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The peonies are being dug at a furious pace in order to fill all our first dig shipments. Thankfully the weather has been pleasant for the crews. Pick up days are Saturday’s, September 5th and September 12th from 9 am to 5 PM. Shipping orders on first dig should go out within that time period and an email notification will be sent to you from USPS Priority Mail if a correct email was given to us initially at time of ordering. For those of you who haven’t ordered yet, now is the time to place your order through our online store or go to our ‘How to order’ page and mail in your order. These orders are for shipment only and should go out the end of September/early October. Happy shopping and planting soon!

Friendly reminder for Zones 2-5 and those interested in picking up there peonies is fast approaching the cutoff date of this Friday, August 21st! With the rain starting and forecasted over the next couple of days, roots will be nice and plump and yes, heavy! The processing area was set up over the weekend and more washing stands added to accommodate the increased orders. Thanks again for letting us grow your peony roots, without chemicals, as it truly has been a labor of love from all of us at Swenson Gardens. Happy peony planting…soon!

Please welcome our new peony compost team member! She was recently born and doing well. Mom, ‘Bessie’ aka ‘crooked horn’ and dad, the ever loving ‘Buford’ are doing great too! She (as ‘she’ hasn’t been named yet) will soon be playing with her other (5) siblings of Buford who were born this spring. Its always amazing how fast calves can be up and around shortly after birth. Welcome ‘she’ to the peony composting team!

We are so blessed to be able to spend a few days at Becky’s family’s cabin on Burntside Lake in Ely. The kids (still to us anyways) love to spend time on the water. What a great break to be able to unwind for a weekend or two over the summer. Ok so I like to take pictures too! Out came the big 400 mm Sony G glass from the dock to catch them in action about 200 yards away. Love it!

Even dearest Becky brought the hand me down A77 out and was having fun. Thought I was going to fall off the dock with this lens as its field of view is very small. My oh my does it do portraits…especially with her!

Can you believe this? I’ve been fishing this lake for walleyes since 1990 and have never caught one except for the few days we were up there. His first walleye EVER, let alone on Burntside, was 30″. She was released after a few photos to swim again.

We think a kayak may be under the Christmas tree this year as the girls really love that sport and rented one from a local resort. Just in case your interested, pulled out the Tamron 90mm macro for this shot. For me I think a kayak is too slow compared to the 150 hp Yamaha on the boat. I guess is great though that the girls love to kayak so you know who can spend some time elsewhere on Burntside trying to catch a walleye that big! Maybe in 2030 I’ll get a chance to catch one that big if they only bite in 25 year increments! Sort’ve like growing peonies I guess.

Ok last picture in this collage as I couldn’t pass this one up. Off in the distance I saw this rock shimmering above the water with the sun at the right angle. Pulled out the 400 mm G and WOW! Nice to have the gear along to shoot those special shots on the lake and in the peony fields!

Our son too was busy at the Wright County Fair…off the peony farm. He received 7 blue ribbons for his projects and demonstrations. As you can see he was very busy during the parade of champions. Two grand and two reserve champions so on to the MN State Fair as well. He has a knack for picking projects and is a pro at demonstrations. Congratulations buddy!

He was also working as a 4H ambassador during the year and at the fair. Being a very outgoing personality this fit well into his schedule. Couple that with a trip to Washington D.C. as the youth representative for our electric co-op, Wright-Hennepin Electric, a very busy summer off of the peony farm.

Even our daughter gets into fun…away from the peony farm! This is her last year of competing in Western games with ‘Daisy’. She just finished with the Wright County Fair and received the overall games champion. She was awarded the 1st MN State Fair trip so will be competing at the State Fair in games and trail class. We are so proud of them as they’ve been working very hard since last spring and more importantly, over the last eight years. Yesterday she and some friends went on a trail ride and took the horses swimming. Daisy was so enamored by putting her head under water and blowing bubbles through her nose. She did it eight times and didn’t want to leave the water.

The future plans for both of them are up in the air for now. Dad was very teary eyes taking this and many of the photos as this could be it for now. I remember growing up with my horse, Trigger and the day I said goodbye to him is still etched in my mind. Daisy has been a part of our family for almost eight years and not knowing if she will stay or be sold to another up and coming gamer is still to be determined. Thanks girls for all the many memories on the peony farm!

In between our busy times on the peony farm things do get somewhat concerning when I try to take selfies of ‘Toby’ aka ‘Panda Bear’ and me. We’ve been trying to get all the cats and kittens to stay in the barn but its so much fun sitting on the steps in back of our house. Just don’t tell the family that I sometimes eat supper on the steps and somehow meat falls off my plate.

