SARCOXIE, Mo. -- It doesn't take an outsider long to discover that this quiet, unassuming town in the southwest corner of Missouri, a town that took its name from a 19th-century Indian chief, is actually "The Peony Capital of the World."
Indeed, if the billboard making such a claim to all who pass by Interstate 44's Sarcoxie off-ramp isn't enough to persuade you, simply point your car toward the end of that ramp. Then head south about a mile, to the little main drag that connects Sarcoxie's town square to the rest of the world.There, on any given day in the spring, you'll find potfuls of peonies on the porches of the houses lining the street. Not to mention bundles more blooming in the greenbelts separating the sidewalk from the roadway.
Then drop by the Gene Taylor Library and Museum, named for the beloved native son who served 16 years in Congress. There you'll find a pitcher full of the fragrant, ball-shaped flowers on the front counter.
"They seem to have brought the ants in with them today," says museum volunteer Rose Frazier as she reaches out to squash one of the bugs.
But to learn why this is the peony capital of the world, and probably the day lily capital as well, one must make a run out to the northern edge of town, to Gilbert H. Wild and Son. It's a flower farm born more than 100 years ago when its namesake decided to make a little pocket change by putting the colorful, green-stemmed flowers into the rich, chocolate-brown soil surrounding his family's home.
"Gilbert H. originally started when he was like 12, when he bought a couple dozen peonies and started putting them out for cut flowers," says Greg Jones, who bought the farm from the Wild family in 1991.
The flowers did so well that by 1885 Gilbert H. had founded the family business. Soon after the turn of the century, he had more than a million peonies blooming every year.
By the 1920s there were so many of the bright, colorful flowers in his fields that people began holding spring weddings there, and soon Sarcoxie was the site of peony festivals.
But then the rains came in record amounts in the 1950s, all but washing away Sarcoxie's now-famous crop. The Wild family responded by diversifying, planting day lilies and irises until things dried out enough for the peonies to stage a comeback.
The result: "Today we're the largest grower of peonies and day lilies in the world," Jones says. "And we grow about 200,000 irises as well."
There are more than 1.5 million flowers in all growing out of the farm's soil, including 2,800 varieties of day lilies, 601 varieties of peonies and 35 different kinds of irises.
They are shipped to every state in the nation, as well as some 40 countries. Most go to landscapers or homeowners, some to florists, and even some to cities and parks.
"We have a major display at the St. Louis Botanical Garden right now," Jones says.
But selling them is the work part. And Jones, a burly man of 44 who dresses in work boots, denim shirt and blue jeans for his frequent forays into the fields, says he got into this out of love for all things that grow out of the ground, but particularly for flowers.
"There's nothing more beautiful than a field of peonies in full bloom," says the horticulturist, who keeps a framed print of Van Gogh's "Irises" in his office.
"It takes your breath away," he adds. "The fragrance, the colors."
His 400-acre farm is a major tourist attraction to this town of 1,330 people that was named for Chief Sarcoxie, the leader of the Turtle Band of Delaware Indians who were living here when white settlers arrived in the 1830s. Each day from late spring until the middle of the summer, people stop by to visit.
Just the day before, some 20 groups of people showed up in a driving rainstorm and insisted on traipsing through the mud-soaked fields for a look.
"We get people who stop by for the day or just for an hour or two," says Jones.
Peony blooms are gone by the middle of June. But then the day lilies start to open up, and they won't be gone until August.
"At one time we'll have about 8 million day lilies in bloom," Jones says.