Peony farming keeps growing even as markets change

The Homer Peony Celebration kicked off last Friday, with tours and peony art throughout the lower peninsula. The event, the first of what many hope will become an annual celebration, lasts through July 25.
    Peony farming was the topic on Saturday’s edition of Homer Grown with host Desiree Hagen. Guests were Allison Gaylord of Willow Drive Gardens, Beth Van Sandt of Scenic Place Peonies, and Rita Jo Shoultz of Alaska Perfect Peonies.
    Gaylord, who is also a founding member of the Alaska Beauty Peony Co-Op, says peony growing takes patience.
    “This is a long term project. It's a new industry in Alaska, and we're really not going to recoup our investment until, you know, we've got plants as a whole in full production and that's more like six, eight years,” Gaylord said. “And so I think a lot of folks get into peony farming thinking it's, you know, Alaska is next gold rush, but to actually be able to maintain your fields for six, eight years before you're in production is a lot of time. It's not like growing a crop of, you know, arugula that's in and out of the field in 30 days.”
    Gaylord’s field was once full of orange hawkweed, an invasive plant.
    “So I tarped it for two years, pulled up the tarp. We scorched the ground to get rid of the seed load. Then I started cover-cropping for two seasons. I really didn't want to set myself up to be reliant on pesticides and herbicides. So I really worked on my soils,” Gaylord said. “We cut in some drainage swales, sort of following best practices for permaculture. Then I started setting up my rows for my first peony field. (You) can see I'm on a hill here, so I've got really good drainage, but it's also like my StairMaster field back here behind the house.”
    At three-quarters of an acre, her 2,500 plants require a lot of water. Gaylord says she’s already used 30,000 gallons of water on her field, and while much of that is captured water, that’s run out and she says she’s now buying water. She uses an automated irrigation system, and highly recommends them.
    At Scenic Place Peonies, Beth Van Sandt told Hagen about how they acquire hands to tend the fields.
    “We rely heavily on horticultural interns from Cal Poly Pomona, as well as "woofers," willing workers on organic farms. And because of the travel restrictions, we had originally thought we would have nobody coming, but it actually turned around and we had so many people we've been turning them away,” Van Sandt said. “But the little hiccup in it is the fact that we have to get everybody tested when they come to the farm.”
    Van Sandt said South Peninsula Hospital conducted the testing of all her employees this summer. Another coronavirus concern this year is that pre-orders for peonies have gone way down as weddings were cancelled nationwide due to uncertainty over the pandemic, forcing growers to diversify their markets.
    Rita Jo Shoultz owned a commercial greenhouse when she was approached more than 15 years ago by researchers from the University of Alaska, who told her Southcentral Alaska’s growing season would fit perfectly with the end of the growing seasons pretty much everywhere else. Shoultz soon switched and founded Alaska Perfect Peonies.
    “One thing that's real interesting about the area is that we have the high elevation, and the low elevation. So we can group with other people. Like I work with Betty Jocelyn and, well I work with a lot of people, but we're real early, then when we're done, Betty's just starting way up on Diamond Ridge. That's one really good thing. We can probably supply the Lower 48 or wherever for up to 10 weeks, which is really unusual. Usually it's two to three weeks for any farm,” Shoultz said. “The other thing is our temperatures are really good here. We don't have the 40 below like Fairbank's, and we don't have the winds like they do in the Matanuska Valley that they have a problem with. We have an ideal climate.”
    Learn more about farming peonies and the Homer Peony Celebration on Homer Grown, Episode 4,available now online. The Celebration lasts through July 25.