2017 American Peony Society Tour of Southern Peony's Garden

Southern Peony Gardens


APS Members Enjoying Watermelon
APS Tour of Southern Peony
Even though there was not a peony on any peony bush in my yard, I was still thrilled to give my fellow American Peony Society members a tour of my garden, here at Southern Peony. It was a bright day with blue skies, and thankfully, no rain. It was definitely on the warmer side. So I had plenty of watermelon (and water!) to try to keep people cool. Also I managed to save a few of my smaller peony side buds in the fridge (the main buds had to go into the American Peony Society Convention Flower Exhibition), for display in vases on my back deck.
Peony Side Buds in Blue Glass Vase
APS Tour of Southern Peony


APS Memebers in Intersectional Peony Garden
APS Tour of Southern Peony

I also made laminated peony signs to place all around my garden to show people what kind of peonies were planted where. I had signs for Intersectional Peonies, Pink Peonies, Red Peonies, Single Peonies, Double Peonies, Tree Peonies, etc. I think it was helpful for people to visualize what kind of peonies I grow. I was also very happy to have so many growers get a better look at how peonies grow here in the South.

Peony Signs APS Tour of Southern Peony

Pecan Sandies and Watermelon
APS Tour of Southern Peony
I hope everyone was able to take away something from the Southern Peony garden tour, a new idea for their garden, a new peony they'd like to grow, a new perspective on growing peonies in warmer climates, or whatever it may be. I was certainly pleased to host everyone and had a great time showing you all my garden, and I hope everyone had a great time here as well. Thank you to the American Peony Society for giving Southern Peony this opportunity, and thank you to all of the APS Members that attended the 2017 APS Convention and the Southern Peony tour!


APS Members and Me
APS Tour of Southern Peony
P.S. - Thank you to my friend, Janice, and my sister in law, Caz, for taking these lovely photos!

2017 American Peony Society Convention Tour of Plant Delights Nursery & Juniper Level Botanic Garden

Tony Avent Leading the American Peony Society Tour
of Plant Delights Nursery
Everyone seemed to enjoy the witty antics and educational tour given by Plant Delights Nursery owner, Tony Avent. He showed off all kinds of rare plant hardier than their "normal" growing zones and told us about his current mission - to continue to find and spread rare plants far and wide for the people for prosperity for the earth's own genetic biodiversity. He also shared with us about his plans to end his nursery business within 10 years, while he's set up a fund that he would like to build up between now and then so that the Juniper Level Botanic Garden will be fully self funded and continue into perpetuity for all future generations to enjoy, share in, and learn from.
Canna Lilies at Plant Delights Nursery


Purple Flower at Plant Delights Nursery


Century Plant at Plant Delights Nursery
Tony also shared with us about his mission of busting gardening myths. Growing daylilies beside hostas (sun and shade) and acidic plants near basic ones. He likes to try to grow plants outside of their normal USDA growing zones. He shared with us that the Juniper Level Botanic Garden does not use any fertilizers whatsoever - that their focus is on the preparation of the soil, which is 50% local dirt (mostly sand where he lives) and 50% compost that is made on site.
Tony Concludes the American Peony Society Tour
of Juniper Level Botanic Garden
Tony also boasted that Juniper Level Botanic Garden is in the top %5 of gardens worldwide in terms of biodiversity, which is really impressive. (However I think he really want to be #1). :-) The garden includes over 22,000 taxa of plant life. After our tour, we all took a break in the shade and enjoyed our local NC Barbeque lunch with vinegar-based pulled pork barbeque, fried chicken, cole slaw, potato salad, and hush puppies. All in all, I think this might have been our best garden tour this year.

Daniel, Sheryl, Anna, Richard, John, & Adrienne	Me & Tony Avent
Nate, David, & Jim	Joyce, Jennifer, & Jeff
Eileen & Don	Louise, Kathleen, & Marie
Piet, Vriends, Lia, & Dick	Carolyn (My Grandma) & Me

2017 American Peony Society Convention Tour of JC Raulston Arboretum

Our tour bus dropped us off right at the new archway entrance for the JC Raulston Arboretum, a stainless steel archway with Japanese Maple leaves scattered throughout, giving it the effect of a sky of silver stars. Mark Weathington, Director of the JC Raulston Arboretum greeted our group at their Visitors Center, not far from the arched entrance. We toured their Scree and Xeric Gardens, Asian Valley - which did include some tree peonies, traditional Japanese Gardens - one of my favorites, Lath House, Plantsmen's Woods - which contained the bulk of the peonies donated by the American Peony Society. We also toured their Rose Garden which is now mixed with other perennials and their White Garden. Mark mentioned that they have over 6000 species of plants on just 10 acres. So if you'd like to see all kinds of plants in a more condensed setting, JC Raulston Arboretum is the place to find them all!
Mark Weathington, Director of JC Raulston Arboretum,
Greets us at their Visitor Center

