How Does Your Garden Grow: Peonies
Identifier
F.2022-09-0209
Date Of Production
circa 1953
Abstract
An episode of John Nash Ott's weekly television program How Does Your Garden Grow?, focusing on Peonies. How Does Your Garden Grow? first aired in 1951 on the Chicago television station WNBQ (channel 5), and became part of NBC network programming where it continued to air until 1956.
Description
Host John Ott greets the audience from his home studio and introduces the day's topic, the Peony. He speaks briefly about the history of the plant and the etymology of its name, and then presents several types including the Single, Japanese, Anemone, Semi-double, and Double. From these types, he identifies several cultivars including Helen Hayes, Philippe Rivoire, and Blush.
The scene shifts as Ott explains how to encourage a larger bloom on a peony's terminal bud, and discusses how to troubleshoot various difficulties that prevent a peony's bloom including waterlogging, Botrytis blight, and thrips.
The scene transitions again to brief footage of former secretary and president of the American Peony Society Bill Christman as he works outside in a peony patch, which is followed by time-lapse pictures of several peonies blooming, including the Japanese, Hybrid, and Bomb types, as well as identification of the Toro-No-Maki and Julia Grant cultivars. Due to a shortage of peony footage, Ott supplements the sequence with time-lapse pictures of several irises including Fire Dance, Zantha, Spuria, and Japanese.
Ott then shifts gears to demonstrate how to divide roots in order to propagate a variety of peonies, and provides several planting tips such as using mulch to prevent frost damage, digging an 18-inch hole filled with good soil to satiate a peony's heavy feeding, and attempting to cure a peony of root knot nematodes. The episode concludes with Ott's farewell to the audience.
The scene shifts as Ott explains how to encourage a larger bloom on a peony's terminal bud, and discusses how to troubleshoot various difficulties that prevent a peony's bloom including waterlogging, Botrytis blight, and thrips.
The scene transitions again to brief footage of former secretary and president of the American Peony Society Bill Christman as he works outside in a peony patch, which is followed by time-lapse pictures of several peonies blooming, including the Japanese, Hybrid, and Bomb types, as well as identification of the Toro-No-Maki and Julia Grant cultivars. Due to a shortage of peony footage, Ott supplements the sequence with time-lapse pictures of several irises including Fire Dance, Zantha, Spuria, and Japanese.
Ott then shifts gears to demonstrate how to divide roots in order to propagate a variety of peonies, and provides several planting tips such as using mulch to prevent frost damage, digging an 18-inch hole filled with good soil to satiate a peony's heavy feeding, and attempting to cure a peony of root knot nematodes. The episode concludes with Ott's farewell to the audience.
Run Time
26 min 25 sec
Format
16mm
Extent
950 feet
Color
Color
Sound
Optical
Reel/Tape Number
1/1
Has Been Digitized?
Yes
Language Of Materials
English
Genre
Form
Subject
Related Collections
Related Places
Main Credits
Ott, John Nash Jr. (is filmmaker)
John Ott Pictures, Inc. (is production company)
Participants And Performers
Christman, William F. (is participant)
Ott, John Nash Jr. (is host)
Ott, John Nash Jr. (is narrator)
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