Yearly Archive: 2016

And the winner of the first peony bloom in 2016 is ‘Little Red Gem’. Congratulations on some much needed color in the fields. This particular area of the field receives full sun so that area is at least 2-weeks ahead of some other parts of the field. ‘Lil Sweetie’ was a close second and set a few blooms as well the next day. On Friday it was 94 degrees around 4 PM that spurred many a bud to explode on both of these varieties. Ok so we live in Minnesota, on Saturday morning the temp was 52 degrees! Yes a 42 degree temperature swing overnight. The weeding crew left early on Friday as it was just too warm too fast to make it enjoyable. Thankfully the temps are now back to normal and with this wonderful rain, peonies should settle down into a slower pattern of growth.

Since both of the peonies that bloomed were very early varieties, Becky took this shot of of a late variety. Don’t you just love the different bloom times and growth of peonies! Make sure if your planning some new resting spots for peonies that you enter bloom times into the design so you can enjoy color over an extended period of time. In a normal growing season here, we can have a 7-8 WEEK period of color from the very early to very late varieties. Intersectional hybrid peonies like Bartzella can have two separate bloom times that provide color for 3-4 WEEKS. If you haven’t grown Bartzella that is originators stock and sold as intersectional hybrid peonies versus the tissue culture types that are found in pots, you really have to try our Bartzella.

Our dear Emma provided some exciting news over the weekend with the birth of her bull calf.  Emma is a Scottish Highlander that was bred to our Dexter bull, rest in peace, Buford. I tell you old man Buford was responsible for some of the nicest calves we’ve ever had this year during his 7-year smile on our farm. What a legacy he left with these calves. This makes four bulls and one heifer with one more cow to birth this spring.Will be interesting in another 9-months to see how Elvis Lee does with the next batch of calves.

Becky and Redd went for a walk a couple of evenings ago and she took this amazing almost sunset picture. Becky is becoming quite a photographer and I love her eye for those special shots. Follow her on Facebook and Instagram for more exciting photos.

In a previous post I had mentioned the tip if using a circular polarizer filter to make sure you are at a 90 degree angle to the sun when photographing any subject matter and in this case I’m trying to shoot an intersectional hybrid peonies foliage. Now what? I’m sure we all have shots like this especially when the suns angle is lower on the horizon.

Now doesn’t this look better and the depth to the intersectional peony foliage is greater? In sunny conditions, move around your subject to no more than a 45 degree angle to the sun and in this case the intersectional hybrid peony comes alive with color and depth.

I couldn’t pass up this shot of Maddie Mae checking out the new intersectional hybrid peony growth in our garden bed.

Intersectional hybrid peonies are still my favorite peony variety whether it is in the spring when their foliage is burgundy in color or at bloom time or when their foliage stays shrub like and green well into the fall or I just love them all season long! They are easier to grow than other herbaceous, and certainly tree peonies, so if you do not have any in your gardens, you have to try some! All of our intersectional hybrid peonies are originators stock and NO TISSUE CULTURE IS ALLOWED IN OUR FIELDS! PERIOD! Some may ask if we grow Itoh’s or Itoh hybrid peonies and the answer is yes; however, we have chosen to use the terms intersectionals or intersectional hybrid peonies instead. Both descriptions are approved by the American Peony Society so we use our terms as they truly are a cross between the two sections of peonies. The mom is a herbaceous peony and the dad is a tree peony.

Looking down a row of 3-year old intersectional hybrid peonies is a treat! I’m getting anxious to see their growth and blooms but that still may be weeks away! Patience dear peony gardeners, patience…at least for us up in Zone 4. For those of you in warmer zones, I hope you are enjoying your bloom times! Speaking of bloom times down south, received some pictures of their ‘White Emperor’s’ blooming, in North Dallas. Wonderful news as the rumor is that intersectional hybrid peonies do better than herbaceous peonies in areas as far south as Dallas. For our other Texas customers, please let us know your findings via email, info@swensongardens.com. Thanks!

The sun came out this evening in all its springtime glory here on the peony farm. As you can see some of the Japanese tree peonies are starting to set their buds and fill out with some of their foliage.

Even some of the herbaceous early varieties are setting their buds and filling out with foliage. I have never understood this area of plants around our house! They receive shade after 3 PM but yet they are farther along in growth vs those in the fields with all day sun. We use most of these for hybridizing as they are some of A.P. Saunders named varieties.

To the naked eye these same leaves were very shinny. I can’t say enough about a circular polarizer filter and as stated before, I highly recommend the B&W KSM C-POL MRC nano. Yes they are spendy, but without it, I could never get the detail of the foliage on this herbaceous peony. If you choose to use a circular polarizer filter, make sure when you take the shot that you are a 90 degree angle to the sun. When you get to that point, focus on the foliage first and turn the polarizer until the foliage looks dull vs shiny. This will certainly make your peony bloom color pop!

Matilda is getting to be very photogenic as she followed me around this evening with camera in hand. Though she was shy in this photo…

her playful nature trying to catch a honey bee kept me focused on her versus the peonies.

after a few minutes of trying to catch a honey bee, she laid down in front of me and settled for some grass.

For those of you who have met ‘Guppy’, he tends to be an underachiever when it comes to work and an overachiever when it comes to ‘cat naps’. He is now the oldest cat on our farm and perhaps the most loved even though he is a handsome 17 lbs! He was thinking about moving from his sunny spot trying to watch some seeds grow…

but then as usual, he fell asleep. We love you Guppy anyways!

As I mentioned in previous post, was hoping to give you some photos of the peony growth in the fields but rain has kept us inside most of this week. Perhaps you can get a mental picture as I update you on the fields with text only. Most of the early varieties are about 12 to 18 inches high. Mids are 1/2 that height and late varieties are 2 to 4 inches high. With the cooler weather and lack of sun, you can really tell the difference of potential bloom times with the varied growth. The intersectional (Itoh) hybrid peonies are the most perplexing this time of year. Seems like they are stalled at 4 to 6 inches high for the past couple of weeks. Then its almost like they grow overnight. I just love the burgundy red color of their soldiers/stems when they start to grow above the ground. The tree peonies are filling out nicely and some have already developed their massive buds.

No definite dates have been set for Peony Field Days. Will be updating the blog and Facebook when we get closer to bloom time. I’m assuming with all the April showers that May peony flowers are soon to come, especially the intersectional hybrid peonies!

Looking through some pics I see that this one never loaded from a previous post when I first tried the Tokina 11-16 F2.8. We are so ready to get in the peony fields but rain hampered any attempts at photographing the growing plants.

With all the rain this week I’m starting to see yellow peonies everywhere! Problem is we didn’t plant any of this particular variety. Guess it must have been the honey bees that hybridized this yellow peony!

A new video on spring clean up of peony plants was just posted on our Facebook page.