Trees, Fruits and Flowers of Minnesota, 1916 Part 74

About the first thing I can remember, as I look back over the years that are past, is my father's field of peonies, and of a man standing at a table with a large peony clump before him cutting it up into divisions.

I remember wondering how such beautiful flowers could come out of such an ugly, dirty root. The bright little eyes, some red, some white and others pink interested me, and boy fashion I put many questions to the man about them. And then my father came by and noticing my interest in the matter, though a busy man, stopped and explained to me the process of dividing the roots.

That was forty years ago, but from that day to this I have watched with ever increasing interest the growth and handling of peonies. I was but a small boy then, but I remember my father gave me his big pruning knife, and under his guidance I divided my first peony. And I thought I had done fairly well, for he patted me on the head and said it was well done and that some day I would make a nurseryman.

The peony industry as far as the West was concerned was in its infancy then. We had few varieties--peony buyers had not yet become critical. I can remember of but four sorts: the white variety, Whitleyii, now called Queen Victoria; the red Pottsii and the two pinks, Fragrans and Humeii.

Peonies were then sold as red peonies, white peonies and pink peonies, and that was all there was to it, and the customer felt very lucky if he got the color he ordered.

But a wonderful change came over the industry along in the nineties.

Some of the better varieties had worked west in different ways, and people began to waken to the fact that there were more than simply red peonies, white peonies and pink peonies. Such varieties as Festiva Maxima, Edulis Superba, Marie Lemoine, Eugene Verdier and the like came to us. Flower lovers slowly began to realize that the old, despised "piny" of mother's garden was a thing of the past, and that here in its stead we had a glorious and beautiful flower. And as the better varieties have continued to come from year to year, the interest in the flower has continued to increase until now I think I am safe in saying that in the colder portion of our country at least, and in our own state in particular, the interest manifested in the peony is greater than that taken in any other flower.

And it is of this modern peony that I am asked to tell you--of its cultivation and care, how it is multiplied and how the new sorts are produced.

Right here at the start I wish to correct an erroneous impression about the peony that has been spread broadcast throughout the land by means of not too carefully edited catalogues and misinformed salesmen.

We often hear an agent say or we read in some catalogue, "When you have the peony planted all is done." Now this is not true. It comes a long ways from being true. I think the very results which the following out of this belief have brought about are accountable for the production of more poor peonies than all other causes put together. The peony, it is true, will stand more abuse than any other flower you can name and still give fairly good results, but if you want good peonies you must take good care of them.

The planting season opens about the first of September in Minnesota--probably the middle of the month is safer--and it continues right up to the freeze-up in the fall and up to the middle of May in the spring. We have lifted peonies that have grown a foot in the spring, packed them carefully, shipped them to middle Wisconsin, and in the fall had the shipment reported as having done splendidly. September planted roots will bloom the following season. After that there is little choice between fall and spring planting.

The peony root will stand lots of abuse after being thoroughly ripe, but still it is best to handle it with care. Keep it fresh and plump until planted. If accidentally it becomes shriveled, immerse for twenty-four hours in a pail of water. This will revive it. Remove from the water and plant immediately. The roots should be planted with the tops of the buds from two to three inches below the surface--not more than three inches at the most.

Many times you will notice that you have a nice, thrifty looking plant, but that it does not bloom. Nine times out of ten if you examine into the matter you will find that your plant was set from six to eight inches deep--and this is why it didn't bloom. Another cause of peonies not blooming is their being planted in lawns where the soil is impoverished by the roots of large trees.

The common method of propagation of established varieties is by division. Grafting is resorted to by professionals in some instances, but that does not interest us here.

The peony will do well in any well drained soil, though a rich sandy loam is the best. It will give splendid results in heavy clay if well cultivated and if at the blooming season in case of drouth the plants are well watered.

Of all soils a sandy one is the poorest for the production of bloom, although, on the contrary, for the rapid production of roots the lighter soils are ideal. Such soils not only produce roots much more rapidly than the heavier soils, but produce a root that divides easier and to better advantage. But it is with the cultivation of the plant that we are most interested.

As I have said before, no plant will stand more abuse than the peony and still give fairly good results, but if given a good soil and then good cultivation we have no flower that will give us more satisfaction for the care we give it.

When grown in large numbers peonies should be planted, if possible, so that the plants can be cultivated with a horse. Deep cultivation seems to bring the best flowers. Where we can give horse cultivation we start the cultivator just as early in the spring as we can. As a rule we start by the middle of April and keep it going through the plants once a week at least, and oftener if necessary, right up to the time when the buds start to open. Cultivation here ceases until the blooming season is over and is then resumed often enough to destroy all weeds up to the first of August. We use one and two-horse cultivators and run the shovels to within three or four inches of the plants and two to three inches deep.

