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|? An Exhibition Peony and Iris Garden |

In Every Community ! i

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HE methods of doing business are changing very rapidly in this age of prog¬ ress. Successful Dry Goods stores are developing into Department stores; successful neighborhood grocery stores are developing into a chain of stores under one management; successful banks are establishing Trust companies with the same board of directors and thus increasing their service to their communities and adding to their own profits; successful railroads are buy¬ ing other railroads and thus serving a larger public as well as strengthening their own finan¬ cial position.

And those of us who are interested in the Peony and Iris business must confess that it is undergoing just as much change as any other business in the country. Many of us can remember when the very few Irises and Peonies then grown were sold by seedsmen or by the nurseries whose principal business was the propagation of trees and shrubs. Less than twenty-five years ago we first began to hear of Iris and Peony specialists, and we have seen several of these, with the help of expensive advertising campaigns, develop their gardens into businesses with national reputations, and it is to these nationally known specialists that the country is now looking for its supply of Peonies and Irises. But those of us who are giv¬ ing very much of our thought to the business, can see a still greater change for it in the immediate future.

The formation of the American Peony and Iris Societies, and the very great attention other Local and National Horticultural Societies have been giving the Peony and the Iris have increased the interest to such an extent that very often there are scores of persons in a com¬ munity interested in them now, where formerly very, very few even knew them by name. And as this interest is continuing to grow, it is being realized that every community should have its Peony and Iris Exhibition Garden where the local enthusiasts can see the different varieties in bloom, and where also they can purchase roots of such kinds as please them best.

Of course, very few of these local exhibition gardens will grow into businesses of national importance, and yet if their owners are willing to grow slowly, if they are willing to do the necessary work in the gardens themselves, if they are willing to send out invita¬ tions to prospects to visit their gardens during the blooming season, and last and most im¬ portant of all, if they possess a fair amount of sales ability, they can with confidence look forward to a much greater percentage of profit on their investments than can the man with the national reputation and great overhead expense.

I have, during the past two or three years, assisted in the formation of several such local gardens, and well knowing the great amount of interest in the subject, I am prepar¬ ing a booklet in which I give my own ideas about the future of these gardens. While I hope this booklet will be the means of starting some of my readers on a successful business career, yet I trust that it will be the means also of restraining others from investing their money in a venture from which they would not be able to retrieve it. Not everyone who loves flowers can make a commercial success o: growing them.

So if you are at all interested in the subject of a Peony and Iris Exhibition Garden in your community, I hope you will ask for the booklet, which will be sent without cost to all who request it.

LEE R. BONNEWITZ,

Van Wert, Ohio

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