Swenson Gardens

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

2021 SWENSON GARDENS PEONY FIELD DAYS

2021 SWENSON GARDENS PEONY FIELD DAYS

Greetings peony enthusiasts! We are pleased to announce our 2021 Swenson Gardens Peony Field Days. The dates are Friday’s and Saturday’s on June 4, 5, 11, 12, 18 and 19 from 9a to 5P. WE ARE NOT OPEN ON SUNDAY’S. We’ve added two more days to accommodate additional bloom times. Each week, please check back on our blog for bloom updates. Right now in the fields, the very early varieties are starting to bloom. Lil’ Sweetie, Little Red Gem and Huthii are starting to show color so if the weather holds and not besieged with 90F temperatures, the early varieties should be at their peak on June 4th and 5th. Then as the presumed bloom season progresses, mid varieties the 11th and 12th and late varieties 18th and 19th. Again, ‘presumed’ bloom times. A lot can change in a week so check back on our blog weekly for bloom updates.

For those of you who have never attended our Peony Field Days, this is a chance to walk through our production fields for a hands on, or should I say hands off, experience on seeing and yes, smelling most of the peonies we have available for sale in 2021. Parking is available right off 70th St SW as you enter our property and yes multiple portable biffs are onsite. Our address is 10958 70th St SW, Howard Lake, MN. Dates are contingent on weather conditions so we will post cancellations accordingly based on inclement weather.

As you can see on our online store, many varieties are already sold out. If you are waiting to see your favorites and order during Peony Field Days, we would highly suggest placing your online orders now as many more will be sold out before and during Peony Field Days. Orders will not be taken onsite so ordering online is the only way to order for either shipping your peony roots in the fall or picking them up here in the fall.

Reservations are not required and we do not charge admittance to Peony Field Days. We want our property to be a blessing to all and ask that you use common sense and courtesy when safely traversing our property. Yes for those of you who are able, you will be doing a lot of walking. For those of you who have special needs, we do have some areas accessible for wheelchairs. Please check in with the attendants at the parking areas for more directions.

For insurance purposes, here are the fine print details in order to allow our property to be open to the public during Peony Field Days. Swenson Gardens, LLC and Keith and Becky Swenson, ‘property owners’, will not be held liable for any theft, damages, injuries, illnesses, infections and death on our property located at 10958 70th St SW, Howard Lake, MN 55349 during Peony Field Days. You are entering our property at your own risk with no implied help and actions that are required by said ‘property owners’. Thus by you accepting and agreeing to our onsite policies, we the ‘property owners’, will be held harmless for any implied and actual events that may occur during Peony Field Days. If you do not agree to the aforementioned, please visit us online at SwensonGardens.com.

Ok now that we are through the required fine print in order to have Peony Field Days continue for another year, yes we are pet friendly as long as both the owner and pet are on a leash and cleaned up after their business is done. Please do not bring pets into the actual peony fields. The fertilizer production team ‘FPT’ may be viewable in their pasture however stay clear of the electric fences and stay outside of their pasture. Can you say Purple Martins? Yes our multiple martin houses are full of these acrobatic wonders of the sky so please give their homes some space. Speaking of space, numbers of you took advantage of picnics during your visit here so please avail yourself to any areas south of our pole barns. North of our pole barns are not open for admittance. For those of you with strollers, please do not use them in the peony fields. Leave at end of rows and carry your children

Bring your cameras, phones and tablets for photography opportunities. Boots if rain and oh yes, bug spray (administered in the parking lot and not anywhere else before entering the fields) and sunscreen if it will hopefully be, a sunny day. Varieties will be marked in the fields that we have for sale this year. Field maps are available in the white tent north of the parking lots. Please come to to the white tent upon arrival for more information.

Swenson Gardens Peony Field Days is soon upon us and we can’t wait to see you in our peony fields!

TIME TO REMOVE MULCH ON YOUR PEONIES!

