2018 American Peony Society Tours Lan Su Chinese Garden

Lan Su Chinese Garden
American Peony Society 2018 Convention Tour
The next day, the American Peony Society 2018 Convention attendees toured the Lan Su Chinese Garden in Portland, Oregon. I guess I was a little surprised at the scale. I think I'd imagined it would be larger, but I also didn't realize it was downtown. The whole garden was contained within one square city block. It would definitely provide a nice respite from the day to day office worries. I wish I had a garden like this within walking distance of my office. I'm guessing the smaller scale made it easier to maintain. I commented in the garden that Lan Su Chinese Garden contained authentic Chinese hardscapes, with the American eye for maintenance. It was better maintained than many of the gardens I'd toured in China.
Chinese Classical Garden Rocks
Lan Su Chinese Garden
Despite the size, the garden remained true to the Chinese garden style of Suzhou, China - which is quite different than the Chinese garden style in Luoyang, China. In Suzhou, just like Lan Su, the garden is set up as if it was a courtyard with a gate surrounding the whole thing, and the buildings of the home around the edges of the courtyard. There is usually a water feature or pond of some sort, and the special rocks imported from a particular area of China where the limestone eroded in the rocks leaving an irregular form with holes throughout, forming a natural art sculpture. The Suzhou gardens feature a few tree peonies, here and there for effect, but not many. The Luoyang gardens are all about peonies, and they are everywhere. The Lan Su Chinese garden featured all of the elements of the Classical Gardens in Suzhou, and like the Suzhou gardens there were a couple of tree peonies, but not many. The tree peonies had all finished blooming before our tour, so you may not have even noticed them unless you were really looking.
Erwin, David Michener, and Win
Lan Su Chinese Garden

Me, LaDonna, and Vince
Lan Su Chinese Garden
The APS members all seemed to enjoy themselves, the break from color overload was nice to quiet the mind and spirit. After passing through the garden gate, the first building in the garden welcomed the APS members with a light breakfast buffet of fruits - blueberries, strawberries, melons, and pineapple, some assorted pastries - muffins, croissants, and turnovers, and coffee or tea. The nice weather with a bit of cloud cover provided APS members the opportunity to sit and chat while enjoying their light breakfast in the garden surrounded by the peaceful views.
Chinese Pagodas in the City
Lan Su Chinese Garden

Chinese Garden Gate
Lan Su Chinese Garden

Chinese Tea House
Lan Su Chinese Garden
The second building at the far back of the garden served as the Lan Su Chinese Garden's tea house, serving light snacks and tea during normal business hours. The tea house was filled with traditional Chinese furnishings and decor, but it was not yet open. Since we came early in the day, the APS members were able to enjoy the garden exclusively to ourselves. We found a few animals in this garden to entertain us as well. There were many colors of koi fish in the large pond frolicking about, and a great blue heron watched from the edges of the pond and then perched itself high above the garden on the corner precipice of the pagoda roof. I think everyone had a nice time here if nothing else, but to sit and relax. One APS member even felt compelled to find his zen by practicing some Tai Chi in the garden.
Great Blue Heron
Lan Su Chinese Garden

Edward Practicing Tai Chi
Lan Su Chinese Garden

2018 American Peony Society Convention Tours Adelman Peony Gardens

Carol Adelman Giving a Talk
American Peony Society 2018 Convention Tour
Almost a week ago we toured Adelman Peony Gardens during the 2018 American Peony Society Convention. It all went by so fast, but having the photos around to remind me of how beautiful everything was just brings back happy memories. Everything, and I do mean everything, was in its place and picture perfect at Jim and Carol Adelman's Peony Gardens. Their gardens and fields were just immaculate. Every detail of the tour had been considered down to the smallest detail. Every flower in their display garden had been clipped to perfection. Every border was neat and tidy. Their slip of land really does live up to the URL of their web site - www.peonyparadise.com, Peony Paradise. It is exactly that.
Tractor Tours of Adelman Peony Gardens
Carol gave a wonderful introduction to her farm. She has the perfect mix of humor and brashness (or maybe just outright honesty) in her stories, and she is definitely entertaining to listen to. They also gave tractors tours of their expansive fields (growing expansive flowers). I don't think I've seen anyone grow peony plants or flowers as large as the Adelmans grow them. They seem to have the perfect mix of soil, rain, temperatures, and cloud cover to create the largest and most richly colored peonies in North America.
Flowering Peonies at Adelman Peony Gardens

