Paeonia 3

Here are a few more images of peonies from the American Peony Society convention held in Oregon May 27-29, 2011.  Can you pick out the "best in show"?  

Paeonia 2

With an uncertain internet connection, I am dividing the trip posts.

After visiting Brooks Gardens on Friday, we had the pleasure of touring Adelman Gardens.  Adelmans' has an enormous commercial cut peony operation as well as commercial production of peony plants, grass seed production, winter wheat and other crops that are rotated on the 100 acre +/- farm. 



I took a real fancy to this tree peony - "Leda" - on display at the Adelman retail barn.




A grandson of the Adelmans drove the tractor pulling the people movers during a late spring downpour.  In the south we would have called this rain a "gulley washer" or a "frog strangler". 



We next visited Piet Wierstra's Oregon Perennial Company, where a hail storm kept us in the cut peony production shed for a few minutes.  We then visited the greenhouses where peonies have several weeks head start on field grown flowers.  At Mr. Wierstra's house we found these four speckled brown and white eggs on the ground at the base of a peony, with mother squawking in alarm that we might molest the eggs.
 

Paeonia 1

The 2011 American Peony Society Convention is being held in Wilsonville, Oregon.  This is the first time the annual convention has been held on the west coast - or even west of the Rockies.  Weather has been as difficult in the Pacific Northwest as in many parts of the country - with bloom time delayed by about three weeks. 

A field trip to several commercial growers on Friday had tents, umbrellas, rubber boots, tractors and a ferocious hail storm.  Since many attendees came from across the country, the show went on.


John and I revisited the Peony of Unusual Size ("Haephestos") at Brooks Gardens. It is a tree peony with deep red dinner plate sized flowers on a woody plant about 5-6 feet tall. 



I did not notice on a previous trip that there are many Siberian Irises planted in the gardens with the peonies.  This time I noticed the irises and the huge field of Siberian Irises planted beyond the showy growing area for the peonies.  John is off in the distance beyond the irises.


From a closer point of view, this flowering fruit tree framed another large tree peony.