It was in the old house on the campus of Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, where Professor Saunders has lived for 50-odd years, with his family, his dogs, his chamber music, and his flowers.
I was Ied into the dining room. There, the big old mahogany table was covered with his peony blooms, or were they peonies?
They were certainly the most extraordinary flowers I had ever seen.
Flowers In The Dining Room
Dark Varieties
GOLDEN HIND was in the center. It was a fully double flower of a glowing lovely yellow and had just won a place in the Court of Honor at the New York Rose and Peony Show.
Next to it was HESPERUS, a dusky rose on a pale golden ground. A passing stranger at this same New York show had remarked, “It’s the most beautiful thing in the room.”
Then came BLACK PIRATE, dark maroon and as fierce as its name implies. CORSAIR, BLACK DOUGLAS, and BLACK PANTHER are darker still.
Perhaps best of all, the dark has bloomed only once and is an exciting first plant of a second generation of these hybrids.
“It bears our most beautiful name,” Mrs. Saunders says, “HEART OF DARKNESS. The petals are like thick kids and of incredibly dark color.
Yellow Tree Peonies
But the yellow tree peonies, ROMAN GOLD, CANARY, AMBER MOON, are the greatest additions to our gardens.”
That afternoon I was taken up to “The Ribbon” (a strip of land 150’ feet wide, 6 acres in all) where the peonies are grown.
Herbaceous Hybrid Peonies
Looking back up the slight slope from the foot, I saw a sheet of bloom: coral, geranium, salmon, reds “with never a bad color in the lot,” as the Saunders catalog fairly claims.
These are both herbaceous hybrid peonies, developed over many years, and dozens of species not previously grown.
But that is another story. We are at the moment interested in the tree peony hybrids.
Above us was a long block, at the moment out of bloom, of 60 odd plants of the superb tree peonies imported years ago from Japan.
“Chinese” Tree Peonies
We see the “Chinese” tree peonies painted on screens and in paintings, which Professor Saunders calls the most beautiful hardy plants in the world.
Using such a collection as a basis, Lemoine, with his friend Henry in France, and Saunders following them alone in this country, have crossed these peonies with a small-flowered tree peony that also grows wild in China.
The latter is somewhat like a St. Brigid anemone but ranges in color from bright buttercup yellow to dark garnet and is known as Paeonia lutea (yellow).
Great Lemoine Hybrids
Resulting from this cross are the great Lemoine hybrids with double bombIike heads of solidly packed petals and 6” to 8” inches across.
They include SOUVENIR DE MAXIME CORNU and its sport, the clearer pale yellow CIIROMATELLA, SURPRISE, LA LORRAINE, and the more recent ALICE HARDING.
All are enormous and weighted down by their very magnificence, hanging their great heads beneath the foliage. Consequently, they count little in the garden as flowering plants.
Saunders Hybrids
The Saunders hybrids, on the other hand (except for GOLDEN HIND), are at the most semidouble and are generally almost single or with two rows of petals only, like magnolia or lotus blooms.
Though still with a tendency to droop their heads, many of the Saunders hybrids are light enough to hold themselves level, visible and lovely among the leaves.
Some even hold their buds and blossoms high above the foliage. In color, they increase in warmth and brightness from;
- The lovely SILVER SAILS, deep ivory with paler edges
- Peculiarly delicate and dreamlike through lemon-yellow HYPERION
- Rose-ivory FESTIVAL
- The brilliant black-centered cherry red BANQUET
- CHINESE DRAGON, to the very dark flowers I have already described
Other Yellow Hybrid Peonies
Finally, there are the clear, bright unqualified yellows of CANARY and ROMAN GOLD.
The yellow in these are set off by small dark flares (the French “onglets”) in the center surrounding a circle of gold stamens.
There are a few clear yellows with no central flares, GOLDFINCH and DAFFODIL.
And a few really fantastic flowers of gold with purple flares—the most recent is well called SAVAGE SPLENDOR.
A few of the Saunders tree peonies, like HAPPY DAYS and STARDUST, are in season, covered with small bright flowers. There are from 60 to 70 named varieties in all.
Result Of The Man’s Work
These are the results of only one man’s work. William Gratwick, who is already working on the Saunders hybrids to develop them further, gives as his objective.
To develop in all the colors, we already have a few, especially a good stem and a well-shaped and beautiful garden plant.
He is also advancing with excitement into a race of new plants from the second generation of these. And he and several other growers are beginning.
44659 by Frances Affeld