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Taipei Florist Wholesale Market

Alaska hat kind of business were you doing while you were in Tai- Peonies W wan?” the American Immigration officer politely asked us. Make it to I answered “We have just exported the first ever shipment of Alas- kan peonies to Asia. They were samples for our prospective buyers Taiwan! of next year’s harvest.” He looked at me as if not quite understand- ing me and then said, “You mean Pee-in-ees?” After being correct- ed so many times I am finally learning not to pronounce the “O” which seems more natural to me. As we flew out of Seattle and set- tled in for the last leg home, I began to think back to what had initi- ated our venture adventure.

My wife, Hui Ping, has been talking about this flower for years. Es- pecially in the summer and whenever we travelled around, this flow- er has always been of great interest to her. Whether it was at the UAF Gardens or visiting farms down through Palmer, she would al- ways want to stop and inquire about peonies and photograph them.

I suppose I should have anticipated this interest of hers, I know a lot about the culture from where she came, but sometimes like blue- Rain, rain go awayRain, . Come some again other day.

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berries in the tundra, you can walk right through something im- Export portant and not even notice. My wife is a rather new American, im- Venture migrating to America in 2005 from Taiwan, and she is fascinated Adventure with so many things she discovers in her new country that she had never encountered. I had felt the same way about Taiwan when I (cont’d) arrived in 1987. I first met her in the early 1990s when I worked in Tou Liu, a city in central Taiwan where I was licensed by Taiwan’s Ministry of Education to teach English as a second language. I was there when the last of the Chiang Kai-shek’s dynasty passed and marshal law ended, when the only TVs available were government sets with only channel buttons number one, two and three: straight out of an Orwellian 1984 nightmare. I was there when the govern- ment legalized opposition political parties and when the first presi- dent from an opposition party was elected. What I am trying to say is I thought I knew a lot about Asia and certainly about Taiwan, so how is it then that I did not notice the image of peony all around me for the years I lived in Taiwan? And as far as not connecting my wife’s Asian culture with her constant mentioning of this flower, well, I just attributed it to a normal pastime interest like her quilting, equivalent to my wanderlust of expensive tools in Lowes or Home Depot that I would someday like to acquire.

This spring, like every other, my wife began talking about Alaskan peonies. But this year was going to be different, she told me that she decided to act on her dream to have the first trade company to import Alaskan peonies to Asia, and that she had been contemplat- ing this for years. Unknown to me, she had been working on this idea with her friends and acquaintances who were back in Taiwan for some time and she had already planned to initiate a shipment when the time was right. She had a good idea of how to introduce the flower to the right people if she could get them through Taiwan Cus- toms. But that could be tricky to do since it is a new agricultural product produced in a state that Taiwan imports only a few items from, with the exception of perhaps of fish, timber, and AK Seed Po- tatoes. She wasn’t sure how to get started from this end, who to buy the peonies from, what U.S. regulations might apply, and so on; so we contacted the Alaska Small Business Development Center in Anchorage. International Business Advisor, Ryan Gilbert, told us that he was giving a talk on the export trade to China the next day at an international trade conference in Fairbanks. He invited us to

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attend. Export Venture At the conference we all introduced ourselves and our businesses. Adventure Seated directly in front of us was a very nice lady who introduced herself as Carolyn Chapin of Polar Peonies LLC. She explained that (cont’d) she was responsible for their marketing and she expressed interest in exporting peonies to Asia. In return, I explained that “we are Nah Zu Trade Company and we very interested in exporting and promoting Alaska products to Taiwan, especially peonies”. Well, providence had smiled on us and the lyrics from the theme song “The Brady Bunch” suddenly came to mind. We began to plan for getting a pilot export shipment of Alaskan Peonies through Taiwan Customs. Our goal was to discover how the flowers would tolerate transportation, handling, and the tropical environment of Taiwan; what the Taiwan peony market segmentation was; how well the Alaskan Peony would be received; and if Taiwan would be a good conduit for this product to other Pacific Rim nations. The date for delivery closed in and we went to Taiwan to prepare the way and meet our prospective clients. In less than a month Hui Ping and the network of her Taiwanese friends had met with the President of the Taiwan Florists Transworld Delivery Association, the Director and staff of the Taiwan Floriculture Development Association, the execu- tives of exclusive hotels and florist shops, and had gained their trust and genuine interest in importing the Alaskan Peony.

Getting an American shipping forwarder was not as easy as we had hoped. They were reluctant to take our small export shipment but thankfully I had given them the contact information of our supplier Polar Peonies LLC, and Carolyn was able to help them understand the potential of 500,000 stems by 2016 and that would be just the beginning. When they heard this they were on board.

As Hui Ping anxiously waited for the flowers’ arrival in Taipei, we worried because this was the first time Alaska peonies would be ex- amined by the key players in this market. We tried to get the US Agriculture Department to declare that a plant pathogen was not found on our peonies because the Taiwanese Government was very concerned about this disease. Although Alaska is too cold for this particular germ, Taiwan still wanted the phytosanitary certificate to list it as not found on the peonies. However, federal regulations

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tied the hands of the Export Alaskan inspector. He Venture is not allowed to list Adventure something as not on a plant unless the foreign (cont’d) government formally requests in writing for it to be listed. This re- sulted in additional de- lays as the box of peo- nies now required extra inspections as well as fumigation. Then even Our ten released test stems blossomed out more disappointing, the beautifully! forwarder forgot to in- clude the packing slip, so our shipment was now to be held over a weekend because the Taiwanese agriculture inspectors and fumiga- tion close on weekends.

When Hui Ping was finally allowed in the secured area, she located the storage area and was able to convince a customs inspector to release ten peony “test” stems after the officer gave them a careful visual inspection.