APS Award Ribbons and Cut Peonies
at Adelman Peony Gardens
Inside of the Adelman Peony Gardens sales office, they had cut peony flowers displayed in vases along with their variety name on a placard right in front of each vase. On one of the walls I found a few of Carol's American Peony Society Flower Exhibition ribbons, which appeared to be from 2001-2006. While there were many of them framed on the wall, I know there are many times that waiting to be framed somewhere. I bet she could fill up the entire long wall of her sales office with ribbons! I think Adelman Peony Gardens definitely has the most peony merchandise of any US grower I've visited. There were peony magnets, calendars, books, fertilizer, cut flowers, potted plants, and more. If you wanted for something peony, you found it.
Peony: The Best Varieties for Your Garden Book Signing
at Adelman Peony Gardens

Cold Drinks Adelman Style
While we were touring the gardens, the Adelman's also hosted a lunch for the APS Members on site. They had rented a lovely tent and chairs, decorated every table with a beautiful bouquet of peonies - of course, and catered in Panera Bread boxes for the meal. The food was very tasty - sandwiches, chips, a pickle and a cookie. Drinks were served Adelman style - in the bucket of a tractor's front loader! And of course, many people were lined up after lunch for their chance to get an autographed copy of Carol Adelman and David Michener's new book, Peony: The Best Varieties for Your Garden Book. Of course I needed a copy to memorialize the occasion.
Me with David Michener and Carol Adelman
Authors of Peony: Best Varieties for Your Garden Book

Adelman Peony Gardens' Display Gardens
The Adelman's display gardens could really be described as perfect, something that every home gardener would love to attain and achieve. They did have their secret sauce, aka Adelman Peony Gardens' Peony Fertilizer, for sale inside their sales office. It was a 10-8-8 fertilizer, with the nitrogen being slow release. Carol said that tulip and daffodil fertilizer was their secret, but I have a feeling there might be a little bit more to it than that. The Adelmans have really put their heart into their passion - growing peonies.
Adelman Peony Gardens Tour Talk

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 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

2016 University of Vienna Botanical Garden Peonies

University of Vienna Botanical Garden Peony Garden
Yes, it was the end of summer, but I couldn't help checking out the peonies at the University of Vienna Botanical Garden on my trip last week. This botanical garden is quite strict in its definition of botanical. The are several varieties of peonies. All of them are species peonies however, except for one Paeonia suffruticosa selection - perhaps because there are no longer any true representations of this species left. In this Vienna, Austria garden they grow their peonies in an open, oval bed surrounded by grass and trees (at some distance). The soil is flat and bare, not covered by any type of mulch.
University of Vienna Botanical Garden Peony Garden
The species I found represented in their garden are Paeonia delavayi, Paeonia emodi, Paeonia lactiflora, Paeonia mairei, Paeonia mascula, Paeonia officinalis ssp. officinalis, Paeonia peregrina, Paeonia rockii, Paeonia suffruticosa 'Duchesse de Morny', and Paeonia tenuifolia. So they have 10 varieties of peonies growing there. Not quite enough to be listed on the American Peony Society Peony Garden Map, but still worth a visit if you are in the area or are particularly interested in species peonies.
Me with a Very Tall Paeonia delavayi Peony Plant
I was quite surprised to find this particularly tall representation of Paeonia delavayi. I must admit I have never seen a P. delavayi peony growing this tall. It was almost as tall as me. The one P. delavayi peony plant I tried to grow here lasted for a few years, but each year it became smaller and smaller and eventually died. I will have to try again after seeing how successful their plants are. Also according to Wikipedia, the growing zone in Vienna, Austria is equivalent to a growing zone 8a, which is warmer than my own growing zone 7b. Someone's calculations must be incorrect. Perhaps mine is a bit warmer or theirs is a bit cooler. The temperatures here this week are still in the 80s for the last week of September, and their temperatures were in the 60s for most of last week. It also surprises me considering they seem to be able to grow the Paeonia tenuifolia (fern leaf peony) there, which does not grow at all here in my climate.
University of Vienna Botanical Garden Peony Paeonia emodi
I was also happy to meet this Paeonia emodi plant growing in their garden. I had never seen this plant before, nor have I ever seen its roots or seeds for sale. Its foliage particularly delighted me. The leaves are so long and wide too, very gracefully coming to a nicely symmetrical, pointed tip. It is supposed to have a pretty single white flower. Here are some of the other species peonies that were growing in the University of Vienna Botanical Garden. Please feel free to click on any photo to see a larger version.

