Swenson Gardens

Monthly Archive: June 2015

Peony field jottings…

DSC06134The ‘green’ peony color…of the foliage…continues today. A few smatterings of whites, corals, reds and pinks starting to show. Lots of work going on as we prepare for Peony Field Days before the rain begins on Tuesday night. Looks like later in the week the nice weather returns. Very deceiving when you look at the depth of field on this picture taken with a 300mm lens. In reality, these rows are 600 to 700 feet long. Each row contains 200 to 250 peonies.

DSC06133On the other side of our driveway its rather tough to see too much color here as well. Bess Bockstoce, which is my favorite ‘pink’ double peony either in the garden or in a vase, started to show yesterday. When she is in bloom, what a show stopper! If you hover over the pic and click to enlarge, she is in upper left hand corner.  The first Red Charm blooms are just starting to show as well in the lower center rows. In other areas of the fields, May Lilac, Athena, Lovebirds, some new early surprises for next year and Archangel are almost in full bloom. This now moves up field color to about 5%. Long ways to go before Friday’s Peony Field Days. With 80 degrees forecast for tomorrow, my guess is some of the corals will start to pop. Rose Nobel, Seraphim, Nova, sub ‘huthii’, Reward and Lil’ Sweetie are done. No intersectional hybrid peonies showing yet.