A large part of our mission was to see how the Alaska peony would react to a normal transit time with normal handling, what we got was more of a stress test. However the ten released samples were immediately placed in what would be an average Taiwan household environment and they blossomed out quite nicely and lasted just un- der a week. The other Alaska peonies that were held over the weekend and went through fumigation also did quite well in spite of the unexpected time exposed to tropical heat, extra handling and delay. After Taiwan Customs released the peony box to Hui Ping on Monday, she took it directly to the Taiwan Florists Transworld Deliv- ery Association headquarters where she opened and inspected the box with the president and staff. The good news is that the damage or spoil loss was within an acceptable range.

Our pilot test taught us what needs to be done to make the Alaska peony an export success in Asia, and we have untied the red tape

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Export and cleared the way for future exports. We learned what must be done to gain lucrative purchases and win our Asian customers’ confi- Venture dence. When we returned to Alaska we had more productive meet- Adventure ings with Carolyn who has some great ideas for improving harvesting (cont’d) methods. This will take time, but if we all cooperate and strive to make improvements, I believe that there can be great potential for earnings growth in the years ahead. We hope to meet with many of you in the future and learn more from you and answer any questions you might have about Taiwan and what the customers there are like.

Anyone interested in learning more details on this pilot export ship- ment may connect with the link below and read Hui Ping’s report; Alaskan Peony Export Potential in Taiwan, Market Research and Product Evaluation Results. https://www.box.com/s/1hlwc6h3e0z8nwj6x2nm

~ Eric Foster, Nah Zu Trade Co.

Oregon he University of Alaska Fairbanks Georgeson Botanical Garden Perennial T has conducted cultivar trials on peonies since 2001. Trial re- Donates Test sults including height, bloom time and flower productivity have been Roots to published, and results are available on our website, Georgeson www.georgesonbg.org (search under Research, then Peonies). A yearly list of first bloom dates for all cultivars is also available. Cur- Botanical rently we have 91 peony cultivars in our trial plots. Some are strictly garden flowers, while the majority have cut-flower potential.

We would like to thank Oregon Perennials for donating 10 cultivars to our trials. Two cultivars, Festiva Maxima and Gay Paree are compari- son standards that have been grown previously, but the others are new to our trials. We will report annually on their survival and growth, potential as cut flowers, disease susceptibility, stem strength and any other odd growth patterns we observe. We learned this year that the standard white, Duchess de Nemours, can indeed become bright pink under Fairbanks growing conditions, so we will pay partic- ular attention to flower color and form in our evaluations. Everyone is welcome to visit our trial plots in Fairbanks any time in July to view these blooms.

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Oregon Table 1. Cultivars donated to the UAF trial gardens by Oregon Perennials. Information is from published sources from commercial businesses, American Perennial Peony Society and others. (cont’d) Stem length Cultivar Type Flower Color (inches) Comments Avis Varner Full double Deep red 36 Needs dis- budding Cheddar Supreme Semi- to White with abun- 28-33 fully double dant petaloids and gold staminoids throughout Claudia Semi- Light cherry fading 36+ Small flowers double to salmon pink, gold centers Festiva Maxima Double White, red flecks 36 Reliable, Gay Paree Japanese Pink guards, white/ 33 Light fran- pink petaloids grance Heidi Japanese Lavender pink 26 Henry Bockstoce Double Red 40 Fragrant, may need trellising Leslie Peck Japanese Pink with lighter 38 Disbudding pink/peach petal- required oids Lora Dexheimer Double Red 34 Outstanding flower form, not fragrant Many Happy Re- Anemone Red 34 Long lasting turns to bomb cut flower, double prolific, APS Gold medal 2007 Mary Jo Legare Double Deep pink to light 24 No stamens, red pollen, seeds

~ Dr. Pat Holloway

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Summer Conference Photos

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Summer Conference Photos (cont’d)

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Summer Conference Photos (cont’d)

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Summer Conference Photos (cont’d)

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Summer Conference Many thanks to everyone who made our summer (cont’d) conference a success and especially all the individuals and companies that supported our silent auction:

Karen Mattson AK pet and garden center Oregon Perennial Company Hollingsworth Nursery Carrs in Wasilla Silver Tip Designs Grey Owl Farm Troy and Lori Zaumseil Harry Davidson Quality Letterpress Killer Designs Alaska Sea Ag Kierston Reuer Julie Riley Turkey Red David and Skipper Shimek Carolyn Chapin Denise Bowlan Rusty's at Dahlia Street Shane Lamb Gallery The Garden Gate Taffina Katkus Non Essentials

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Plunging into s I sat outside a couple weekends ago and bid farewell to yet Peonies A another summer gone by, I watched my boys playing on the inflatable water slide that we had set up as one last attempt to hang on to the lazy days of Summer. To sit back and take in the squeals of joy and laughter is priceless. Our 4 boys would climb to the top of the slide, and then with a huge jump from the summit, they would throw themselves enthusiastically toward the bottom and whatever lies in wait for them down below. Oh what fun! Most of the time they landed with a big laugh and an even bigger smile. However, every once in a while, their descent from above wasn't as much fun. Perhaps it was the push at the top that sent them plunging or falling suddenly and uncontrollably, down towards the ground below. Those trips sometimes ended with yelling, tears or even injured pride. Wow! Just as in life, sometimes we are eager to venture out, ex- plore unchartered territory, and learn new and exciting things. We are even willing to take the risks associated with such endeavors. Then there are the times when we feel like our lives are out of con- trol. We are simply being tossed back and forth amongst the waves. We long for the calmer waters and the refuge of our comfort zone. Maybe there is a plan in the chaos, a chance to move closer into the direction where we want to be down the road. Throughout my Alaskan farm journey this last August I noticed how many folks are eager to “take the plunge” to commit themselves to this project called Alaska Grown Peonies. I challenge each one of you to jump in and go deeper in building relationships with your fel- low peony farmers. Learn from each other by increasing your knowledge and improving your skill. Many of you are still look for specific answers but each of you will have to develop the best busi- ness model for your farm. Only then we can be fully equipped to go out into the world and show them that Alaska Grown Peonies are worthy. I am super excited (and a little nervous, truth be told) to be taking the plunge with all of you. But I can’t think of a better group of folks to be jumping in with. Alaska Grown Peonies has a tremendous niche to fill, and the more I study all of this, the more I am con- vinced how unique, special and most of all how great this opportunity is for Alaska.