2017 American Peony Society Convention Tour of Duke Chapel

Duke Chapel on Duke University Campus
I had been to Duke Chapel before, but I had never learned as much as I did when I toured it with the American Peony Society. When we first arrived, we had a bit of free time where we were allowed to walk freely around the chapel. People admired the architecture, the stained glass windows, and the fresh flowers. Eventually people started settling into the pews at the front of the chapel, and our tour guide, a current member of the chapel's choir, met us there and gave us a great talk. We learned about the 4 organs in the chapel, how they were cleaned and restored, the chapel building and its architecture and materials (stone at the bottom and a terra cotta like tile at the top), what the chapel is used for today - a interdenominational Christian church. There are no members, just participants, and although it looks like a Cathedral, it cannot be called one since it is not affiliated with the Catholic church and uses no religious hierarchy.
APS Members Listening to Tour Guide's Talk
We also learned about the gorgeous stained glass windows in the chapel, how the windows' color is not painted but infused into the glass, giving it its richness. Each window is unique, and the larger windows placed higher in the chapel have figures from the Old Testament of the Bible, while the smaller windows placed nearer to the ground level have scenes from the New Testament of the Bible. He also mentioned that the original window drawings and plans were burned when the artists attempted to put their own initials into some of the windows. However in the 1980s a grad student of the University was granted permission to install temporary scaffolding to document each window photographically and created a book about the windows.
Stained Glass Windows in Duke Chapel

2017 American Peony Society Convention Tour of Duke Gardens

American Peony Society Group Photo at Duke Gardens
The next morning of the APS Convention Tour, we boarded the bus at 8am for our first day of garden tours. When we arrived at Duke Gardens, we were met and greeted by the Director of Horticulture for Duke Gardens, Bobby Mottern. He spoke to us in their Angle Amphitheater overlooking their Peace Pond. Then our group was divided into four smaller groups each with a guide to take us through the gardens. Our group visited the White Garden, Fern Grotto, Learning Center, Moss Garden, Peony Collection, Arched Bridge, Japanese Garden, and finally the Terrace Overlook. The view was amazing!
Our Tour Group Visiting the Doris Duke Gardens

Linette Photographing the Japanese Iris
After our tour we met the rest of our American Peony Society group on South Lawn for lunch. We enjoyed delicious boxed lunches with turkey, ham, or roast beef sandwhiches with chips, pasta salad, a pickle, and of course a chocolate chip cookie! During our lunch break I had an opportunity to look at and walk inside of the Patrick Dougherty sculpture on the South Lawn. This art installation was made with natural materials, mostly wood branches that had been shaped and formed into this huge group of sculptures, which resembled a wooden Stonehenge. Overall it was a nice tour, with good (although a bit warm) weather!
Don Hollingsworth and Piet Enjoying their Lunch Break

2017 American Peony Society Convention Picnic at Pullen Park

American Peony Society Picnic at Pullen Park
The welcome picnic for the American Peony Society's 2017 Convention was held at North Carolina's first (and best) public park, Pullen Park. Peony friends met in the Round Pavilion Picnic Shelter for a nice spaghetti dinner with salad, garlic bread, and iced tea. It was nice to see old peony friends and meet some new ones. It was also nice to have Virginia Tech students and staff represented there who are researching successfully storing and extending the life of peony cut flowers. Convention attendees were able to pick up their convention registration materials in their APS bags. All in all the picnic was a nice start to the 2017 American Peony Society Convention!
Mike & Becky
American Peony Society Picnic at Pullen Park

Lia & Dick	Jim & Robert
Virginia Techies Daniel, Joyce, & Rachel	Isabella, Maddox, & Adriana

2017 American Peony Society Convention Preparation

I know it's been a while since I've posted on here, but I have just been super busy, planning the convention, getting my garden ready for the tour, and just generally going crazy! LOL! I am so excited for the convention, and since I'll have lots of jobs to do this year and a drive home each night, I most likely won't have a play by play for this year's convention. I do promise to take lots of pictures, though (as usual), and I will try to post some convention updates later on. As you can see below, I've been busy getting the APS Convention materials ready to go. If you are coming to the convention, I'll see you soon! :-)
American Peony Society Convention Materials