But few of us can cultivate in this way. Field cultivating methods are hard to apply to the lawn and garden. But we may get the same results in other ways. Clumps of peonies on the lawn should be so planted that a cultivated s.p.a.ce encircling the plant at least a foot wide is left.

This s.p.a.ce should be covered in the fall with a mulch of well rotted barnyard manure which should be forked or spaded into the soil in the spring. And the soil about the plant should be thoroughly forked over, to a depth of two to four inches, three or four times before the blooming season.

Where the plants are planted in borders and beds in the garden, mulch and cultivate in the same way, stirring the soil all about and between the plants. Care should be taken in applying the manure mulch not to get it directly over the plant if the tops have been cut back. The stems are hollow as they die out in the fall, and thawing snow and occasional rains of winter leach the strength out of the manure, and this filters down through these hollow stems and comes in contact with the roots and rots them.

For the sake of protection the peony needs no winter mulch. For this lat.i.tude it is perfectly hardy.

After the blooming season cut all the blossom stems back to the leaves for looks. Do not cut the leaf stalk back until about the middle of September. By that time the plant is dormant, and all top growth can be removed with perfect safety.

Most of us are willing to spend this time and labor if we get results and to get the best results with peonies we must have good varieties. Of named peonies there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,000 varieties. Large collections now catalogue all the way from 250 to 500 sorts. From such collections it is hard for those not thoroughly familiar with the merits of the varieties to make an intelligent selection of moderate priced peonies for a small planting. For people so situated I make the following suggestion of varieties:

_White_: Candissima, Festiva Maxima, d.u.c.h.ess de Nemours, Duke of Wellington, Couronne d'Or, Queen Victoria, Avalanche, Madam de Verneville, Mons Dupont, Marie Lemoine.

_Pink_: Edulis Superba, Model de Perfection, Monsieur Jules Elie, Livingston, Mathilde de Roseneck, Alexander Dumas.

_Light Pink_: Eugene Verdier, Delicatissima, Marguerite Gerard, Dorchester Eugene Verdier.

_Red_: Richard Carvel, Felix Crousse, Meissonier, Rachel, Delachii, Purpurea Superba and Rubra Superba.

So much for the old peonies. Now to the new ones. And the question naturally comes, why any new ones? With over 2,000 varieties shouldn't we be satisfied? No! Many of the varieties catalogued might be eliminated, and we should be the gainer thereby. I believe I am safe in saying that if the present list were cut down to 300 sorts it would cover all the varieties worth while. And there is such a great chance for improvement! So many beautiful varieties coming to us of late years beckon us on. Crousse, Dessert and Lemoine have set the pace, and we of America will not be left behind.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Looking up the rows of a bed of our seedlings three years after transplanting. The white variety in the centre of the picture is Frances Willard, considered by us one of the world's best whites. At the time this picture was taken, the flowers were just opening, so one gets no idea of the size of the blooms after they open.]

Either eighteen or nineteen years ago my father definitely set about the bringing forth of a line of new peonies. For years he had been experimenting with seedling apples. His immense collection of peonies gave him the idea of producing something better along that line. A great bed was planted out from which to collect seed. Hundreds of the best varieties obtainable were planted in this bed, two of each variety, with a very liberal use of the three varieties, Edulis Superba, Fragrans and Triumph de l'Ex. de Lille. Some twelve varieties of the most vigorous singles of all colors were also used. Bees and the elements were allowed to do the cross-fertilizing. In the fall of 1899 the first seed, amounting in all to about a peck, was harvested and planted. This seed was allowed to dry and was planted just before it froze up, directly into the field where the plants were to remain and bloom.

The seed was planted about two inches deep, in rows two feet apart, with the seeds six inches apart in the row. Immediately after the ground froze a two-inch mulch of coa.r.s.e slough hay was spread all over the field. This was removed in the spring and the field kept perfectly clean that season by hand weeding, as cultivation could not be practiced. No seed germinated that year. That fall the ground was again mulched, and this mulch removed early the next, or second, spring.

This second season just as soon as nature began to quicken the little peonies began to pierce the soil. Standing at one end of the field and looking down the rows one could fairly see the little fellows burst forth from their long confinement and thrust their little red heads in serried ranks through the brown earth. They reminded one of line upon line of miniature red-coated soldiers on parade.

A fourteen-tooth Planet Jr. horse cultivator was immediately started amongst them, and intense cultivation given the bed that season. By the end of the growing season the little plants were from two to four inches high.

