Behind the Blooms - Peonies - Part 1

I think it's fitting that the first blogpost I write is for the first flower planted for the farm. I had actually planned to share this story in an email, but thought this might be a better, more permanent, and less overwhelming than an email, option. So here we go, Behind the Blooms - Peonies!

Peonies on a flower farm are very different than those in a garden, all flowers are actually. Varieties are selected for their ability to quickly create large plants with lots of blooms, that work great as cuts. We also select varieties that will bloom over the longest period of time, we call them early, middle, and late bloomers. Most seasons, this is only a difference of a few days for peonies, but we prefer to stretch it as long as possible so we aren't harvesting from 600 plants in one week. This year we harvested from 20 different varieties and will continue to cut from more every season.

Peony Timeline

I shopped for our first peonies early in 2023. I was unsure about committing to them so early, the farm didn't even have a name yet, but they take a long time to get established, so waiting would mean waiting even longer to harvest from them. I worked through my peony "wishlist" and made sure I had all the shades, types, and bloom times covered. Then we learned our third child's due date was right at the start of planting time and I panicked and thought we should delay it a year. My husband graciously said let's do it and offered to do all the grunt work necessary, as I'd either be too pregnant or too postpartum to dig all the holes. I'm so thankful for his support and belief in this dream, without it Toad Hill Blooms would still be in my head and heart.

Now that the decision was made, we moved ahead prepping the field, purchasing supplies, and waiting for their delivery. Of course our son arrived well after his due date, so our planting window was now just four weeks postpartum. But we did it! With the help of my husband and father in law, and a rented auger, they dug every single hole. I marked the field so they knew where to dig, prepped the landscape fabric, and planted every bareroot.

Then we waited. Through the rainiest November and December I crossed all my fingers that our hard work wasn't wasted. Peonies do not like wet roots and we had a river running through our field. Come spring we started to see the little red sprouts and I was grinning ear to ear every time I walked those paths. While we lost a lot of plants, we were still seeing growth and I was so proud it worked. I still get excited every time I put a seed/bulb/tuber/root into the ground and it sprouts. It just feels like magic.

Spring 2024 I dis-budded every single plant. It was painful, but necessary. Peonies take years to establish large root systems that will produce healthy blooms on strong stems. As a cut flower farm we pinch the buds off so the plant thinks the process of maturing the flower is done and spends its energy on root establishment instead. This meant no blooms that year. Fall 2024 I snipped the plants down to their base and discarded them to make way for new growth the following spring. This helps prevent the spread of disease from one season to the next.

Spring 2025 arrived and I walked those fields again with excitement, but this year it was different. This year I was going to see the flowers I had spent so much time preparing for. As a cut flower, it is "the norm" to wait for that third year to harvest from the plants. Which meant I should disbud again this season. I've seen farmers do it in the second year and research showed it wouldn't slow the progress down too much. So (as you have likely realized) I took the gamble and planned to harvest from my plants in their second year. I have been selective and haven't taken too much of the stem. This keeps more leaves on the plant, allowing more energy to return to the roots for them to grow bigger and stronger the following year. We will see in years to come if this has any negative impact on the first set of plants, but I needed to see them bloom and bring joy into the world with their diverse colors, intoxicating smells, and layers upon layers of petals.

It is my hope to be able to harvest from these plants for years to come and it's extra special that they're the same age as my little boy.

Stay tuned for part two… because of course I couldn't keep it to one blog!

Spreading joy through flowers,

- mollie