Chemical free peony grower and world class hybridizer of new peonies.

Yes the peonies are resting but the activity level on the peony farm appears to be increasing. We should be updating our 2018 website launch date soon. Our webmaster is hard at work getting the new website updated for the launch. Stay tuned for more info as it becomes available. So on to the activity level with yes, Heidi and of course now Redd. He too has upgraded his activity level with his new puppy friend.

Ok Heidi lets go for another walk after breakfast. She knows her name and comes running with her ears pinned when we call her. Or maybe its the treat waiting for her when she comes to us?

Aren’t I cute when I come to my name being called and yes sit in front of us?

Where’s my treat? You called my name, I came running to you so give me a treat! Thank you!

Ok time to play! Heidi LOVES Redd! The joy of being a puppy has inspired Redd to increase his activity level. We brought both of them into the vet this week and he gave a glowing check up for both of them but he was so pleased with Redd based on his age, muscle tone and weight. He was at the top of the chart for his age!

Its amazing how Heidi has grown since posting last week. Jumping is now in very prevalent during our walks. Oh and did I mention speed? She can now keep up to Redd in short bursts of speed.

Ok time for a short break in the action. She has now settled in to resting spots in our newly planted peonies. Oh what fun toys are present in the corn stalk mulch. Especially when she and Redd locate a mouse. That of course is a post in itself!

Heidi its not time to take the mulch off of the peonies! We have a few more months to go!

Ok I’m ready to play with Redd after resting for 67 seconds! Oh to have that much energy. With all the walking we are doing, its great training for when the peonies do start growing in the spring!

Life on the peony farm continues to change. The 2018 Swenson Gardens website is at our webmaster and waiting his expertise in putting this together. Yes our dear mobile gardening friends, this is your year to experience an amazing change to the rendering on smartphones, tablets and iPads! We are so excited to show our website to the world, but we have to be patient until its ready. We will update you as we get closer to launching it. So speaking of change, for those of you who are not following us on our social media sites, welcome Heidi on the peony farm!

Heidi was born on November 14, 2017 and is a German Shepard. The litter was supposed to come last summer but mama decided to wait. We were able to meet her parents and just adored them except when I get too close to a very protective mom. Needless to say she and Redd have been camping out in our mudroom all warm and toasty during the first couple of weeks of below 0 temperatures.

Where’s Redd? She has settled in nicely on the peony farm but Redd continues to enjoy his freedom away from his new roomate?

Oh dear, here comes Redd, Heidi. He is so patient with her…up to a point. I keep telling Redd that that’s the way he was to our sweet Brownie when he was a pup. Somehow he didn’t remember so I told him it is what it is! At night they both cuddle up together so at least when she is sleeping, she doesn’t keep hanging on him. Won’t be long Redd until Heidi may be bigger than you so enjoy this play time now being the top dog!

Redd and Heidi do like to spend time together as long as she is all tuckered out. We forgot how much energy puppies have so she and Redd are taking many walks with us on the peony farm.

Heidi is so excited for the intersectional hybrid peonies to show! Or at least that’s what I was thinking when she momentarily stopped at these peonies in front of our house.

Oh dear, where’s Redd again? Why does he continually run off by himself especially when I wanted to show him our intersectional hybrid peonies?

Wishing you and your peonies a safe, healthy and prosperous 2018! Though the peonies are asleep with the -15 to -20 F temperatures, some of our family members decided to have some fun outside. What happens to boiling water when it is exposed to these temperatures? Take a look at these pictures. If only our peonies were awake to see all the fun they were having above the ground!

I’ve been very remiss in posting as of late so will finally get to it after a very busy fall on the peony farm. After the digging, dividing and shipping peony season, planting back the new seedlings and named variety peonies commenced. This too is very intense as we planted and mapped out in the fields over 4,000 roots. The crew was able to accomplish this in two days. Because rain and yes snow was in the forecast, all peonies were in the ground and gently watered in. Some years that works to plant before rain and other years it does not so thankfully our Creator helped us out instead of hand watering in each root. It is a major sigh of relief after all the peony roots are in the ground. Clean up of the processing barn, washing stations and organizing lasted a week after that. You would think that all the work on the peony farm would be done? Well not exactly…time to cut some hay for the fertilizer production team!

Not only do we bale hay on our land, but we also do that on two neighboring farms. Seems like our fertilizer production team continues to expand so we have a lot of hungry cows to feed. This was an excellent year for 1st and 4th crop, but not so good on the 2nd and 3rd crop as it was very dry from mid-July to mid-August. The 3rd crop is usually the most nutritious so having a bonus 4th crop really helped us out. We ended up with about 300 round bales so the fertilizer production team members are well fed. Now its time to clean up all the haying equipment, grease them and put in storage for another year. Whew one more to-do-list done for the year!