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The Peony As most of you have heard me state more than once, Alaska Grown Plunge Peonies will only be as good and as strong a product through the (cont’d) ability to implement a strong marketing strategy. This ‘in my opin- ion’ can be implemented by having great famers’ cooperation in place. Last Saturday, my boys and I were volunteering at our local Food bank. I grabbed a box of what was called ‘Alaskan Fisheries’ frozen fish filets, and I ended up reading the fine print on the food label. It mentioned that the catch was made in Russia, the fish were processed into filets in China, and the boxes were imported and dis- tributed by a company in North Compton, Rhode Island. And they call it ‘Alaskan Fisheries’. Seriously, you got to be kidding.

If that does not tick you off, it sure did it for me. So my message is to you is, let Alaska Grown Peonies truly be known as coming from Alaska growers. How do we ensure that this will be the case? We take the following steps: 1: Establish a farmers cooperative soon 2: Find a General Manager 3: Use the ‘Alaska Grown’ trademark program 4: Implement a quality control system 5: Find uniform packaging & distribution logistics 6: Build an interactive inventory control and order gathering sys- tem.

Realize that most of you are only 2 years away from cutting your first peony flowers. 85%-90% of you do not have coolers or pro- cessing systems in place. Most of you have not even considered who your customer base will be. So instead of trying to figure all this out on your own, pull your resources together, build a strong team, and always focus on the bigger team. In this world of give and take, there are few that are truly willing to give whatever it takes. But I can promise you, that those that are willing to give will enjoy the ride. Always remember: success is NOT a destination, instead it is the journey you embark upon.

Enjoy the ride together. ~ KO

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f you are registered in APGA’s fertility study and have not yet col- Fertility Study I lected your fall round of samples, this is a reminder to not forget Reminder that you need to collect a soil sample as you’re cutting down your plants this fall. If you have questions or need help, contact Sue at [email protected]. ~Sue Kent, Committee Chair

The Prez Sez. . . ur 2012 peony season is over and most O of us are trying to put the plants to bed for the winter. By all accounts, this season was quite successful. Peonies were sold all across the US, to Canada, and to several oth- er nations as well. Trial boxes were shipped to places like China and were enthusiastically welcomed.

This summer’s conference in Palmer went extremely well. In addi- tion to the great presentations, a highlight of the conference was the farm tours and the hands-on assessments, suggestions, and encour- agements by the visiting experts like Ko Klaver and Lucas Hudson. Thank you’s to Rachel Christy and her crew that made it all possible.

We had another new grower’s school which was, again, very well at- tended with over 40 people. We are now looking forward to develop- ing an intermediate grower’s school to be first presented at the up- coming Winter conference.

Volunteers from the growers and the associates can find lots of areas where we can use help. If you have a skill and would like to help, contact one of the Board members. They are listed elsewhere in this newsletter.

If you have not yet completed the peony survey that was sent out earlier this Fall, please do so now. If you did not receive one, please contact me at [email protected] and I will email a copy to you. We use this data to help us provide evidence about our indus- try to funding sources and legislative leaders. ~Ron Illingworth, APGA President

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Pest Some of you may have seen this beautiful little caterpillar in your Alert: fields or garden this summer. We noticed it about mid June here at Rusty Eaglesong. They spread quickly over our peonies, but we saw no in- stances where it would eat any of the leaves. In the meantime it Tussock was devastating our rhubarb, cauliflower, cabbage, marigold leaves and alder.

Multiple sources identified this furry little creature as a Rusty Tus- sock. We were led to believe their abundance was due to the cool damp weather this summer. Over the past 18 years we have not no- ticed them here in any numbers until now. I know of a few reports from other farmers in the Mat-Su that had them, but not sure about them further north or south. They are polyphagous and feed on a wide range of deciduous trees and shrubs, such as birch (Betula), Crataegus, Lime (Citrus), Prunus, Quercus, Rubus, Salix, Tamarix and Vaccinium (Porter, 1997; Wagner, 2005).

It seemed to lounge around on our peony bushes not really doing much until our buds started to appear. At that point they became ferocious and in a hurry they climbed to the top of the stems and started to munch on the buds. I’m assuming they have a sweet tooth and like the sugars in the buds. Once we became aware of their hidden agenda we started squishing them as we did our daily walk through of the fields. This was fairly easy to do on our 1 & 2 year old plants, but I’m guessing will require a full on chemical at- tack in more mature peony plants with extensive foliage. In late Au- gust they turned into moths of a “rusty” color. Now in late Septem-

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Rusty Tussock ber we are seeing large numbers of eggs on the undersides of all (cont’d) kinds of vegetation, but very few on our peonies as we cut them down.

An internet search told us the female is flightless, never leaves the vicinity of her cocoon and looks nothing like the male moth. She lays her eggs on her old cocoon. These eggs hatch the following spring.

