, but the partner- 
ship of Gilbert H. Wild & Son continued with his two 
daughters, Alice Wild Headley, St. Louis, Missouri; Max- 
ine Wild Mills, Sarcoxie, Missouri; along with the ‘and 
Son” part, Allen J. Wild, his daughter, Shirley Gene Wild, 
and his son, James (Jim) H. Wild. 
Shirley Gene Wild graduated from Cottey College, 
June, 1945, and from Missouri University, June, 1947, and 
is now with us here in the office. Jim has just completed 
his third year at Missouri University, where he is major- 
ing in Floriculture. We hope in the future to have Jim 
with us, and working to develop some outstanding new 
varieties of Peonies for us. 
Thus you can see, Peony growing has been one of our 
“specialties” for many years, as we have accumulated 
what we consider an excellent group of varieties. In our 
135 acres of Peonies, we have over 1,000 varieties. 
While we had hoped to have a much larger number of 
colored pictures in this list (we ran into difficulties with 
our negatives), we do have a start and plan to add more 
colored pictures each year. 
We are truly appreciative of the many nice orders we 
received last season and the many favorable comments 
on our Fall 1948 - Spring 1949 catalog. In compiling this 
issue we have added a great number of new varieties, and 
in the descriptions we have endeavored to paint a word 
picture that would convey a true impression of the va- 
riety, enabling any prospective purchaser to form his own 
deductions and make evaluations of the various offerings. 
While the descriptions are mainly the introducer’s, or 
written by experts, we can agree practically 100 per cent 
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