The intersectional hybrid peonies are starting to show! This is my most anticipated time of the bloom season as i ‘love’ these plants! For those of you planning on coming out on June 5th or 6th, tomorrow evening will post a list of plants in bloom. With all our micro-climates and soil types in our fields, blooms are different in the two fields that will be open to the public. My guess for overall color is about 7 to 10% and we are now starting to see some early to mids and mids just starting. Julia Rose started yesterday as well. As I mentioned in a previous post on our old blog, for those of you who have attended in the past, that field has about 50% less peonies then last year. We are transitioning out of that field and yes we sold a bunch last year. For first timers coming out, you will be walking through our production fields. No greenhouse or cement walkways and in fact for the 5th and 6th, wear waterproof boots! With the rain and our new growing techniques without cover crops, it is bare dirt between the rows. Looks like things may dry up before Friday and Saturday after we get through some more rain overnight. With two days of continuous wind out of the south, we did loose some stems on the ‘floppers’. Other news of note is that we closed out our original production field in Delano. We kept that going to fill our cut flower orders but our focus is now bare-root and hybridizing so we are no longer selling cut flowers. Speaking of hybridizing, you will probably see Danny in the fields during Peony Field Days so feel free to ask him any questions as it is prime season for him now. Happy gardening and see you soon in our peony fields!