They are something to watch out for next spring. Don’t let them take hold in your peony fields.

~ Mike Williams, EagleSong Family Peony Farm

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News from inter may be around the corner but we have a lot to be excit- Interior W ed about: the 2013 Alaska Peony Growers Association Winter Conference will be in Fairbanks! We are planning a great conference Alaska with expert presenters, vendors, Growers Schools (new growers plus a more advanced school), and, of course, plenty of time to visit with other growers.

So, mark your calendar for February. February is a great time to come to Fairbanks! The nights are long so there is plenty of time to star gaze and enjoy the Northern Lights! Of course, we cannot guar- antee the weather, but we can guarantee an informative conference. See you in February.

Other activities on the calendar for the Interior are: Interior Growers General meeting – Oct 6th, 11 am Interior Growers Working Group – Oct 27th, 9 am New Growers School – Oct 27th, 12:30 pm Intermediate Growers School – Dec 1st, 12:30 pm

For more information and to reserve seats in the growers schools, contact Marji - [email protected].

UAF Brine osted in the July 14, 2012 Anchorage Daily News was a rather Research P obscure advertisement posted by the University of Alaska Fair- Project banks. It was asking for fishery waste, alcohol production byprod- ucts, as well as agricultural and biodiesel byproducts for a research project. The project is investigating the use of these byproducts to help improve wintertime road maintenance in Alaska through better corrosion and ice control properties of brine (salt) solutions. Maybe someone out there has heard of this project, but I hadn’t.

I have wondered for some time if peony foliage might have a better end than burning or burying. So I contacted the point of contact, Dr. Xianming Shi. I told him about peony foliage and he responded that this was exactly the type of byproduct the project was looking for.

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Peony Leaves Dr. Shi was very receptive, but had never heard of Dr. Pat Holloway = Valuable or the peony research conducted at UAF. It turns out Dr. Shi is with the University of Montana, College of Engineering and this is a joint Byproduct?!! University of Alaska, University of Montana, and Alaska Department (cont’d) of Transportation project.

I passed on the recommendation that Dr. Shi contact Dr. Holloway about her peony research at UAF. I also shipped 5 kg of peony foli- age to the University of Montana for analysis.

Who knows, maybe we will have the opportunity to bale and sell our peony foliage in the future. I will keep the APGA posted on the find- ings I receive.

~ Mike Williams, EagleSong Family Peony Farm

Down to All farming boils down to healthy soil; healthy soil equals healthy Earth plants, healthy plants equal resistance to disease and stress. If you aren't spending your time and gold chasing around blight and bug, you will have more time to enjoy your job — while stirring your tub of compost tea!

I'm going to begin with something very basic and the go-to product for me in my peony patch: neem.

After good rich and wiggling compost, neem is the most used insecti- cide/pesticide/fungicide on our farm whether in the garden, green- house, or field.

A little background first: Neem is derived from the neem tree, Aza- diracta indica and is native to southern Asia and most sub-tropical and tropical areas of the world. To give just a hint at neem's ancient standing, consider this: it is called Sarva Roga Nirvani meaning “cure of all ailments” in Sanskrit! It's been used for centuries for medical, cosmetic, and pesticidal purposes. For my purpose here we'll con- centrate on the use of neem to the peony farmer. We use neem on our farm to control aphids and to bolster resistance to botrytis in the field.

Most neem pesticide products are made by crushing the neem tree

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Down to seeds and then using water or a solvent like alcohol to extract the Earth. . . active ingredients. Of the more than 70 compounds produced by the neem tree, azadirachtin is the most studied and most commonly re- (cont’d) ferred to as the active ingredient, although there is evidence that other compounds found in neem also contribute to the overall effec- tiveness of products made with neem. Azadirachtin works by con- tact or ingestion and mimics insects’ hormones disrupting the growth, feeding, and egg laying cycles of the insects. Delicious and exciting stuff, right? Well, consider that those nasty aphids munch- ing away can vector other pathogens into the plant, such as every- body's enemy, botrytis.

Neem is applied to the plants through a foliar spray once diluted with water, and also applied to the plants root zone. The active com- pounds are absorbed through the plants roots and move upward through the tissues of the plant. Since, like most botanically derived material, it can break down quickly in sunlight and rain, the benefi- cial effects of neem are longer lasting from within the plant as op- posed to when sprayed on the leaves. Here, we use it both ways. We also start early in the growing season applying neem with our liquid fertilizer (tea). It is best to begin applications before pest problems get out of hand and when pests are young. Neem has shown effective on over 200 insect species, many of which I'm hap- py to say we don't have to deal with up here in Alaska. I noted one study that suggested neem was useful in controlling certain thrip populations, another on many familiar fungus infections including botrytis which we do deal with. (I bet it would cure athlete's foot too, Irene.)

What you should know: neem reportedly breaks down within 100 hours in water or light and does not move through the soil. It has little to no effect on beneficial bugs such as bees, our lovely lady- bugs, or adult butterflies. Studies have shown that earth worms grew faster and weighed more when fed neem leaves! Whew. And you can brush your teeth with it. Your fish and pets are safe and small children can bury their little noses into those flowers without fear.

There are many, many neem products available, both OMRI certified and not. We use the Safer brand as it is available locally. I am sure

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Down to there is so much more to say about neem but for the flower farmer Earth. . . out there it is one more tool in your garden cart arsenal for healthy (cont’d) peony plants and soil. ~ Michelle LaFriniere, Chilly Root Peony Farm

Transportation rowers who signed up for the Farm Service Agency Cost Program G (FSA) Reimbursement Transportation Cost Payment Program Reminder for Geographically Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers (RTCP) by September 10 have until Nov. 5 to provide supporting documenta- tion of actual costs for transporting agricultural inputs and commodi- ties in fiscal year 2012 to the FSA county office. Contact your local USDA office if you have questions on submitting your documents.

