Peonies--Old and New.

A.M. BRAND, NURSERYMAN, FARIBAULT.

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