Mulch removal alert on your peonies in USDA Growing Zones 2 to 4! If tulips are about 6 to 8 inches high in your gardens or neighbors gardens, its time to remove 1/2 of your mulch and the other 1/2 in a week or so. Here on our peony farm, which is USDA Growing Zone 4a, all our mulch is off our peonies. It is imperative that your remove your mulch from newly planted peonies otherwise the roots will rot out due to the soil not being able to dry out. Every year we receive communications from a handful of customers that say ‘our peony never came up’. The first question we ask them is ‘did you remove the mulch from your newly planted peonies last spring’? ‘NO’

If you are a local customer, with the rains that we’ve been receiving over the past couple of days, might we suggest you remove ALL your mulch…now! This also may affect other areas too so be vigilant in removing your mulch now based on the rain you may be experiencing.

Oh the joy of spring! The lovely scent of hyacinths are permeating from one of our beds. Can’t wait for the scents of peonies to permeate the air around our beds and fields!


LIFE ON THE PEONY FARM!

Greetings dear peony friends and happy spring! The spring rains have been wonderful as of late with much needed moisture adding to the excitement of the peony soldiers appearing in the next few weeks. All of the snowbanks and snow drifts are gone leaving a blanket of greyish brown hues on the fields. Activity with all the bird migrations has been an amazing display of colors and sounds. Today a flock of Northern Terns were making their way north, sand hill cranes squawking in our south fields, robins frolicking around the crab trees looking for insects and of course wild turkeys in our north fields strutting their fans trying to attract that special hen.

Don’t forget our fertilizer production team either. Elvis Lee, continues to be the proud papa as two new members have been born in the last week. Yesterday Becky was checking on a newly born heifer and there was Elvis helping mommy clean up a newly born calf. What a father! Last night he was in the barn next to the two new calves and mommies as proud as can be. We just love our Dexter cattle as they are so protective of each other.

So how have us mere humans been? Well better as of the last couple of days. On 3/6, I traveled to my first ER visit with shortness of breath and a nasty cough. After a few tests and xray, the diagnosis was made that I have pneumonia. A Covid test was administered with results testing positive on 3/9. Not to be outdone on 3/6, Becky then took me back to ER on 3/9 as my breathing was very labored and shallow. The diagnosis was then changed to Covid pneumonia. Antibiotics and steroids were now part of my daily routine. Well on 3/14, I was now going into full asthma attacks so back to the ER early that morning. Very scary times when you can’t breath and not able to stop coughing. They admitted me for observation and was able to get my breathing under control by the next afternoon. So now my diagnosis was upgraded to Covid pneumonia with advanced asthma attacks. Wow am I special or what? Antibiotics, steroids, codeine and albuterol nebulizers have been the norm every four hours since then. Thank the great Lord that on 3/22 my breathing is ok and I am now able to walk within the main floor of our home. Please pray for Becky and I as the long term diagnosis is good for no major lung damage but per our follow up Dr appointment yesterday, it could be at least a two month recovery. So how is Becky? She too came down with Covid last week but thankfully she was spared from any respiratory issues and was mainly fatigued and a head cold.

We are trying our best to keep up with all your inquiries and questions but please be patient with us as we negotiate a very trying time of this season. Thankfully we don’t need to be in the fields for a couple of months, my rotator cuff surgery on 11/19 now has more time to heal and our church family has been providing us with wonderful meals and encouragement as we continue to heal. For those of you who have and are dealing with the effects of Covid, our heartfelt thoughts and prayers go out to you, your family and friends. May God’s peace prevail during these trying times. We love you all and are so thankful for you being a part of our Swenson Gardens peony family!

2021 SWENSON GARDENS PREVIEW

Happy 2021 to all our dear peony friends! Winter has its benefits here on our peony farm for us mere mortals as well as the peonies still enjoying their winter hibernation. For the most part, the winter of 2020/2021 has been on the warmer side with -5 to -15 F temps forecasted this weekend for the first time this winter. Normally by this time, multiple nights of -10 to -20 F are the staple. We could accumulate more snow though!

