. The American florist : a weekly journal for the trade. Floriculture; Florists. A Quarter Century of Peonies. BY A H. FEWKES. A quarter century —the express ion gives one the impres- sion of a mucli longer lapse of time than is actually covered by the passing of 25 years; to those of us who have watch- ed the flying years go by the time seems short, indeed. It seems but yesterday that we were read- ing in the English horticultural maga- zines the glowing accounts of the peony exhibitions held in London and other European cities, awakening in us the desire to cultivate these beautiful flowers.
. The American florist : a weekly journal for the trade. Floriculture; Florists. A Quarter Century of Peonies. BY A H. FEWKES. A quarter century —the express ion gives one the impres- sion of a mucli longer lapse of time than is actually covered by the passing of 25 years; to those of us who have watch- ed the flying years go by the time seems short, indeed. It seems but yesterday that we were read- ing in the English horticultural maga- zines the glowing accounts of the peony exhibitions held in London and other European cities, awakening in us the desire to cultivate these beautiful flowers. In this country very few peonies were grown at that time, and these in a, few old-fashioned gardens, the rem- nants of a much earlier period before the craze for carpet and ribbon bed- ding swept over the land. The period immediately following the civil war saw the almost complete extinction of the old-time hardy garden plants and the peony went with the rest. Those who still held a lingering love for the flow- er in their hearts were considered pe- culiar or possessed of vulgar tastes. Twenty-five years ago the peony was hardly to be found in any American catalogue. The first nurserymen to of- fer them, I think, after the revival of interest in the flower had fairly .set in, were Ellwanger & Barry of Rochester, N. Y., and T. C. Thurlow of West New- bury, , the latter being the pio- neer in the vicinity of Boston. EARLY In June, 1884, the Massachusetts Horticultural Society offered a prize at its rose and strawberry exhibition for 10 named varieties of herbaceous peo- nies, which was taken by Hovey & Co. of Cambridge, Mass. This prize evident- ly had come down in the schedule of the society from earlier days, when old- fashioned garden plants were still pop- ular, and the prize was not extended for quite a number of years after. Hovey &, Co., C. M. Hovey, John C. Hovey and Marshall P. Wilder were the only names appearing as exhibitors at this t
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectfloriculture, bookyea