Paeonia delavayi	Paeonia lactiflora
Paeonia mairei	Paeonia mascula
Paeonia officinalis ssp. officinalis	Paeonia peregrina
Paeonia rockii	Paeonia suffruticosa 'Duchesse de Morny'
Paeonia tenuifolia

2016 APS Convention Peony Tour Dalhke Garden

Peonies, Irises, and Alliums at Play in the Dalhke Garden
I must say that the Dalhke Garden was my favorite personal garden tour during the 2016 American Peony Society Convention. However I think I'll let the flowers do the talking in this garden. Check out the first photo with the peonies, irises, and alliums. The size of these plants were just huge with too many flowers to count on each of them. The size of everything in this garden made me feel like Alice in Wonderland. It felt like I shrunk, or the flowers just became giants. The size ratio of the flowers in this garden made me feel like I was a child again in my grandmother's garden where the peonies were as tall as me. The peonies in this garden were as tall as people (some people at least). I kept wondering what in the world did they feed these plants? What was the secret to their garden that made everything grow so big and so healthy?
Whimsical Lavender Fence in Dalhke's Wonderland
Not only were the flowers of supernatural proportion, but the color in the garden just blows you away. Every nook and cranny, every crevice and corner of this garden was filled with color. No matter where you looked, there was something to look at. From the bright purple blooms to the lavender fences, birdhouses, and window sills, color met your eye. There were golden yellow intersectional peony blooms, fiery pink single peonies that almost met your nose, and deep red double peonies overflowing with blossoms. Not only the blossoms entertained the garden guests - the garden art and decorations also greeted you in every turn. There was just enough art to fill the spaces and draw the eye, but not too much to seem garish or gaudy. All of the art seemed to fit in just right and add pops of color just where they were needed. There were blue and green gazing balls, a bright multi-colored bottle tree, figurines, and even metal flowers - which all added to the experience and wonderment.
Fiery Pink Single Peonies in Dalhke Garden
I noticed they used cocoa hulls as mulch on several beds around the house. However, not all beds were mulched in cocoa hulls, some were covered with leaf mulch, some with wood mulch. When the tour was almost over, I finally got a chance to ask Betty Dalhke herself "How does your garden grow?" - so well! After a bit of talk about leaf mulch, I finally found out that her property used to be a working farm with animals many years ago. So the area behind her house (now her garden) used to contain animals. So that was it - composted manure! That was the secret to how her garden grew! Ever since that time I have been trying to figure out how to incorporate more composted manure into my own garden. I've been working on that, and I'll let you know a little more about that later...
The Dalhke Garden
I have already been in the process of trying to incorporate a few more garden ornaments into my garden. Previously my garden ornaments had been limited to the collection of fairies in my fairy garden, a small obelisk, and a few solar lights. In the last couple of years, I have been adding a few more things (bird statues seem to be my latest obsession.) However, I had already seen and wanted this mini glass bottle tree online that I later saw in the Dalhke's garden. Seeing it in person just made me want it even more. I just wasn't sure I wanted to shell out the $24 for the mini tree and another $19 for the glass bottles, plus another $12 in shipping ($55 in all), but now I'm considering it a bit more. If you happen to like this mini bottle tree and would like one for yourself, check it out the Gardner's Supply Company web site, Mini Bottle Tree. Happy Gardening! :-)
Dalhke's Mini Bottle Tree