Becky continues to enlighten garden clubs around the US with her online peony presentations. Some of you may have heard her speak but if not and you are part of a garden club or event, email us for more information on how you can book her. Maybe next year yours truly will be available as well for online and in person speaking opportunities.

We are still having issues with our ‘blog’ by not being able to upload pictures and videos. Our webmaster is looking in to this so stay tuned for a new ‘blog’ in the near future. For those of you who are not following us on social media, being able to post pictures versus just text on our blog is a short term goal.

Peony Field Days will be on our radar, and hopefully yours too, once we get in to May. We’ve been talking about adding more days to this event to accommodate more guests and to afford additional bloom time viewing. Depending on the weather and temperatures, early to mid, mid, mid to late and some late blooms are available to view. Very early, early, late and very late varieties are either past or haven’t bloomed during the time we are open to the public. Each year is a struggle trying to be open during peak bloom especially when we are besieged with high temperatures. Stay tuned as we get closer to bloom time for the potential of additional times we are open.

Dan Zabel (our hybridizer who was mentored by Roger Anderson) and I are like kids on Christmas morning waiting for our new seedlings to bloom. Hybridizing is painstakingly hard work when it comes to the meticulous record keeping of all our crosses. Yes its fun to see the 1st generation but when you get to the 3rd and 4th generation, the genealogy requires a huge investment of time, notebooks, spreadsheets and most importunately back ups to the back ups in case of a computer crash. Thankfully our IT person had us invest in multiple backup devices onsite and offsite as this information is irreplaceable. With our multiple generations of breeder plants, like the song from BTO, ‘you ain’t seen nothing yet…’ when it comes to our soon to be released new peony seedlings!

Recovery from my rotator cuff surgery on 19 November hit a brick wall last week. I told my doctor that I am special when it comes to surgeries so my follow up meeting with him tomorrow may afford an additional surgery or two. PT was going great and then when I started to use my left arm on its own, things went bad as I’m not able to lift my left arm on its own without help. Please pray for my follow up doctor appointment tomorrow and perhaps resolve as I’m hoping to be able to work in the fields come May or June or July or ?

I am thankful though that I can now type with both hands…for now at least! Enjoy your day!

2020 SWENSON GARDENS REVIEW

Happy New Year to all our dear peony enthusiasts. Today I pause after a busy Holiday Season and look back at 2020 here on our peony farm. Being a peony farm amidst all the crop farms around us has now been accepted amongst the generations of family owned farms. We planted our first peony roots here in 2007. At first, ‘locals’ shied away from us as ‘flower farmers’ were unheard of in this area. Now its fun to walk into the post office and grocery store and hear people ask, ‘how are the flowers doing this season’? Being able to spread some peony joy has certainly been a Godsend this year. May 2021 also cause each one of us to spread some joy to others during these trying times.

At the start of 2020, Becky was preparing her peony presentations for regional garden clubs and events. Most of her in-person presentations were canceled due to the corona virus so thank the good Lord for technology and ZOOM. She is now a pro and soon will be launching her 2021 online peony presentations to various garden clubs. If interested, email her at info@swensongardens.com for more information.

Winter here on the peony farm was very mild last year. Sure we had a few nights of -20F and snowfall was also manageable. We had some snow early on but most of our snow arrived in March. Seems like just about the time that I thought winter was over, along came another batch of snow and colder temps.

Spring finally arrived in mid-April as the peony soldiers started to wake up. The snow melting and subsequent April showers provided the much needed moisture for the peonies. All seemed great on the peony farm until we reached mid-May. Some of the early to mid blooming peonies had set there buds and wham! Three nights of 20F besieged our area. The peony fields south of our home saw many rows of peonies laying on the ground. If you’ve ever seen peonies after a few nights of 20F, your first thought is ‘oh no, they are dead’! Needless to say our phones were ringing, emails and IM’s asking ‘what should we do’? Not to be harsh, but our answer was ‘nothing’. I am just amazed at the resiliency of these crazy plants. One day they are covered in frost and a couple of days later they are standing tall again after warmer temps. Yes all the rows of peonies that were laying on the ground recovered. However, now we were faced with the visual results from the hard frosts…bud damage. Yes friends, the peony buds that were set were lost for this year. With Peony Field Days on our radar screen, should we open to the public with 25% to 40% less color due to bud damage?