Cultivating f you have ever wondered what cooperatives are, you NW Co-ops I should consider attending the Cultivating NW Co-ops confer- 2012 ence in Seattle October 5 and 6, 2012. The $85 registration fee co- vers a program which includes speakers from USDA Rural Develop- ment’s Business and Co-operatives Programs and presentations on cooperative economic development from CDS consulting, the leading consultant for new cooperatives in the country. Representatives from dozens of Northwest area co-ops will be attending, and there will be numerous opportunities to meet and build connections with co -ops in the production, marketing and retail fields. The Conference has been organized by the Northwest Co-op Development Center, the Mission Mountain Food Enterprise Center from Montana, and the Alaska Co-operative Development Program. To learn more or regis- ter visit: http://nwcoops2012.eventbrite.com/ ~Andrew Crow

ASCFG he ASCFG National Conference and Trade Show will be held No- Conference T vember 12-14. Check out the program and register online at: http://www.ascfg.org/index.php? option=com_content&task=view&id=423&Item&Itemid=405

The Growers’ School is filling up, but the Growers’ Workshop is still wide open.

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Alaska Perfect ND SO FORTH Peony A I love my new job! And it seems there is absolutely no end to Fritz Creek the new things to do and learn. We’ve all been concentrating on loca- tion, sun, soils, drainage, whites that aren’t pink, reds that aren’t or- ange, what is a blush anyway?, and how many of each. Difficult deci- sions and expensive if you make the wrong decisions but lots of infor- mation out there to help in this area.

After a few years of these decisions and research some of us have moved on to packing houses and coolers. ASCFG (Association of Spe- cialty Cut Flower Growers) has tons of information on such things as coolbots and other important aspects of building a pack house. And the ASCFG members are always ready to help you. Its a great organ- ization to be a member.

Then there is the marketing. Right now a good phone system and an ordering form or programs are the only requirements. The phone will ring off the hook and all you need to do is decide if you actually have the product they need. This is a critical time to make sure you treat the customer the best possible because repeat customers of course is the long term goal for stability and profitability (yes there may even- tually be some profits!!). And as more farms come on board, it may not be quite as easy to establish your customer base so now, strike while the opportunity is great

Now that you’ve grown those lovely peonies for 4 or 5 years you’ll start to notice some changes in the flowers. What you thought were perhaps not the best color or bloom size isn’t what it was 2 years ago. How can that be? Isn’t a Charlie’s White a Charlie’s White forever? How can it be pink one year and white the next year and what about the size of those Bowl of Cream? I thought they were only 5 inches and now they are 7 inches. Some of the differences are pretty easily explainable, they’ve just matured, but other changes are perhaps a bit more mysterious. Aha, a new project: figure out what is happen- ing that manifests these changes.

I never really thought about it, but it should have been totally obvious to me. A double peony is just that: two peonies in one. That’s right, isn’t that fun? There is actually a flower-in-flower, a repeat flower

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Alaska Perfect that arises from the center of the Peony lower flower that makes those Sa- rah Bernhardts so luscious and (cont’d) full. The old fashioned term was

‘rose type’. And sometimes the second flower isn’t fully open so some of the stamen and other ‘center parts’ are still evident. Then some of the doubles aren’t rose like but are conical in shape such as Felix Supreme. And these second flowers may not be- come mature until the 3rd or My Love. Example of the rose form. even 4th year thus one of the many reasons the appearance of your peony varieties is so exciting the first few years, and so myste- rious.

We’ve all learned cold weather can cause whites to be pink, and late frosts can damage buds just enough so they aren’t marketa- ble. The buds open beautifully covering up the disfigured bud and the flowers are white but we are selling buds, not cut flowers. And now we are starting to see unusual leaf appearances that could just be a late frost or a scary fungus or even a virus that Felix Supreme. Example of the conical might be very serious. The Ad- double form. vanced Master Gardeners are of- fering a 15-hour course starting October 6th on this very subject that I’ve registered for.

In the meantime, take a look at the double ‘peony planting’ shovel my husband Leroy invented for us. With a three man crew and this shovel, it takes about 48 seconds to plant a peony. One person uses the shovel, another adds the amenities to the hole, and the third

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Alaska Perfect places the peony in the hole. It’s pretty slick. We have a runner Peony that puts the tubers out and keeps the amenity buckets full. If we weren’t working in hurricane winds and flood rains, it could have al- (cont’d) most been fun.

~ Rita Jo Shoultz

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Chilly Root Peony Farm Homer

hat a wild and wooly September it's been. Since our return W from halibut fishing at the end of August, we've been harvest- ing stems. I cut a big bouquet for my friend in Anchorage yesterday (September 24) which marks the end of the season for us. And right up to the end we were wind whipped and rain beaten.

This cold wet summer took its toll on quite a few varieties as well us humans, we all look bruised around the bud. Winds in the hurricane category lashed the fields, plants bending to the ground; then tor- rents of rain made sure they stayed there. here is one good thing about being at 1495 ft elevation; we don't flood. In fact we didn't even know about the flooding until our contractor friend told us he needed to go dig out a house that had the bluff slide into it!

I wish I could remember the finer days of July and August; but frankly it was a blur of weed whacking, dis-budding, fertilizing, and botrytis hunting. Our youngest field suffered the most from the heavy winds, with fewer stems to support themselves the broken stems tumbled down the rows and lined the edge of the field. Now

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there's a cheery picture to leave you with. Both I and my plants are happy to see this year come to a close.

