Three and a half years ago I towed my husband and my one year old baby out to a bare hill in the flower field with 150 peony roots and a shovel. It was deer hunting season here and Minnesota, so we dressed all in orange and had to hurry and get these in before it was time to head back into the deer stand. I remember telling my husband how magical these were going to be one day. He just rolled his eyes and kept digging. It was the fall after our very first season as a flower farm and he had heard enough of my flower plans haha.

Three years those peony roots have spent tucked over the hill out of sight, growing but barely ever blooming. Peonies take three years to mature before they can be harvested from. Every fall I’ve added another row and a few more varieties in hopes that one day this whole hill can be filled with blooms. I even made my way out here, two weeks postpartum with the twins to make sure I got these beauties in the ground. All of this has been in a blind hope without ever even seeing them bloom but somehow I knew this would be worth it.

And after our first U-Pick peony season, I can honestly say they were more magical that I could even imagine. Thank you for joining us in celebrating them. I can’t wait to see what they and the subsequent rows become over the next fifty years. This year I plan to continue our tradition of planting more peony roots. If you would like to plant some of your own, we will be offering some in the farmstead this fall too.