Come visit us on the farm for a special event like no other.

One of my favorite facts about peonies is that we can grow them up here in chilly Minnesota, but they cannot be grown in Florida!

I know I’m not alone when I say I have garden envy before for that southern weather able to grow fruits, flowers and veggies year round. But the peonies just might be worth the winter chill and the much shorter growing season.

Peonies need six weeks at 40 degrees or below in their dormant stage before producing those big, beautiful blossoms in the spring.

We have no problem achieving that here in Minnesota. Our farm is located in a 4b / 5a growing zone. Peonies thrive in zones 2-8, which includes much, but not all of the country.

Last week I asked you to reply to my email and tell me, “What do you love most about peonies?” The results we so fun and enlightening to read. I read every single email response, nearly 300 of them.

I had AI scour all the responses and create a little summary. Here’s what came of that:

Analyzing the collection of responses, several themes and similarities emerge. Here's a list of the most popular themes from the responses, ranked from most to least prevalent:

With temperatures making big swings over the past week from very warm to downright chilly the winter peony house has done pretty well!

The goal is to avoid drastic temperature fluctuations for the potted peonies over the winter. We also of course don’t want them to get too warm as to start growing before it’s time.

I keep a thermometer and ring cam in to check on the temperature without having to open the doors and let in either warm or cool air.

At the time this picture was taken it was 17 degrees outside and sunny. Inside the temperature was 28 degrees. The white plastic only lets in 30% of the sunlight and the heat that does build up form the sun is mostly absorbed by the water-filled barrels that line the edge of the greenhouse.

At night, those barrels release heat to prevent the peonies from drastically dropping in temperature.

So far so good.

Bare roots peonies for 2025 shipping will be for sale January 1.

For some varieties there are just one or two divisions for sale. Others have plenty available. If you are set on one variety, set an alarm for the start of the sale, which begins at 12:01am on January 1.

With the start of a new season there are some questions that frequently come up this time of year.

With winter settling in on these shortest days of the year I thought you all might be interested on the major milestones that divide up our year on the peony farm.

Some are obvious and others are much more behind the scenes.

We have two busy seasons here on the farm. The first of course is spring when the peonies are in bloom and the fields are full of visitors. But we are just as busy in fall digging, dividing and shipping.

You may have caught us thsi past year on a television station or newspaper article. Perhaps even a magazine article.

In case you missed those… here’s a 2024 media roundup.