Knowing we are an outside venue with loads of space to social distance, Peony Field Days 2020 was a resounding ‘YES’ lets open some of our peony fields to the public. The pent up demand to be outside certainly was evident as 3500+ plus people attended during the four days we were open to the public. When we first purchased this farm, our number one goal was to be a blessing to those who stepped foot on our property. Whether it be family, friends, neighbors, visitors, gardeners, photographers, artists and nature lovers, we wanted our farm to be a peaceful place to enjoy God’s creation. Those of you who I spoke and prayed with in the fields, thank you for sharing that you had lost a loved one recently, did not feel safe in your own home living close to the riots and were thankful we were open for Peony Field Days! Whether you like peonies or not, may not have been the reason for attending! Being able to see, smell and touch peonies is an afterthought to the joy of just being outside! Peony Field Days 2020 I will never forget you who stopped to talk with me, photographers, artists (who have a special place in my heart as my mom was an impressionistic oil and water color artist), families having a picnic lunch and yes the dogs that were having just as much fun as their handlers. Thank you again for all of you who came out for our Peony Field Days!

Peony bloom time is one of our top 3 busiest outside times of the year. How to photograph the various stages of blooms from the very early to very late varieties for the website is beyond challenging for me as the photographer. It has taken many years and various photography equipment to hon my skills. This year was especially challenging due to the lack of blooms, sunny skies and yes a few days of 85F temperatures. Being at the right place at the right time surely is exasperating during the hot days as the blooms would blow out almost immediately. Becky too was busy photographing our social media pics and experienced the same issues with fewer blooms and the high temperatures blowing blooms out. ‘Why not start up one of our coolers ,dear’? She said, ‘that would be great, dear’! Having a couple of walk-in coolers saved the day as she could take out blooms to photograph and then return them to the cooler. Thank the good Lord for coolers! Our resident hybridizer, Dan Zabel, continues his quest for the latest and greatest new peony. His skills continue to amaze us as he puts miles and miles on in the peony rows waiting for that ‘special’ time to make his crosses. It’s like Christmas in June when our new seedlings bloom for the first time. We can’t wait till this spring when hundreds of his crosses bloom for the first time.

Our weeding crew continued to do a great job in the fields hand weeding all our peonies. They are a great bunch of guys who we’ve seen a few move on to other jobs and college and also some new guys who trained in to take their places. We are so grateful for their work and award them with DQ breaks often. With our son and daughter gone off to their full time jobs, having the ‘boys’ around here helps me out in other areas of farm and landscape work.

Late June to mid August is haying time on the farm. Now its time to give back to our fertilizer production team excellent hay for the wonderful composted cow manure they provide in our peony and hay fields. Our cows only eat what we grow to make sure we know what goes in and out of them. Being a chemical free farm can only be accomplished with our own hay. We do not buy any hay as most of that hay contains chemicals. Thankfully we had a great haying season so the cows for now, are happy with their food. They have also learned and now fear our German Shepard, Heidi. When the cows think that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, we call Heidi to the rescue. She has learned that cows and calves do not belong outside of the fence. Many times I have and probably will say, ‘Heidi, get the cows!’ and she knows to herd them back into their respective pasture and loafing area. Wow is this cool or what? Now we do not have to herd them back in! Redd on the other hand who is our 11 1/2 year old red lab, doesn’t care. All he wants to do is sniff around for birds, critters and yes, rolling in not ready to compost manure. We still love him though and hope he can be with us for a few more years. The groundwork is already in process for another German Shepard, but the answer from Becky is ‘NO’! Maybe if she forgets the first two years of Heidi’s life she’ll warm up to that idea?