~ Michelle LaFriniere

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EagleSong Family Peony Farm Sleeping Lady

or 15 years I was a sport fishing guide. It was always…you F should have been here yesterday or tomorrow…the water is too high or too low…it’s too cloudy or too bright. Today I am a peony farmer and…spring is too late or the frost is too early…there’s too much rain or too little…it’s too warm or too cold.

Some might say this was a lateral career move at best. I think be- ing an Alaska peony farmer is the most exciting job I’ve ever done. My family has lived in Alaska for almost 30 years now. When we moved here I felt like I arrived about 75 years too late. That is until I started raising peonies. I enjoy the unknown and that is exactly what Alaska peony farming is right now. No rules, go with your gut, and have faith you can make it work. I love it!

This summer has been busy, productive, disappointing, and too short. I question if we ever had summer at all, but the peonies seemed to make the best of it. We have 10,000 peonies in the ground…5000 are in their second season and 5000 in their first sea- son of growth. We let several hundred of our second year peonies bloom this summer. We wanted to get our process down for han-

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EagleSong dling blooms before we moved into large scale production. It was a Family Peony good move for us as we walked the fields and scratched our heads Farm as the blooms developed. It was an opportunity to experiment, identify our shortcomings and gain much needed experience. (cont’d) While we worked on all that we became experienced high tunnel in- stallers. We installed 3 high tunnels this summer under the NRCS High Tunnel program. How hard can it be? It’s all precut pipe that only fits together one way with instructions. We live in the bush and we’ve learned when estimating the time it will take for a project you take that time, multiply by 4, and that will be a conservative estimate. The factor may be 6 when it comes to high tunnels. It wasn’t complicated just

very time consuming. Two of the high tun- nels (12’x75’) went over peonies. We did this for a couple of reasons. First we wanted to use them as protection from the ele- ments. Our thought was we could protect the peonies from winds, excessive rainfall, hail and possibly even volcanic ash (it is Alaska). Second we wanted to experiment with the amount of water our peonies need or don’t. I’ve read that spring snow melt is enough to sustain peonies and I’ve seen commercial peonies that get watered on a regularly scheduled basis all summer long. What’s the answer…let’s find out. I don’t have a definitive answer yet, but they seem to do quite well on little water. The third high tunnel (20’x32’ semi-gable) is being used for vegetables. The thought was we are a remote farm where workers will be residents during the season and we need to feed them. Let’s reduce the grocery bill a little with fresh veggies. OK, so Paula planted hundreds of seeds in our little home built log

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EagleSong greenhouse in late April and the plan was by late May we would slide Family Peony them into the high tunnel. Approaching the end of June it was like Farm having the kids on a road trip yelling “Are we there yet?” I only multiplied the time needed for construction by 4 not 6. All is well in (cont’d) the end and we are still eating fresh corn on the cob in late Septem-

ber.

As for the peonies under the high tunnels it is September 21st and we are into day 7 of continuous rain with a measured 13” of rain and still coming down. Our fields are drenched, but our high tunnel peo- nies are setting quite cozy compared to their cousins setting a few feet away. In all we think high tunnels are a good investment.

EagleSong was the recipient of an “Alaska Grown” marketing grant this summer. We established a booth at the Anchorage Downtown Market for the summer disseminating infor- mation on Alaska peonies and even selling a few peony roots and flowers. I won’t go into detail here, but hope to make our report available on the APGA website in the near future. A tremen- dous response from lo- cals and tourists!

I learned a lot this sum- mer and still feel stupid, but I have faith. Here’s hoping you do too.

~ Mike & Paula Williams

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Nestegg estegg Peonies, high in the hills of Fox, has been in the Peonies N planning stages for over a year now. My husband, Hans Geier, Fox and I had been farming barley, canola, and hay on our 350 acres in Delta Junction since the early 90s. We decided we needed something closer to home so we starting planning a small farm on our 38 acres in Fox. This past spring we cleared two acres with the intention of becoming peony farmers. There is something sad about clearing away a virgin stand of boreal forest but also positive when it is going to become productive farmland. We ordered one hundred plants from Oregon Perennials just as a test patch and planted them in late May. The soil tests showed the nutrients in our soil lacking in everything, so we put in the amendments that were needed. The roots were very slow starting and I estimate that we lost about 40% of them. It was a learning experience though and we intend to correct the problems that caused our losses this year. Hans and I recently took a trip to the Salem ,Oregon area and visited Oregon Perennials as well as Aldemans and several other peony farms. I showed Andre, the owner of Oregon Perennials, photos of some of my roots that died. He gave me some good advice that offered insights into possible problems with my roots. He thought I had not planted deep enough and he said that new roots should be put in soil that is the same temperature as the storage facility in Oregon. In other words, they should be approximately 38 degrees. Oregon Perennials is an impressive operation and see the photo of me in front of their vast fields. After hauling in five dump truck loads of compost, disking several times, picking sticks, rototilling, burning stick piles, and now hilling: we are in the final phase of preparing our field for spring of 2013. Three thousand roots of Kansas, Charles White, and Sarah Barnhardt are on order but I am thinking of reducing that number to seven hundred of each variety so if anyone wants to pick up the balance of a thousand roots, just let

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Nestegg me know. Things can get out of hand, you know? Peonies (cont’d) ~ Marilyn Berglin

Northern e are new growers. We decided to jump into peony Lights Peonies W farming this summer after John took an early retirement from Fairbanks American Airlines. We moved back home to Fairbanks to the Herning Homestead on Chena Hot Springs Road in July with plans to convert the existing hay field into a peony field. John has the first section ro- totilled and we will be ready to plant 3,300 roots in the spring. Our plans are to plant 3,300 roots in 2014 and 2,015 to finish out at about 10,000 plants.

