Is 2019 the year of Swenson Gardens peonies? We certainly hope so as our website is now fully functional. Our webmaster was finally able to upload our online store directly into the website. Some of you were able to order, a bunch of peonies from our other website, shop.swensongardens.com, before that site was live on swensongardens.com. Not to confuse you, but for future reference, keep this in mind next year if we encounter trouble like this year. We do apologize for those of you waiting for ordering on swensongardens.com and then finding out that some varieties were already sold out as lots of you ordered from shop.swensongardens.com. Hopefully next year we will not have this delay. How do you like our new online store though? This was a major upgrade for us so we hope you enjoy our new store!
This year we have released our new seedlings ‘Tonka’ line of intersectional/Itoh hybrid peonies! These are named after Lake Minnetonka and recognize the history of that lake and the city of Minnetonka here in Minnesota. We’ve noted a brief descriptive paragraph on our website and the history surrounding that area is worthy of some Google searching whether you are in Minnesota or from a different state. Though color abounds in our virtual garden online, outside it is a different story!
Ok so if you like the color white, snow is the predominant source of that color now. Over the next few years we are anxiously awaiting our new display garden. Here will be found hundreds of peony varieties. Of course the brownish tan color is the corn stalk mulch covering over 3000 new peonies that were planted last fall. If your garden is in USDA Zones 2-4, did you mulch your newly planted peonies? If not, mulch them now as noted in our Peony Care page. Mulch is not to keep the first year planted roots warmer, mulch is needed to prevent the freeze – thaw temperatures in late winter from allowing the roots to heave out of the soil.
Both Heidi and Redd love to run in the newly planted and mulched peony fields. I’ve been trying to teach them to run up and down the rows versus across the rows, but that isn’t working out very well. Finding morsels of corn in amongst the corn stalks seems to be their motive! Ok peony gardening friends its time to sign off for now and enjoy your visit on our website dreaming of peonies!