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

It’s true, life for us slows down quite a bit now that the peony bloom season is over. In fact, I actually took a nap on Sunday afternoon after we closed. Peony season is hard work!

But even though the flowers are done blooming and our farm shop is only open Saturdays there’s still quite a bit to do on the farm.

Here’s a few tasks that continue through the summer and into fall.

The questions about powdery mildew have started to pour in so this email is a timely reminder for what to do about it.

WHAT IS POWDERY MILDEW?

Powdery mildew is a fungal disease that affects many plants, including peonies. It appears as a white or gray powdery coating on the leaves, stems, and flowers of plants. The fungus typically thrives in warm, humid environments and can spread quickly in crowded or poorly ventilated areas.

Understanding Peony Bud Blast and Solutions

Peony bud blast, where flower buds fail to open, often results from a combination of environmental factors and cultural care practices. Here's a detailed exploration of the causes and solutions for this common issue:

Tips for picking peonies

Whether you’re here or at home, here’s our tips for the best peony picking techniques.

• Choose stems that have flowers almost ready to bloom but not quite. We want to pick them in the “marshmallow stage” when the flowers have not yet opened but they are squishy soft like a marshmallow. A bud that’s too hard will struggle to open in a vase. A fully bloomed flower won’t last as long for you after it’s cut. Remove any leaves that sit below the water line.

When visitors stroll through the tables of potted peonies we have for sale there is a common question… What do the bloom week ratings mean?

So you bought a new peony. And even better it grew and formed a bud! It’s so exciting to see the first flowers on your new peony. But if you can possibly stand it, it can be a good idea to snip off that bud before it blooms.

Why would I suggest such a horrible thing?

First, peonies don’t love being moved around. It’s a lot of stress on the plant.

While they are getting settled into their new home, it’s best for them to focus on root development. It takes a lot of energy to produce a flower and that energy is coming from the roots that were already stressed from moving.

Removing the flower bud on a newly planted peony allows the plant to conserve that energy and devote it to forming healthy roots. Healthy roots are a healthy plant.

In the long run, your peony will grow faster and give you more flowers sooner if you give it the first year with no blooms.

But it is a hard thing to do. If there is more than one flower bud on your peony plant you may want to leave just one to open and remove the rest.

Or at the very least, if you do choose to let your peony bloom in its first year, be sure to snip the remains of the bud off after it’s done blooming so the plant doesn’t have to use even more energy making seeds.

Many peony plants don’t even produce a flower bud in the season, or even the first couple seasons. That’s just the plant building up energy reserves in the root system until the plant can support the big and beautiful flowers.