Speaking of kittens, who needs to watch tv or surf the web! They are so much fun. Even Becky sits with me…of course without that stuff that falls off of my plate. We are now down to two ‘daddies’ kittens left. The others have found wonderful new homes. The new kittens names are ‘Gerty’ short for Gertrude and ‘Franny’. Since this was our first batch of kittens, the first step was to Google ‘how to tell a boy kitty from a girl kitty’. So back and forth we went from the computer to the actual kitten just to make sure. End result of the ones we kept…we think they are girls! 🙂

By now all of the peonies have either gone way past bloom or have been done for our gardening friends in Zone 2 a few weeks ago. Many of you have inquired on where to cut off spent blooms. Here is a picture on where the average location is. Basically right above the first main foliage branch. With some varieties where the bloom is held high above the plant, you may even have to cut farther down to tidy up your plants. Our tip for cutting off either spent blooms or cut flower blooms, you always want to leave at least 1/3 of the original stem in place. Now the ‘what if I don’t remove my spent blooms?’ Well we can answer that as there is no way we can afford to remove all our spent blooms on 18,000+ plants. We see no reason to remove spent blooms other than to tidy up the plants in gardens. For future reference, do not cut off spent blooms until 2-3 weeks have passed from the last bloom in order for the stored energy within the plant to return to the roots. Oh and yes it is a great idea to sterilize your snipper when going on to another plant. 1 part bleach to 10 parts water will do that. Let it soak for about 30 seconds and that will help with possibly spreading any diseases from plant to plant. Happy snipping peony spent blooms…or not!

Just a friendly reminder that for USDA Zones 2-5, the last day to order for shipping or pickup in 2015 is August 21, 2015! The final day to order for all Zones is September 18, 2015. Get your peony orders in soon for 2015! Thanks.

Welcome back to SwensonGardens.com blog! Had to take a few weeks off from posting before the main events start happening with peony digging, dividing, shipping, plant backs and mulching. Where in the world has this summer gone? Yikes seems like yesterday we were anxiously awaiting our first peony blooms. All is looking great in the fields with rains coming at just the right time. Had another 1/2 inch of rain over the past few days.

Gardeners often ask us ‘should we water our peonies’? Well yes and no. I’ll try to keep this on task and verbally easy to follow. For our gardening friends in USDA Zones 6-8a the answer is a resounding yes IF you are located in dry and hot areas. Our friends in coastal Oregon and Washington who are Zones 7 & 8a that receive more rainfall and lower temps the answer is a resounding no. For the dry and hot 6 to 8a’s, the key to watering is slow and making sure the site dries out under ground level between watering. If your site remains constantly wet above and roughly 5″ below ground level, the crown and storage roots risk the chance of rotting out from too much watering. We suggest using 1x slow (maybe 1 to 1 1/2 gallons per root) per week. If you stick your index or middle finger into the ground around your site location and it comes up with muddy dirt, -DO NOT keep watering it until your finger comes up without any mud on them. IF your fingers come up dry and no rain is forecasted, you may want to water as described previously. WHERE TO SLOWLY ADD WATER? DO NOT WATER INSIDE OF THE PEONY STEMS!!! Peonies are similar to shrubs, conifers and deciduous trees where they receive moisture at their drip line. So on peonies water around the drip line of your plants. This affords the greatest relief from keeping your crown inside the stems dry. Now, STOP WATERING AFTER LABOR DAY SO YOUR PEONIES CAN PREPARE FOR DORMANCY! Give them one last drink of water just before the ground freezes or roughly speaking around mid-November when temps start to reach the mid-30 to lower-40 degrees at night. This will tide them through until next years growth cycle.

Now for our gardening friends in Zones 2-5. Watering gets a little trickier and should only be done in drought years (which for us is thankfully not occurring). Not to be too negative, but every year we receive calls from gardeners who inform us that their peonies did not come up or came up and died. The first question we ask them is ‘have you been watering your peonies?’ Answer is yes in the majority of cases. Now in the case of wet springs like the springs of 2013 and 2014, we have no control over how much our Creator decides to give us. So here’s the deal; watering, drip lines and irrigation spray heads are a ‘no go’ with peonies in these zones. Watering peonies will not help them grow any faster than letting them do their own thing. Footnote though for gardeners on ‘sand’ and ‘sandy loam’ soil, you may need to follow as described in preceding paragraph for Zones 6-8a. Peonies are very drought resistant. What happens in a drought year is they may seek dormancy earlier and their next years growth may not be as great as a normal moisture/temperature year. It is wiser to error on the side of dry vs watering too much.

The normal rule of thumb for peonies is roughly the same as grass in your yards – one inch per week of water. In all zones as mentioned above stop any and all watering after Labor Day to start their dormancy cycle. Then before the ground freezes in zones 2-5 give them their last drink for the winter. If planting new peonies as described by our planting tips, it is best to water in at time of planting and then again one time right before freeze up and/or temps start to average mid-30’s to low-40’s at night.

If you have any additional questions regarding watering peonies, do give us a call or email!

Happy peony gardening!