Peony Flower Crops

Brian's Lilycrest Gardens hybridizing field is at the Houtby Farm, a grower of pussy willows, peonies and gladiolus.  This field, below, shows the Styer's Peony Festival At their Chadd's Ford Nursery when we were visiting on Victoria Day weekend.  We saw the signs, so followed them to the growing field with thousands of plants and flowers in bloom. The celebration tent is in the top left, so you can see how large the field is.  There are over 100 varieties on over 25 acres.  Styer's have seven farms, and originated with botanist J. Franklin Styer, a Pennsylvania Quaker. He was a pioneer in hybridizing and propagating peonies. His father is credited with bringing the mushroom industry to Kennett Square, where Longwood is located.  What made me surprised?  As a cut flower farm, I could see lots of flowers blooming.  I don't get to see that many flowers in the Houtby fields. While one can see some peonies in bloom in the rows, they mostly are picked at the right bud stage, and then placed into cold storage.  Peonies last in cold storage until August - they are a prime wedding flower.  The Gladiolus crop hardly ever has colour in the field - they are picked as soon as the smallest hint of colour shows. Like many things, the floral industry is now global.  In the past, roses were grown in greenhouses in Niagara as flowers were grown locally, near their markets. Now roses are grown in Ecuador and Colombia.  Colombia accounts for almost 60% of all flowers imported to the U.S.A.  The Netherlands is losing ground as the centre of production for the European floral market. However, it remains the leader in hybridization and culture, and technology advances come from the Netherlands for the greenhouse growers.

Welcome to June - Summer Unfolds

It's a wonderful month - peonies, irises, roses, garden tours start in earnest.  There are so many celebrations of birthday, weddings and Father's Day.  Enjoy this month, where Summer Unfolds...