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Growing and Selling Organic Peonies
at Full Bloom Farm
by Elisabeth Marshall, owner of Full Bloom Farm
(Originally written for the American Peony Society, June 2006
 Full Bloom Farm is the culmination of my lifelong love of gardening and fascination with plants. I discovered peonies rather late in life after many years of gardening. The most important events that led to that discovery were my moving to the Pacific Northwest, where peonies thrive, and buying acreage suitable for growing them. Finding my plant muse came after I raised three children, worked as a nurse and home-schooled for many years. When our last child was approaching the end of high school, I was able to focus on growing peonies.
Full Bloom Farm was established in 2001. I started with a planting of about 120 herbaceous peony roots bought from a variety of growers. The following year I planted over 100 peonies again. I have planted at least 150 roots each year since then. We now have a web site and an active local market, stretching to Seattle and Canada and points east.
This fall I had a root sale which turned out to be much bigger and better attended than I had expected. There is, apparently, quite a pent-up demand for peonies. The gardeners who came to the sale expressed their fond memories of the peonies their mothers and grandmothers grew – in Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Connecticut, Maine, Canada. Some have peonies that were given them by relatives who brought them when they moved west. Others have yearned for these plants that herald the warmth and lengthening days of late spring in their hometowns. Peonies have not been readily available in nurseries until recently, and even now, it is not easy to find much beyond generic pink, white, or red unnamed varieties. Most gardeners love the big, fancy doubles — but there was lots of interest among the more adventurous gardeners for the singles and Japanese forms. Most people were unaware of the many different forms, sizes, and colors of peonies available. It was gratifying to find that some of the more interesting cultivars were appreciated for their subtle charms, including their foliage.
I also sell cut flowers. My market, until this year, has been limited to the Lummi Island Farmer’s Market, a florist shop in town, and to individuals who stop by the farm. However, last fall I received a call from a large supermarket chain in Seattle that serves a discriminating clientele. They want all the cut flowers I can provide this spring. Apparently, there is a booming demand for organically grown flowers.
Our farm is unusual among peony growers because we grow organically — we use no pesticides, herbicides or fungicides. The organic method was the only method that made sense for us to use because we live on an island and we are dependent on our ground water. Most people assume their water source is diffuse and plentiful and that a little poison will not inflict much harm. But here, whatever we put in the ground enters the aquifer so we cannot justify spaying toxic chemicals on our fields and gardens. It is a reality that more and more farmers are recognizing, even those who do not live on islands…in a very real sense Earth is an island, after all. Chemicals may assure a short term fix for some plant afflictions, but long term use exposes us all to unanticipated risks. The systems we are trying to influence are not well understood and a polluting mistake can have dire consequences that may be impossible to rectify.
Well, so far, so good. We have sandy loam soil and thus very good drainage. We have a windy site resulting in wonderful air circulation, which discourages the development of fungus. We have chickens which produce terrific compost full of worms. I use landscape cloth to stop weeds and never water because we cannot spare that precious resource in the summer and in the winter and spring we have plentiful rainfall. The peonies are doing fine. I never divide before they have grown for three years and sometimes I wait longer, depending on supply and demand.
Growing organically does require extra work. The rows must be edged several times a year to prevent the grass between the rows from growing over the landscape cloth. I mow the grass weekly for many months. I hand weed each peony until the plants get big enough to shade and discourage the weeds. I usually need to pull the staples from a whole row of cloth when I dig the peonies. Planting divisions requires the extra steps of laying out the cloth parallel to the rows, cutting X-shaped holes in the correct places and then positioning the cloth over the beds and stapling..
I do not dig what is not sold, unless I need it for propagation. Empty spots are left in the rows when peonies are dug which are then patched. I think not replanting in the empty places keeps the chances of disease down. Eventually, I plan to move all the rows down a space so that what is now grass will be peonies and what is now planted in peonies will be planted in grass. This plan will allow me to till in the cover crop of grass adding all that organic material to the soil and will give the former peony rows a chance to renew their fertility. I also hope to reduce any nematode presence. Nematodes do not linger where there is no host.
I look forward to having the stock and time to allow me to begin making crosses and planting the resulting seedlings. There is much to learn.
The reward for these arduous organic methods is peonies that are healthy and toxin free. Our land is fertile, our water sweet and clean. In spring we have fields of peonies in bloom. Heaven on Earth.
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