How does your team approach your research?
Growing peonies is both completely similar and completely different from the other research I’ve done. As with everything, you have to be methodical in your approach. However, there’s very little existing research since the industry is so new, so there’s a lot of trial and error.
We’re less than 300 miles from the Arctic circle so we get around 21 1/2 hours of light, which makes for very different growing conditions, but it produces spectacular flowers. Our buds are considerably larger than other peonies and our plants are much taller.
We also have a very compressed growing season in Alaska. The ice melts around May and right at the beginning of June the flowers are starting to poke up through the ground. By the end of June they’re 40 inches tall, growing 3-4 inches a day. However, climate change is beginning to make things even more challenging.
Another challenge with growing peonies in Alaska is that it takes 4-5 years for plants to grow to maturity, where in the lower 48 you can do it in 2-3 years. We are finally getting plenty of mature plants that are producing buds now. It’s very gratifying to see it come to fruition so many years into the process. We just planted 5,000 new roots this year, and I’m hoping to do a few more trial red varieties next year.