Monthly Archive: February 2018

Fairly quiet week on the peony farm and thank you Lord for the snow! Thursday night received 5 inches and later on today and tonight forecasting 5-9 inches more. This is a welcome answer to prayer as the ground is very dry. Bummer that it won’t last with warmer temps next week but any moisture at this time of year is great! Speaking of great, this morning on my walk with our four legged family members, I was greeted with a spectacular hoarfrost awakening.

Hard to depict the splendor of this shot with a hazy sun. These are the kind of winter mornings that I am in awe of. I tried to show Redd and Heidi (now Heidi Bell though she still comes to Heidi and if she doesn’t come, its Heidi Bell) but they were not the least bit interested although they did sit for a few seconds in this next pic.

As you can see Redd is favoring his left leg. During a friendly tussle last evening, appears he re-injured a tendon in his leg. Thus Heidi is now kept under leash to give Redd some time to heal. Oh and in some cases its much easier to catch her as she’s learned that dad and mom do not have treats all the time when she comes to us. Oh dear, Panda Bear, aka Toby, wanted to get in the picture…

He loves to watch Redd and Heidi play but left himself exposed as Redd is on IR. On no, here comes Heidi…again!

Heidi was determined to find something under the rock to eat or play with as Panda Bear just watched. Nothing there so Panda lets play?

No go Heidi! Panda continued looking at Heidi’s antics and was happy just to watch. BTW, no cat was injured during this encounter or any other encounters. We too are thoroughly happy to share life on the peony farm with you and of course watching the Olympics!

Another week has come and gone on the peony farm. Time for another trip to the end of the driveway. Come on lets go dad!

Heidi was chomping at the bit to get going so off we went on our morning cruise!

Since it was 35 F out this morning versus below zero, Redd obliged my ‘out’ command.

You can do it Heidi!

Oh Heidi you are so close! Its ok Heidi, you can do it!

Heidi you can do it! Good girl! She jumped so fast that I missed the shot.

I think Redd was proud of her too as they started to play as soon as she landed. Heidi’s color continues to change.

I was not able to get Heidi to sit for her usual picture as I think she has had enough of those poses. Heidi says good bye for now until next week. Both Heidi and Redd are now taking a nap until the next run to the end of the driveway. I hope you are enjoying this weekly post on life on the peony farm and of course our 2018 peonies!

Squeaker has been featured a few times in this very shot on the peony farm. She like Heidi, loves to get her picture taken. Thankfully her ears were out versus pinned back as she was protecting another new member of our fertilizer production team. Rudy, a bouncing baby bull was born on Tuesday. He and mom are doing very well. Elvis, our herd sire, is awfully proud as of late with three new calves in the past 6-weeks.

Rudy came out to meet his other family members this morning and yes enjoyed a nice sunny snooze in the hay.

Frosty and Rudy are getting to be very good pals although Frosty walked away when I tried to take a picture of both of them napping next to each other.

Both of them are doing great and glad to see Rudy out and about. Oh dear, I’m hungry again! Mom, can I have another breakfast?

Squeaker is such a gracious mom! Dexter’s are very loving and protective of all their family members.

Come on dad, lets go! Redd still has his alone time with me and accompanies me on the tractor when putting hay out for the fertilizer production team.  Life on the peony farm, you gotta love it!

I have been remiss in noting our four legged feline family members in a positive way here on our peony farm. Since we too are cat lovers, seeing Franky chased up a tree by Heidi in a former post may not have left a good impression. (Although Heidi thought it was fun.) With the temps a balmy 35 degrees this morning, our cats were out in sun having fun. Who we thought was ‘Willie’ actually turned out to be ‘Wilma’. Not sure how that happened so will have to go back to our cat identification manual and study it again. She is rather shy, but came out to meet me this morning since Redd and Heidi did not accompany me.

She is just a doll and loves to be cuddled. Her brother Franky, wanted some attention too, so poor Franky was chased away again by yes, Wilma.

Wilma and Franky remind me of Redd and Heidi except Wilma is the dominant one between these two and of course for now, Redd over Heidi.

Toby, aka panda and panda bear and tobemonster, enjoyed the bright sunshine and quiet peace without Redd and Heidi chasing him around. So dear cat lovers, these pics are for you today on the peony farm.

We hope you all are enjoying peonies on our new website! Thankfully the glitches are all worked out and your experience has been positive. So what do we do when it is -3 F in the morning? Yes this is our weekly post on the four legged family members. Time for another walk Heidi and Redd?

Heidi continues to exert her wanna be dominance but hence the patriarch Redd still is not ready to pass the crown.