2017 Cutting Peony Stems for the APS Convention & Exhibition

Cut Peony Stems for APS Exhibition
I finally found a bit of time to cut a few stems for the American Peony Society 2017 Convention. I've been so busy that I've almost let this slip away from me. Most of my early peonies have already opened and are too far past the point needed to cut them for the flower show. So I guess I won't be showing any Saunders hybrids this year. However my mid season peonies are starting to bloom as well as my intersectionals. So there are still several choices left to cut. If you are new to showing flowers and feel a little intimidated about it, don't worry. I made all the mistakes two years ago. Remember the steam bath many of my peony stems needed for my 2015 APS Convention Exhibit Peony Preparation?
Cut Peony Stems with Soft Buds
This year I am cutting the blooms a little less "hard" than I did last year. I guess I was worried if there were any petals showing the flowers would go bad, but now I've learned that if you cut the buds too small and hard, they just do not open. Also single flowers will open faster than double flowers. So you want to make sure your huge double flowered buds are mature enough when you cut them. As you can see this years cuts are a bit larger and showing a bit more petal than the cuts I did 2 years ago, 2015 Cut First Stems for APS Peony Exhibition. We'll see how it works out. Hopefully I don't get any more mold, and the blooms open well without a steam bath!

2017 Registered for American Peony Society Convention

It took a little longer this year, but I actually got it done 10 days ago! I am now officially registered for the 2017 American Peony Society Convention in Raleigh, NC. I can't wait to see everyone, and of course all of the gorgeous flowers! If you haven't taken the time to put your registration in, now's the time to do it! I know it's only February, but March is right around the corner and May will be here before you know it! You can send your registration in by Mail or do it all Online, whichever you prefer. There's also an opportunity this year to sit down to dinner with the American Peony Society Board Members. I hope to see you there! Now get to it, the peonies are waiting for you! ;-)
American Peony Society 2017 Convention Registration Form

2017 American Peony Society Convention in Raleigh, NC

I'm guessing you might have noticed... The American Peony Society Annual Convention is coming to Raleigh, NC this year, right in our own backyard - figuratively and literally! I am really looking forward to seeing everyone again this year, and I can't wait to help host the convention. If you have taken a look at the convention agenda, you might have seen that the APS tour buses will be making a stop here! So I would like to personally invite all of you to join us for the 2017 American Peony Society Convention. Now's the time to get your registration in and start making your travel plans (if you haven't done so already). You can register online or by mail. The APS Convention is open to all APS Members. So please make sure your APS Membership is up to date or if you haven't yet joined the APS, please join us!
2017 American Peony Society Convention
We are going to have everything you love about attending the conventions again this year - hundreds of peony cultivars on display (so you can make your wish lists), peony seminars (to learn more about growing peonies), peony friends and fellowship (so you can catch up on the latest APS Member's peony garden news), and of course the always exciting banquet and auction (where you'll be able to bid on and purchase herbaceous, intersectional, and tree peonies - with everything from garden favorites to highly sought after and rare peonies that might not even be offered by growers this year or may already be sold out)!
Photo Courtesy of Mindful Supply
Plus, we'll have all kinds of local NC goodness like NC Barbeque, local NC Nursery and Garden Shops to peruse, a tour of Duke Gardens and Duke Chapel, NC's own JC Raulston Arboretum, and Plant Delights Nursery and Juniper Level Botanic Gardens from NC's plant hunter, Tony Avent. I hope to see you there! :-)

2016 Peony 'Dreamtime' Pollen from Bill Seidl's Garden

Bill Seidl Showing Off His Peony 'Elizabeth Black'
After the American Peony Society convention, I had the opportunity to visit the garden of Bill Seidl as well as meet him in person. It was a lovely afternoon to tour his garden in a quiet subdivision in Manitowac, WI. The weather was perfect, and the flowers were even better. Bill seemed to be a very knowledgeable gardener, not just in peonies, but all kinds of trees, shrubs, and perennials. He had a story about each plant, and you could tell that each one of them was special to him. He told us the story of Elizabeth Black, an artist that drew portraits of WWII soldiers, for which he named the peony flower he is holding in the photo above, a yet unregistered seedling of his.
Me with Bill Seidl


