Hours:
The peony plots are open to visitors daylight hours seven days a week during flowering. If you come before maybe 9:00 am or after late afternoon, you might have to come to the house to find anyone. But much of the day there will be two or three of us around to provide some orientation and answer questions.
Our plants are almost all in open field conditions, exposed to full sun and wind, If it is a hot day, the flowers are at their best during the forenoon. There are more than 1100 different peonies and approximately 35,000 plants growing in the collection at this time, those in production for the catalog in up to four different ages and sometimes ten different field locations.
The only purchases that can be made here are containered plants that cannot be shipped. For the regular autumn shipping season place your order at the internet site.
General:
Visitors, tend to want to see the whole place in bloom at the same time – they are traveling various distances, some pretty far. But, of course, the peonies do not cooperate, being individuals, each responds to the spring warm-up in accordance with its internal programming.
This year, I expect visitors will be able to see many herbaceous flowering together in the production plots commencing with the week of May 19 and continuing for at least two weeks and probably three. The fact of the late start can be expected to shorten the overall flowering period. The week of the 12th I very much hope to see a good showing of the Suffruticosa tree peonies, of which we have a sizeable collection. Early herbaceous hybrids will also be flowering that week and together could make a worthwhile trip.
Map & Directions
Previous visitors may know that when the soil is fit for vehicular traffic we can allow drive through for benefit of visitors for whom walking on the uneven ground is a challenge. There are unobstructed views from both the parking area and the public road for much of the planting area.
Come prepared to walk in muddy rows if you wish to get close to the flowers. Allow yourself enough freedom of schedule to devote as much time as you wish to the viewing.
There are more than 1100 different peonies and approximately 35,000 plants growing in the collection at this time, those in production for the catalog in up to four different ages and sometimes ten different field locations. A large share of the collection is made up of our own seedlings and seedlings of others being grown for further evaluation and breeding. A large share of these will flower on three and four year plants this year, the majority opening between the Early and Midseason Herbaceous Hybrids.
