“If you plant a peony on the lawn you have to fertilize it heavily.  You can’t have your lawn right up to the stalks of the peony.  If you want a peony on the lawn you must give it two feet of ground.  Most of the peonies that are brought here are taken out of fields that are cultivated with a horse cultivator.  If you want your flowers on the lawn and don’t want to cultivate them you have to use lots of fertilizer.  You must not use too much.  Fertilize heavy about once in three years.  Don’t fertilize every fall.  Fertilize in the fall, and the next spring spade the manure in and then don’t use any manure for three or four years.  Plant peonies any time from the first of September until the time it freezes up and plant any time in the spring until the growth starts on the plants.  If you plant in the spring you are just six months ahead of planting in the following September, though September is really the best time to plant.  If a peony clump becomes old, as large around as a tub, and you still want it to stand in the same place I would cut out half of the stalks as they come up, and then to get still larger blossoms after the stalks have come up I would pinch the side buds also.”

[Illustration:  A fringe of peonies at the summer exhibit.]

Mrs. Crawford, of Indiana, a peony grower of much experience there, who came to Minneapolis for the purpose of attending our flower meeting, we understand, told us something about how peonies are grown in her section, an interesting and practical talk, part of which follows:  “In Indiana we have a sour, black clay soil.  We fertilize with crushed limestone and leaves.  I fertilize with the leaves that fall in the autumn after the leaves have begun to rot.  I cover them without cutting the tops.  Then in the spring when they begin to bud we go over them on our knees and work the leaves all in with a trowel.  I have 3,000 plants, but with the assistance of the men we have we get it done, and grow fine peonies.  In regard to manure, I never feel that I can put any fertilizer within two feet.  The rows are from three to four feet apart.  We never use any fertilizer that will come in contact with the stems, as when the flowers are cut off it leaves the stem hollow, and if the manure gets in the stem it works down the stem into the roots and leaves a hollow root in time.  We never use in our part of the state any fertilizer that will come in contact with the stems except leaves.  When the streets are cleaned in the fall I pile the leaves on the back lot.  I have fourteen or fifteen loads hauled in.  This is scattered over the peonies.  I want to compliment you on having very fine peonies, some of them finer than I have ever seen, and I hope you will all be as enthusiastic about raising peonies as I am.  Is it necessary to burn the tops when they are cut off?  I consider that the ashes from the tops aid in fertilizing.  I pile them up in little piles and burn them and sprinkle the ashes over the peonies.  Frequently when I dig around a peony and I feel that the soil has become exhausted I throw in a handful of garden peas, and when they get about a foot high I spade them under for fertilizer.”