Last week my two friends, Megan, Jenn, and I packed up and headed out of town on a day trip out of Seattle. We headed north to visit the Pure Peonies Flower Farm just outside of Bellingham, Wa. We go on one of these excursions fairly regularly, about once a quarter, but this one was the best yet.
Now with these trips, we have a tendency to pack the car all the way to the brim with our gear. All three of us live in the city and drive what I consider “city cars”, ie small cars, so the cars tend to fill up pretty quickly between the three of us and our photography gear. This time, however, PNW Toyota loaned us a Toyota Highlander for the weekend and that made a world of difference. The Highlander was roomy enough for all three of us and our gear with plenty of extra room to spare. It made for the perfect road trip car.
But back to the peonies! We had a relaxed start to the day, picking up coffees before heading north and arriving at Pure Peonies around 11 am -noon. We couldn’t have picked a better day if we tried. I was worried we’d have rain, a common problem in the PNW, but instead, we had 70-degree weather with just enough cloud cover for picture-perfect lighting.
Pure Peonies was founded in 2011 by the current owners. He told us that this was the first farming he’d ever done and he started it because his wife loved peonies but as he told us “I didn’t realize she liked them this much”.
While there are about 6,000 kinds of peonies in the world, Pure Peonies carries over 200. They have an incredible range of colors of peonies available, from coral to red to white to pink. The coral peonies had already finished blooming when we went but the few stragglers that remained were the most beautiful delicate peach color. I didn’t even know that peonies came in that color range.
The peony fields are open for the public to come and enjoy but they also have a greenhouse. The owner told us that the greenhouse flowers bloom first, generally in April, with the flowers in the fields blooming about a month later in May and June. It seemed to me that we went during peak bloom as all the rows in the fields were blooming with some varieties (mainly the corals and deep deep reds) were already done blooming.
Best smelling was the aptly named Eden’s Perfume. When I asked about the names of the flowers (because who comes up with a name like Eden’s Perfume?), I was told that whoever hybridizes the plant variety gets to name the new flower, and more often than not, they are named after the gardener’s wife. It seems like a romantic tale for a romantic flower.
Caring for Cut Peonies
The two biggest tips for keeping your cut flowers as nice as possible for as long as possible: keep the cut flowers out of direct sunlight and place them in ice water. Seriously, add ice cubes into the flower water to keep it cold.
We left Pure Peonies with a bucket of flowers that had several disposable ice packs in it for just that reason. Oh, and flower food doesn’t hurt either.
Now if you want to plant peonies in your own garden here are some things to keep in mind.
- Plant your peonies in the fall or when the weather is cool
- Plant them in a location that gets full sun otherwise, your plant won’t have as many blossoms
- Water your plant every week or once the soil has completely dried out
Have you ever been to a flower farm before? This one is 100% worth the trip north if you’re ever in Seattle!
Until next time,
Ana Luiza