Last summer, Linda, our bookkeeper called me and asked if I realized how many peony orders we have received so far? I said ‘no, I haven’t added them up yet’. Needless to say she informed me of the year to date number and lets just say I gasped for air and sat down. Our orders were up 450% above the previous year. At our 2020 planning meeting, I told the crew that I was praying for a 300% increase in orders for 2020. Are you kidding? 450%! Holy moly rocky did He answer my prayers or what? ‘Thank you Lord’ is all I could say! Knowing that the Lord will not allow me anything more than I can handle, after good oxygen flow returned, I said, ‘lets go’! I would also like to thank you our new and returning customers for entrusting us with organically nurturing the peonies you purchased from us. The growth we have experienced is a testament to your willingness to purchase your peonies from us instead of other sources. You truly are part of the Swenson Gardens peony family!

The second busiest time of the year is our digging, dividing, processing and shipping season that starts in late August through early October. Knowing the number of orders we need to fulfill this year was heavy on my heart as I continued to have a full-time day job and a full-time peony job. For 38-years I have been in the leasing IT, healthcare and material handling equipment industry. I really don’t have 8-weeks of vacation built up nor can we fulfill all these orders unless I am involved from dawn till dusk everyday. Remember earlier when I said ‘the Lord will not allow me anything more than I can handle’? Well because of COVID and other circumstances, I was informed that my leasing career is over. Again, ‘thank you Lord’ is all I could say after receiving the call. He knew it was time for me to leave my day job and focus ALL my time and effort on Swenson Gardens. After a few hours of mourning, it was time to saddle up the tractors and get digging!

Now blessed with two tractors and two full time operators, let the digging begin. Never in the history of Swenson Gardens did we ever have 4 digits worth of orders to fulfill. The mainstay of our business is to provide the freshest peony roots to our customers by digging, dividing, processing and into the coolers within 24-hours. Even with this many orders, that goal was met after I was asked, sort’ve nicely, to not dig anymore peony roots and instead put my skills at dividing peonies with the other dividers. Danny, ran both tractors side by side with two crews on each tractor. Twas a sight to see as he was able to dig more without me than with me at the helm. I’m ok with that! You go Danny!

Since we mainly employ women, men and boys during the peony season, a couple people asked if their daughters could work for us? Becky and I talked this over and it was a resounding ‘yes’ to hire them. Needless to say the competition began between the boys vs girls or girls vs boys. We were so impressed with the girls (and boys too) that next year they will for sure be back. It is so cool to be able to work with younger kids and afford the chance for them to develop wonderful working skills. Their parents are also very appreciative and notice a difference in their kids after working here. Not sure if it is their new found work ethics or the DQ’s, cookies and donuts that are available to them most of the time.

Our first dig is our busiest with USDA growing zones 2-5 orders. This includes shipping, pick up and our peony barn sale roots. The weather was great as no rain was received so the crews could work Monday – Saturday. The crews pace quickened knowing the amount of orders and the window needed to complete this task. Knowing how busy we were in 2019 and that orders were up 450% from last year, we were done 1-week earlier than last year! Really? Yup! I am so thankful for our team and the increased efficiency we implemented during our planning meeting. Oh and me not running a tractor helped too! So for 2021, I’m praying for a 200% increase in sales to make up for the 1-week ahead of schedule digging window.

The international dig and USDA growing zones 3-8a orders saw a change in sunny days to now rainy days and nights. This slows down the digging crew but thankfully they slogged through the rows having to revert to hand digging some of the varieties as the tractor was not able to get into those rows.