~ John and Kim Herning

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Gray Owl Farm reetings from Gray Owl Farm!! This was the summer that was- Palmer n't….so cool….so wet! Ever the optimists, we all continue to im- G prove our skills and learn more about this peony business. Our first year of harvesting went well, and we were able to market our stems, mostly locally but sent several boxes Outside as well. It is definitely a learning curve in marketing for us who have only dealt with local markets up until now. We are lucky to have so many of you who give us encouragement, advice, and keep us striving to be better.

With the summer conference here in Palmer, the pressure was on to get our farm in tip top shape. I was lucky to have my granddaughter help in preparing the flower gardens, painting, etc. We met so many new growers and had great conversations with those we had met at oth- er conferences. We were honored to be able to host the BBQ here and hope that everyone en- joyed themselves. We learned much from Lucas Hudson and hope he will return to share more of his extensive knowledge in growing peonies. We were lucky to be his hosts and get to know more about him, his interests, and his family. The presentations by all of our guests were excellent and helpful to all growers, new and established. It is exciting to see the Valley and other areas exploding with interest and those who have committed that are planting fields or expanding existing fields this fall. The farm tours are always a highlight…there is nothing like seeing existing growing operations, whatever the size. Everyone has a different set of challenges, and it is so good to share our successes and our fail- ures. It is helpful for us all.

It was a fun, busy summer with family visits, Farm Bureau Farm Tour with two busloads of 50 each, KTVA interview, USDA "bug study", Brookside Pathology Testing, Debra Prinzing visit, Dr. Pat Holloway's

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Gray Owl visit, and two visits from the (cont’d) University of Fairbanks crew and Mingchu. We had many interested and potential growers stop by to chat and a very special visit with Judy Wilmarth who took an adven- ture and drove out to the farm on her own in early Ju- ly. She is such a knowledge- able lady!

Our challenges are always: weed control, botrytis, and our "mystery" disease that has everyone from Oregon to Fairbanks baf- fled. We will continue (with their help) to try to identify the situation and deal with it with recommendations from the experts. We under- stand that they have seen these mystery leaves in other areas of the state. How fortunate we are to have so many expert eyes right here in Alaska looking at our challenges and helping us with all of these issues.

We got our fall planting finished in the pouring rain on September 18th. We are a little nervous about the late date. Next spring will let us know whether it was too late! Foliage will come down the first week of October and the snow fence will go up. We are now well aware how important snow fence is here in our windy area. A new challenge every year keeps us all alert….no time for leisure. We were pleased with the chiller that Craige built and will continue to tweak the Coolbot to keep the temperature a few degrees cooler.

We are in fall cleanup mode with all aspects of the business and are looking forward to our upcoming trip to New Zealand and Australia. We will spend some time with Judy & Tony Banks in November and absorb as much information as they are willing to share. They are such great people and are so gracious to offer us this opportunity. We will try to help in whatever way we can be most useful. It will be a very busy time for them. We wish you all a time of rest to gather thoughts and review the year. Each year will be busier than the last but also more exciting. The winter will give us a bit of time to pre- pare. Until we meet again…. Regards from. . . Craige & Kathy

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Eli Mitchell t's just an abandoned, overgrown garden in an unspectacular Farm I neighborhood north of Fairbanks. Nonetheless, I have a clear Fairbanks vision for developing its potential to the fullest of productivity . I attempt- ed to transcribe my farm plan for you to read in this newsletter, but I gave up after exceeding 1000 words. So here is the abridged version of my ideas.

I currently have a loca- tion selected to begin the yet-unnamed peony farm. It is a garden plot that needs some TLC. Because it is fairly large, it will easily accommodate the small trial planting of 75 roots that I am planning for next spring. If I de- cide to continue with beginning a commercial farm, I plan to plant more roots each year.

My strategy for keeping start-up expenses low will include doing as much of the work as I can by myself. Also, once the plants begin to produce, I hope to sell through one of the local packhouses. Not on- ly would this route eliminate the intimidating investment of building a packhouse for myself, but it would also give me more time to use my own labor because I wouldn't be dealing with clients. As part of my strategy, I hope to invest only as much as it is feasible to do out of pocket. This would mean gradual growth to avoid large initial in- vestments that would put me in the red.

Although I don't plan on going strictly organic, I do plan to avoid us- ing herbicides as much as possible, and experiment with other varie- ties of weed control. I also hope to make and use compost from grass clippings. Additionally, I may get a load of “sludge” from the local sewage treatment plant. Then I will only utilize fertilizers as needed to supplement the nutritional value of the aforementioned.

Including everything from installing a drip irrigation system to de- claring war on bird vetch presently invading the grounds, my vision

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Eli Mitchell is very broad. I am eager to see what this experience will teach me. I Farm have already learned one thing: DO NOT spread hay over any location (cont’d) that you hope to use again to grow plants. It will not stay dead and rot on the ground. The previous owners of the garden had generously broadcast hay in the garden. By the time I began to prep the plot, the hay had stood up and come back to life again like the dead bones in Ezekiel's vision. I removed all of the hay bales in the garden, but I still have quite a bit of work to do regarding the leftover hay on the ground. Nonetheless, I am eagerly anticipating the future of this pro- ject.

~ Eli Mitchell

North Pole orth Pole Peonies had a busy summer with lots of peonies. We Peonies N also cleared a berm to open some additional fields. A neighbor North Pole brought in his D-9 Cat with an 18’ blade! Sure made short work of the berm! He also did a test dig for a new water source. He didn’t find any water, so went to fill in the hole. That is when we got a new lawn ornament! Three days later with the assistance of a back hoe, two cords of fire wood, and a couple dozen railroad ties, it finally pulled out! Isn’t permafrost and clay fun! After freeze up, he will back fill the hole. The rest of the summer was busy, but less stressful. We planted roots, harvested peonies, weed- ed, weeded, and weeded. We had help from family members, our farm hand, and visitors to the farm. And, oh yes, we funded several North Pole high school boys to football camp in exchange for weeding.