This is also another sigh of relief after all the peonies are cut down for the season! So long peonies and sleep well this winter! Driving past one of our neighbors, I noticed they had a lovely stand of alfalfa that wasn’t cut this fall. A quick phone call and the field was ours to cut, bale and crop share. So on November 24th we took the haying equipment back out of storage and proceeded to cut their field.

Oh my was that fun! This was the latest we had ever cut alfalfa in the fall and a week later baled up 17 more rounds. Because they had been exposed to many nights of freezing temps, the sugar content on this hay was very high. The fertilizer production team devoured these bales and were not very happy after they were gone. I told them they should be thankful!

The newly planted peonies are now officially mulched on December 16th and enjoying their winter hibernation. Ok now we are done with all outside activities on our peony farm! Time to head inside now and start working on our 2018 website. We are hoping to launch our totally redesigned website by February 1st. Stay tuned for more details as we are beyond excited to show you our new site. Not only is it easy to navigate, but our designer told me to resize our pictures to larger sizes so peony enthusiasts can enjoy them more. Well that sounded great too until we realized that our data base of peony pictures could not be enlarged as they were already resized to smaller pixel sizes. Yes yours truly went through 48,212 peony pictures and found about 600 new pictures for our website. Ok so now I’m excited to show them to you but at the time drudgery was perhaps the state of my mind. Thankfully now they can be used as is in case our designer wants to make them even bigger for our next website. Life inside and outside the peony farm is soon to be done…I think! My, my, the things we do for our peonies!

For our dear gardening friends who have been patiently waiting for their peonies to ship, you should receive this week. Some went out today and the rest will go out tomorrow via USPS Priority Mail. Kind of a sad time of year when the last of the peonies ship out. It has been our pleasure and honor to grow chemical free peonies for you!

Hard to believe that our 2017 peonies season is almost done for ordering. Friday, September 22, 2017, will be the last day to order for all growing zones.  Thank you for letting us grow your new peonies!

Gentle reminder that those customers who are picking up your peonies, we are all ready for you on 9/15 & 9/16 from 9 am to 5 PM. We are NOT open on Sunday, 9/17 so please be here on the 15th or 16th. When to plant your new bare-root peonies? As soon as possible! Do not leave your new orders in your vehicle all day or outside for days before planting. We take extra steps to make sure your roots are fresh so when they arrive at their new home, plant them within a day or two. IF you cannot do that, place them in a cool, dark spot for a few days and then get them in the ground where they belong. We do not guaranty our plants, but we do guaranty that all our roots have received the utmost in care and nurturing while on our farm and we try to give you as many tips to help your planting and care! When you drive up our driveway, go past our house and you will see signs for parking in our old riding arena. (Very sad that it has now been converted into a parking lot and wild bird feeding area but that’s another story since our daughter does not ride anymore.) After parking, come to our large white canopy for information and give the greeters your name so they can retrieve your order.

Ok for some that have been asking about our peony barn sale, here you go. After our first dig we have extra retail and wholesale bare-root peonies available for sale. Those of you who are picking up your order, we also give you an additional 10% off on new peonies purchased that day. The retail roots are at their normal price so if you missed out on getting that special peony, now is the time to purchase it or many! Then we have a huge area where roots that did not make our retail grade are offered at reduced pricing. ONLY CHECKS OR CASH ARE ACCEPTED! We cannot hold roots for you and all roots are first come first served. For you peony lovers, this is heaven on earth! We will be open rain or shine so head north, south, east and west to your peonies destination spot!

Yes our peony fertilizer will again be available during our peony pickup days and barn sale! Though our son is in college and this young man featured in this post is now serving our country, a couple of our weed crew members will be selling this for their future college plans. One bag per peony plant is all you need for a one-time application. This is the same chemical free mixture that we apply in our new peony fields. Your peonies will be set for decades.

During our peony pickup and peony barn sale on 9/15 and 9/16, Danny will be demonstrating, ‘how to dig, transplant and divide peonies‘ at 10 am, noon and 2 PM each day. Also, if you would like to bring a pre-washed peony plant, we will help you divide it so you can share those peonies with family and friends during those times!

Been a whirlwind of activity the past couple of weeks getting all the peonies ready to ship out. We are using two different carriers this year so please note these changes. For all of our customers in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin, your orders will arrive by Spee-Dee Delivery. They were picked up this afternoon and should arrive at your location within 1-3 business days. For all other states in USDA Zones 2-5, your orders will arrive via USPS Priority Mail this week or early next week. For those of you in the first ship that requested a later delivery, you may still receive an auto reply email from our GoDaddy online store and USPS. Please disregard as we can’t stop those emails from going out knowing that your orders are very comfortable in our coolers.

So dear gardening friends, the last of the first ship peonies for USDA zones 2-5 are packed safely in their box en-route to their new home. Perhaps that was your intersectional hybrid peony ‘Bartzella’ waiting patiently with the other peonies for their journey to your garden!