The third busiest time outside during the season is planting. With all our new Swenson Gardens exclusive seedlings, planting has increased substantially over just propagating named varieties. With planting, our fields are prepared 2-3 years in advance with composted cow manure, cover crops and trade secret hi brix soil amendments. Now to fit planting in a weather window that is not too dry or wet. Once we have a window, let the fun begin. Our team was able to plant 3400 peonies over 1 1/2 days. This too is a record knowing that each root is hand placed and positioned correctly before they are hilled over with the tractor attachment. Needless to say there was some sore backs and knees from all the bending. We choose to do hand placement versus just throwing them in the furrow and hilling them over. Yes it takes more time but the results are amazing.

After planting its time to clean up, organize and store everything for next season. Becky loves to do this as it signifies the end of the season at least outside work for her and most of the team. Now we wait for the ground to freeze with 2-4 inches of frost so we can cover all the first year plants. Of course this year with the late freeze the ground was not ready until mid-December. Yours truly was not able to help mulching this year as my rotator cuff finally went and surgery was on November 19th. No lifting more than a cup of tea for 3-months? Sorry Danny, no can do this year so you will have to handle this part too. Instead of using corn stalks that we baled from neighbors fields, we bought a semi-load of oat straw from northern Minnesota. The round bales went through our bale buster implement and now the outside work is done! Vacation time for me? Nope!

The 3000+ peony photos and website upgrades needed to be done in order to launch our 2021 website. Thankfully most of the work was done before surgery so minor additions and corrections were needed after the disk was dropped off at our webmaster. Our 2021 website launched on December 12th. A few changes were done to our shopping cart experience by switching to Square instead of PayPal so hopefully this is working out well while placing an order. Ok it is now time for a few weeks vacation and healing for my shoulder as we prepare for the spring. Seeing white outside in our fields is a soothing feeling knowing what will be changing as we start this process all over. To be honest, I already miss it knowing the joy our fields brings to others as well as ourselves. Have a Happy New Year and look forward to hearing from you or seeing you in the peony fields!


2021 SWENSON GARDENS WEBSITE UPDATE

Greetings dear peony friends! Our webmaster is hard at working updating our 2021 website. Please be patient as I’ve given him a ton of new peonies to upload. This will be a record setting launch with 182 total varieties. That includes 86 new varieties of which 36 of those are our new exclusive peony seedlings.

Some of you may be asking, ‘what is a Swenson Gardens exclusive peony seedling’? Well, I’m glad you asked! Swenson Gardens continues to be the worlds largest peony hybridizer of new herbaceous/lactiflora/garden and intersectional/Itoh hybrid peonies. A peony seedling is an unnamed variety that we at Swenson Gardens has bred and also the last generation of Roger F Anderson’s peony seedlings that we purchased from him in 2013. All of our peony seedlings that we sell are painstakingly registered with the American Peony Society.

Make no mistake, our new peony seedlings are known around the world as the new peonies to have in your garden and in some cases, commercially. Take for example ‘Wonderous Delight’. This is the first early bloom time, full double, cut flower, no staking and very fragrant white peony in the world that was hybridized by Swenson Gardens. Intersectional/Itoh hybrid exclusive new peonies? ‘Tonka Purple’, hybridized by Roger F Anderson which is a semi-double to double purple. Again, first of its kind…in the world.

Yes we have been working overtime to release our world class peonies for 2021. Now if yours truly can be a good patient as I heal up from rotator cuff surgery on 19 November. Typing with one finger is driving me crazy but am thankful that I can still hold a cup of tea with my left arm…for the next 3 months?! Happy peony shopping, soon!

SEPTEMBER 25, 2020 LAST DAY TO ORDER!


Hard to believe that Swenson Gardens 2020 peony season is coming to an end. Last day to order is September 25, 2020. Thank you to all our existing gardeners and new gardeners who have purchased our chemical free bare root peonies this season. We look forward to digging and shipping this last group of orders in the very near future. Our 2021 website will be opening later this year so check back for more info. Happy planting!