Sometimes I feel sorry for Redd but then I remind him what a stinker he was with sweet Brownie at Heidi’s age. He still doesn’t listen…

Redd showed Heidi one of his secret spots. Yes the compost pile. Thankfully the ground is frozen and some snow cover so the rancid delicacies were not available at this time.

Of course Heidi wanted to show Redd her new toy!

Heidi has no fear of toys much bigger then her although in this case, dad swiftly got her away from a railroad tie and on to the next adventure.

Time for a ride! This week Redd showed Heidi how much easier it is to ride to the end of the driveway in the comfort of the Gator. She doesn’t like to go fast yet but I’m sure that will come soon enough. With the temps this cold, its easier to give them a ride to the end of the driveway and have them run back to the nice warm entry way vs the other way around. The first time I did that Heidi ran back to the entry way and ran away from me while trying to catch her.

Ok troops its time to get out! I said ‘OUT’!

Now what? They didn’t want to jump out to run and play…again. So Redd is 60 lbs and Heidi is pushing 20 lbs now. Please lift us out dad so I willingly obliged. The things we have to do for our 4-legged kids! Needless to say they were running well ahead of me back to their warm humble abode.

Hey Redd want to play tug-of-war again? These two are quite a pair and yes we are having fun with them too. Just like the fun we hope you are having with our peonies on our 2018 website!

Ok gardening friends, you have been so patient in waiting for our 2018 peonies and website! We are live on the web! As stated before, we hope you enjoy your visit to our new website at SwensonGardens.com. Enjoy and let us know what you think about our new website. Many weeks of work went in to this design so thank you to our web designer and webmaster for getting this done. Oh and I would be remiss to post one of our favorite new seedlings from Roger Anderson. Yes Butterfly Kisses is available in limited numbers as we propagate this beauty. Our 2018 peonies are here today so order early so they are not gone tomorrow!

Our peonies will be on our website soon! The final proofing was sent to our webmaster moments ago and barring any last minute glitches we are hoping to be open for the 2018 season in 1-2 days. Thanks again for your patience and not to be redundant…again, but this by far is one nice design. In the mean time, meet Purple Reign. Yes a purple intersectional hybrid peony from our Roger Anderson’s seedlings will be available this year. Some of you have seen this one at Peony Field Days so for those gardeners who viewed this beauty, now is your chance to grow this in your garden. We have a total of six new seedlings available and a total of 36 new for 2018 peonies.

For those of you who have been contacting us regarding our new 2018 peonies, more details will be noted on our new website. These new peonies are part of the last advanced generation of Roger Anderson’s seedlings that we purchased. The originator is Roger Anderson and the registrant is Swenson Gardens. All paperwork has been sent to the American Peony Society so you will see them in the APS bulletin in the near future. So without further a do, meet Predawn Beauty. She is an intersectional hybrid peony that truly is a beauty! Roger Anderson’s seedlings not only bring joy to our fields but maybe this year his peonies will bring generational joy to your gardens!

If only peonies would grow as fast as Heidi? Of course then our patience factor vs instant gratification would be in turmoil. Speaking of turmoil, Heidi was able to meet Franky earlier this week. As you can see in the next pic, their meeting didn’t go very well!

Perhaps Heidi is attracted to red hue colors? Of course now that Heidi chased Franky up a tree, at least for the moment Redd had his freedom. This morning was another story though. Heidi could not find any cats to harass so who better to play with?

A clod of dirt? I’m not sure what Heidi see’s in a clod of dirt, but for the moment Redd is happy. There’s Redd! Maybe he is more fun to play with? Stand off at the ok peony corral commenced…

Careful Heidi, at the moment Redd is a tad bigger then you!

You may want to wait a few months Heidi, to surpass Redd’s dominance! All in playful pecking order but life lessons are hard to take Heidi.

Time to look nice and cute for my photographer again. Not sure why he likes to take a lot of pictures of me but yes I will sit on command and look oh so cute for the camera! Guess he’s going through withdrawals not being able to photograph peonies!

Ok so our webmaster is hard at work getting the 2018 website coded, we are proofing parts of it, dreaming about peonies, watching Heidi grow by the day and oh yes, a new member of the fertilizer production team was born this week! These Dexter cows are amazing! After carrying the calf into the barn four times to get her warm only to have her go back outside in 2 F temperatures, at 12:30 am that night I finally gave up. The amazing part is the fact that she had a lot more fat on her then calves born in warmer weather. Did mom and daughter know something that I didn’t? Apparently so! Though her newborn calf was white with frost, underneath she was toasty warm with her layer of fat to keep her warm. So this morning I tried to take a few shots of her…when she wasn’t running around. Please welcome, appropriately named, Frosty to the 2018 fertilizer production team! If the peonies only knew what Frosty had to go through for them!