Bill Seidl Showing Off His Garden to Fellow APS Members
While in the garden a peony stem was given to me on a whim, just before I had to leave for the airport. At first I kept it because it was pretty. What girl doesn't like flowers? ;-) It was Peony 'Dreamtime', a peony cultivar registered by Bill Seidl and Nate Bremer in 2013. I decided later that I would save this peony flower and try to use its pollen for breeding. So Peony 'Dreamtime' made the trip with me through the airport in Wisconsin, where it made everyone who saw it smile! :-) Now the pollen has been dried and put into the freezer for next year. Only time will tell if I'll get any babies from it...
Peony 'Dreamtime' in Bill Seidl's Garden


Peony 'Dreamtime' Pollen Drying

2016 APS Peony Convention Banquet and Auction

2016 American Peony Society Banquet
The 2016 American Peony Society banquet was a nice meal with good friends and great times. The food was tasty - chicken, beef stew, ham, mashed potatoes, carrots, tomato and artichoke salad, garden salad, and corn bread. There was also strawberry cream cake and apple cobbler for dessert. The APS General Meeting was short. However, the APS did announce and recognize all of the individuals that got a peony on the Court of Honor, as well as those with special awards as well. Nate Bremer by far received the most ribbons of anyone in the show, including the Best in Show award, which were all well deserved. If you went on the tour of his farm during the 2016 APS Peony Convention Tour of Solaris Farms you'd know why.
2016 American Peony Society Special Award Winners
If you were looking for a good deal on peonies, the 2016 APS Convention Auction was the place to be. Jim and Lore did a great job as usual keeping us entertained while helping auction off plants to benefit the APS as well. This year there was a much larger variety of plants auctioned off - more than just peonies. There were magnolia trees, ginko trees, crabapple trees, Japanese maple trees, clematises, and a fringe tree that was quite popular. Of course the peonies were the main attraction, and there were so many to choose from. Many varieties went for $30 or less. However, there were some rare varieties in high demand that fetched more than $200-$300 dollars. There was also a silent auction that was new this year, and I think the best items in that auction were the honey from Blossom Hill Nursery and Don Smith's hat! :-D
2016 American Peony Society Auction Donations

2016 American Peony Society Auction Donations

2016 APS Peony Convention Tour of Solaris Farms

Nate Bremer Giving us an Introduction to Solaris Farms
Okay, I think the tour of Solaris Farms can be summed up in two words: PEONY HEAVEN. If you missed the tour of Nate Bremer's farm today, you missed a rare chance at a peek inside of not only a great peony farm, but a spectacular display garden, and a working hybridizers's garden too. There are treats everywhere for every kind of peony lover there is - from novice collector to connoisseur, from scholar to hybridizer to even peony grower. Every person I talked to said it was hard to find a peony they didn't want, and I wasn't the only one proclaiming his garden "peony heaven". The phrase passed many lips, and the garden sparked the imagination of so many - with ideas of from Nate's garden that they wanted to incorporate into their own, whether it be the immaculately kept weed-free beds, to the gently shaded peony rows.
Tree Peony 'Shiamine Chojuraku' at Solaris Farms
The design and layout of the garden is ultra organized with matching hand lettered, wood burned signs giving you directions around the garden and a peek inside the ideals of his hybridizing program. I like that his goals were right there in the garden spelled out on a huge natural, wooden sign - with him every day - reminding him of the qualities he most desires from his hybrids. His ideologies are evident not only on the sign, but in the beauty surrounding you in his gardens. Healthy, floriferous plants smile at you at every turn, begging a closer look and perhaps a photo or two or three!
Solaris Farms Seedling Field Sign with Hybridizing Goals
If you need a break from visiting the flower fields, there are many shaded and quiet spots in the garden where you could find a nice place to relax. There are picnic tables, benches tucked under flowering trees, arbors covered with vines to provide a bit of extra shade, and even a hammock hanging underneath a row of trees overlooking the peony fields. All of the planting beds are nicely edged with grass or rocks. The mulched beds contain paths of slate and stepping stones, leading you on a garden adventure through beds of peonies, daylilies, and lilium. A big, fluffy brown and white collie dog was happy to see the visitors as well and toured the garden with us. A bit of whimsy and an element of delight is added to the garden by the 'Tornado Chimes' - large musical instruments to be played by the wind with cast iron pots and old metal farm tools and equipment hung from ropes. (Of course I had to play them too!) There are so many unique plants to see and garden nooks to enjoy here, I wished we could have stayed and explored Solaris Farms all day.
Nate Bremer and Me at Solaris Farms