PEONY PICK UP AND BARN SALE DAYS 9/11/20 AND 9/12/20 FROM 9am to 5 PM

Swenson Gardens customers, its time to pick up your orders. Our teams have completed the first peony dig and all orders are ready for pick up on Friday, September 11th and Saturday, September 12th from 9am to 5PM. The address again is 10958 70th ST SW, Howard Lake, MN. Head north on our driveway towards our house as parking is available up here. Staff will be available to give you hands on planting instructions and talk peonies. If you haven’t decided where to plant them yet, make sure their site location has at least 8 hours of sunlight, good ventilation and for sure, a well drained location. Also on our website, we note the width of the peonies when mature. DO NOT plant in a location where they will not have room to grow. They do not like to be crowded out by other peonies, perennials, shrubs and trees. For sure do not plant them in a site location where a peony was planted before unless you excavate a cubic yard of original soil and replace with new black dirt or topsoil.

Yes peony gardeners, our annual Peony Barn Sale will be open during peony pick up days. Peonies are available on a first come first served basis so sorry there is no pre-buy or save options. We do not have a list of varieties available so plan to arrive early for best selections. Our Peony Barn Sale is open to the public so load up the mini-van with friends and family to enjoy discounted pricing on wholesale roots and some leftover retail roots. Only cash and personal checks accepted. Sorry but no credit and debit cards accepted.

Swenson Gardens peony starter fertilizer will be available to purchase onsite at $3.00 per bag. We suggest one bag per peony. Sorry but we do not ship our fertilizer so now is the time to buy during these days. This fertilizer is all chemical free and is similar to what we use in our peony fields. Only cash and personal checks accepted. Sorry but no credit and debit cards accepted.

Knowing the COVID 19 times we are living in, please do not enter our property if you are experiencing symptoms or have been exposed to this virus recently. If you cannot pick up your order due to symptoms during pick up days, please email us at: info@swensongardens.com to make other arrangements if you cannot find someone else to pick up your order.

Thank you again for choosing Swenson Gardens as your chemical free peony grower! We look forward to seeing you again!


ORDERING SWENSON GARDENS PEONIES

Hard to believe we are getting to the end of our 2020 Swenson Gardens peony season. For those of you who ordered online, there were three choices for shipping and pick up. Let me explain in detail what that means and what we suggest for planting times in your USDA Growing Zones.

Option 1 – First ship date order by August 14, 2020. This option is the preferred time for gardeners in USDA Growing Zones 2 – 5 to plant their peonies. Orders will be shipped in mid-September. This is not the best time for gardeners in USDA Growing Zones 6 – 8 coastal due to the higher temps in those zones. Thus if you are in Zones 6 – 8 coastal and checked this date, we moved you to the second ship date. Since Zones 2 – 5 are cooler locations, this is the preferred time to plant peonies.

Option 2 – Second ship date order by September 25, 2020. This option is the preferred time for gardeners in USDA Growing Zones 6 – 8 coastal to plant their peonies. Orders will be shipped in mid-October. It is still ok though for gardeners in USDA Growing Zones 3 – 5 to order and plant their peonies before the ground freezes. Zone 2 orders would not be advisable due to the possibility of the ground being frozen. The last day to order for 2020 is September 25th.

Pick up – The last day to order for pick up is August 14, 2020. No pick up orders available after this date. Pick up days are September 11th and 12th, 2020 from 9a to 5P.

Thanks again for the opportunity of nurturing your peonies this year. Happy planting…soon!

PEONY FIELD DAYS FOR JUNE 12 & 13, 2020

As we look over the peony fields, our final days of Peony Field Days on June 12 & 13, 2020, should be spectacular with color. Yes the early, early to mid and mid bloom varieties are done or almost done, but the intersectionals and mid to late and late garden varieties are prime viewing. Oh and the weather forecast? Absolutely divine! Load up your vehicles and head to 10958 70th ST SW, Howard Lake, MN for a destination of pure peony bliss. We are open from 9a to 5P. As always, we are NOT open on Sunday, June 14, 2020. Looking forward to seeing you at Swenson Gardens Peony Field Days!