The next spring, the third from the planting of the seed, the young plants burst through the ground strong and robust. Cultivation was started immediately, as during the season before, and the plants made rapid growth. By the middle of May, most of them were eight inches high with an abundance of foliage.

We noticed a few buds appear this season. The strong, vigorous development of the buds, of one plant in particular, continued to claim our attention, and we watched it with intense interest. Day by day the buds grew larger, and then finally a day came when the first petal lifted, and the next morning the petals spread forth in all their glory.

It was a gem, we realized we had something first cla.s.s. My father said after he had studied it a while, "It pays me for all my time, and money, and work. If I never get another as good I shall be satisfied." It was a beautiful dark red, very early, as good a red as Terry's Rachel. We named it Richard Carvel.

Six other plants bloomed that season. One was of the j.a.panese type. The others singles.

By the next spring the small plants were well established, and we knew by their vigorous growth that we might expect the most of them to bloom that season.

Thorough cultivation was given from the start, and by the middle of May the bed was covered with a ma.s.s of buds. June came. The blooming season was at hand. Slowly the buds began to show color. Here and there over the field a petal began to lift. A short s.p.a.ce of anxious waiting, and then a day came when it seemed as if the bed had been touched by a hand of magic, for from one end to the other it was one solid blaze of color.

Before us were thousands upon thousands of flowers and no two alike.

As quick as the flowers began to open we started to grade and mark them.

It took two men working steadily for a week to inspect and mark this bed. Everything that looked choice was marked No. 1. Everything that looked as though it stood a chance of coming choice, if given a better chance, was marked No. 2. All other doubles were marked double with their color. And all singles were marked single with their color.

When the digging season came those marked Nos. 1 and 2 were lifted and divided and each planted in a bed specially prepared for them. Each sort was staked. These plants were set in rows three and one-half feet apart and three feet apart in the row.

Intense cultivation was given them for three years. The performance of each sort was recorded for each year. At the end of the third year those sorts which had come good two years out of the three were again lifted and planted in another soil and watched closely for another period of three years. This gave us a pretty definite knowledge of their behavior, made us acquainted with them. It toned down, as I might say, the enthusiasm with which we first selected them, allowed of our making careful comparison with the best sorts, and finally enabled us to keep what were really choice. We did not have any need for the others.

Of the ones first selected as No. 1 from the seed bed, about thirty-five in number, we finally kept eight; of those marked No. 2, about sixty. We afterwards selected two as first cla.s.s.

Those plants simply marked double in the seed bed were planted in a regular field bed by themselves. Each plant was divided and staked. This bed was allowed to stand three years and the plants were carefully noted each year as they bloomed for varieties that we might have accidentally overlooked in the seed bed. Among these thousands of plants we found two sorts which we called first cla.s.s. One of these, though it is sixteen years since the seed was planted, we are just about to send out.

I have given you the history of this single bed because it shows about how the seedling peony must be handled. We have since varied our method in handling in a single respect. We no longer plant our seed direct in the field. We find it much better to plant broadcast in seed beds. These are much more economical to keep clean the first year. After the little seedlings are one year old or, better, after they are two years old, we lift them in September and plant them in a permanent bed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Our seedling Harriet Farnsley, a very late all one color pink. This variety is in bloom at the same time as Richardson's Rubra Grandiflora, at a time when most good peonies are gone. The flower from which this photo was taken measured seven inches across.]

Now if any of you are tempted to grow peonies from seed let me warn you not to get too enthusiastic in antic.i.p.ating results. The chances are that 999 out of every 1,000 will have to be discarded. Test thoroughly before you decide to keep. The flower my father and I both decided our best when it first bloomed we no longer keep. Our best flower is one we took no particular notice of the first two years it blossomed.

But do not let me discourage you. Though eight or ten choice varieties may seem small returns, still there is a pleasure in the work that you cannot fail but feel. And when you go forth into your fields after your stocks of better sorts have increased so that you can have each kind blooming about you in long rows, and as you see first this beautiful variety and then that come into bloom, you feel well repaid for the years of waiting and the labor you have bestowed upon them.

Mr. Brand: A great many people ask the question whether just as soon as the peony has blossomed they cannot cut the top off. It would be a great mistake to do so. Your peony growth does not complete its development until about the middle of September, and if you cut the top off just as soon as the plant has blossomed you are going to have a great many of them rot. We had a very striking ill.u.s.tration of this two years ago.

Just as our peony season was closing we had a severe hailstorm which cut our peony beds right off down to the ground. We couldn't save the tops if we had wanted to. That fall when we dug our roots it was almost impossible to fill our orders, because the roots were in such terrible shape. The tops were removed before they ought to have been.