Allen County, Indiana Genealogy

Indiana History and Trivia Emblems & Symbols at the Indiana Historical Bureau.

Peony

Interesting tidbits of history of Indiana’s state flower! 🤍

Posted by Broad River Neighborhood on Monday, June 3, 2024

Monday, June 3, 2024 post by the Broad River Neighborhood on Facebook:

Shared the June 3, 2024 post by the Van Wert County Historical Society on Facebook:

[ Notice it is about a named peony Queen Jubilee with large, ivory white blossoms by Mrs. Sarah A. Pleas, of Spiceland, Indiana ]

It's PEONY FESTIVAL WEEK.... the Jubilee Peony became famous during the early peony festivals. Queen Jubilee is named for the peony with large, ivory white blossoms.

Mrs. Sarah A. Pleas, of Spiceland, Indiana. which originated the peony was sent to Van Wert in 1910 to Mrs. Clara Anderson, who introduced the growing of fine peonies in Van Wert. In 1917, the Jubilee peony captured the 'finest flower' award in the National Peony Show.

The peony 'Jubilee' was registered and named by Mrs. Pleas in 1908. She began planting peony seedlings in 1855. The American Peony Society registered 'Jubilee' as follows: (Pleas, 1908) Double - White - Midseason. Tall. Fragrance not notable. Very large. Long, narrow petals, symmetrically arranged about a star-like center, white with a greenish tinge, and occasional pinkish flush on outer petals. Free-flowering. Long, weak stems. Good, light green, rather coarse foilage. An enormous, lacy, rather flat, fluffy flower of great beauty, but the stems are so weak it must always be staked to keep the immense blooms off the ground. M

The following was written by Mrs. L. J. Germann based on her husband’s quoting the story about his visit on June 4, 1909 to see the Jubilee peony....

...I made my trip to Spiceland, Ind., to visit the garden of Mrs. Pleas. The quaint old brick house, set down among the gardens was girt about by Colorado blue spruce - the finest trees of its kind I have ever been privileged to see. They bordered lawn and garden and out beyond them stretched fields of gleaming bloom, a sight I never shall forget. Fortunate in having Mrs. Pleas as my guide, I went through this wonderful fairy land of her own creating. Mrs. Pleas was all the ardent peony lover images her to be. She had spent much of her lifetime in an effort increase the world’s sum of beauty and her achievement speaks for her in no uncertain terms. Even the names of her peonies carry something of her charm, suggesting as they do a nature delightfully imaginative and sensitive to color, which mean more than mere labels. Finally we came to the lovely Jubilee which at that time was scarcely known outside her own garden and entirely unknown to the peony world. Mrs. Pleas was in her declining years and explained that she was physically unable to give it the publicity is so rightly deserved.

She urged Mr. Germann to purchase some of the plants and get it introduced into commerce. He bought two large plants, the purchase price being $25. In the fall of 1909 the plants were received at Wahnfried Gardens (in Van Wert), where they were divided and planted for propagation. It is a variety that multiplies rapidly so it was only a few year until there was available plants by the hundred. In 1917 the plants in Whanfried Gardens and other local gardens had grown to perfection and produced blooms of rare magnificence, and it was this year that some of the blooms were entered at the National Peony Show which was held at Philadephia. It was judged the “finest flower” at the show. Naturally this honor created a great demand for the plants, and very soon it was found in all commercial and many private gardens. It is a peony of delicate color, its petals showing opalescent tints, and as a cut flower it is unsurpassed as its dainty stems render it capable of most artistic arrangments.

source: VWCo Historical Society files; Jubilee peony photos - Kylee Baumle

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