Picking this summer was most interesting. In late June it looked like the cool weather would make the harvest late, but by July 4th we were picking 4 times a day for the next 10 days, then it slowed to only 3 times a day! What wonderful chaos! Then there was the packing and shipping! We shipped all over the Lower 48. We also secured a good discount rate from FedEx and managed to cut through all the paper-

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North Pole work and shipped to Canada! By mid-August the chiller was empty Peonies with the exception of some we held for local weddings. North Pole Probably the most fun was the visitors to the farm. We had planting and picking clinics. We had tour groups ranging from school field trips to Santa’s Seniors, Oscher Life Long Learning, and garden clubs. There were also individuals interested in the various aspects of peony farming. It is exciting to see all the interest in our new agricultural industry.

We were fortunate enough to attend the APGA Summer Conference in Palmer – what a great conference. Along with many great presen- tations, those of us who went on the tours Saturday were able to shadow Ko Klaver (Oregon Perennials) and Lucas Hudson (Hollingsworth Nursery), both knowledgeable peony experts from the Lower 48. Their observations were most valuable. Ko then traveled to the Interior and visited our farm and several others in the area. We had a great visit, learned more about peony grow- ing and even got to take Ko and his son, Jake, 4 wheeling on the Tanana Flats and to visit Santa Claus.

Ron spent a good bit of the summer tilling the new areas and then Chris set in fields for this fall and next spring. Thanks to an early root har- vest in the Lower 48, Eliza- beth and the children were able to get a few peonies in by early September. Now Marji has all the grass lines seeded and ready for spring. The fields for spring are ready as well. Chris still hopes to get the irrigation lines for the new fields in before the ground freezes solid.

The final task for the fall is cutting back the peonies. By the time this

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North Pole newsletter is published, Peonies our church youth group (cont’d) will have cut back the peo- nies and we will have hauled them off to the pe- ony waste pile. The group will finish up with a picnic. We will have clean fields and the youth group will have their fall fund raising complete. This is a great way to take care of those labor intensive – one time tasks.

When this newsletter comes out, we will be ready for winter. Ron and Marji will be heading for the ASCFG Conference and a visit to Oregon Perennials in November. There are a lot of other informative and fun activities coming up this winter in the Interior including a couple of Growers Schools. But best of all, the APGA Conference is in Fairbanks in February. Preparing for the conference will keep us busy this winter! See everyone in February!

~ Marji and Ron Illingworth

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Scenic Place hat a learning year this has Peonies W been. Long winter, record Homer snow fall, late spring, COLD summer, hurricane like winds, non-stop rain, can it get anymore challenging? The good news though, is that with the help of some healthy roots and care- ful nurturing, they THRIVED!

Curtis Knight, DNR specialist, came to the field and took soil samples, for the final survey for nematodes as well as pest samples for identification purposes. Never thought I would be so excited about bug detection!

Honored to have author Debra Hailey, the prettiest peony Debra, Kurt, & Kayden Prinzing stay with us in July

Currently, we’re planting the next field of 3,000 peonies. My back as well as my husband, Kurt, are saying ”thank goodness” this will be our last field as we do not have anymore space to plant these little lovelies.

Cheers to you all! ~ Beth

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Verde ow does this itinerary sound to you? Consulting .Flight departs New York 6:30 pm EST. Connecticut H .Arrive in Anchorage 1:00 am (= 5 am next day EST). .Pick up rental car. .Look for hotel room in Anchorage with no success until 2:30 am. .Decide to take a nap in back seat until 4 am. .Get up at 4 am, have breakfast, and listen to very talkative waiter (very excited to have a customer). .Leave Anchorage and drive 200+ miles to Homer to visit Alas- ka Hardy Peony Farm, then drive to Soldotna to meet Sue Kent, and then drive to and end the day in Palmer. .That’s 485 plus miles in Day 1 of my trip to Alaska this sum- mer. Now, to my friends in Connecticut, the above sounds insane, but I explained to them that it was awesome and this was just Day 1!

I had been fortunate enough before my first visit to Alaska to see some of Sue Kent’s peonies and some of Rita Jo’s, so I knew there were some great peonies being grown in Alaska. Peonies with strong stems and big blooms are good, but the key for me was the very good packing I saw.

I sell a lot of cut peonies from Holland, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York, and spend as much time as I can visiting fields and talking to growers. I have been intrigued for the last two years about every- thing I was hearing about the peonies being grown in Alaska. I de- cided in July that if I really wanted to learn more about this crop and the people growing it, I better book a ticket to Anchorage . . . and I am very glad I did.

I had a chance to see 8 farms in total and attend a very well struc- tured conference. I was impressed by the attendance and the sub- ject matters covered. There is a lot of hard work ahead for those who decide to get into the Alaska peony business and for those who are already in it and this was made apparent to all who attended the

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Verde conference and that is a good thing. As a buyer, I was very pleased Consulting by what I saw and I will be looking to buy more this coming year and (cont’d) in the future. You are a great group of people and I am happy to help any and all of you in any way I can.

If you all keep doing your part by growing the best peonies you can, I will do mine and keep selling them! I look forward to seeing all of you again soon.

Side note: I was in Vermont giving a talk about flowers the weekend I wrote this, and of course I just had to go by Third Branch Peonies in Roxbury, Vermont. I will be planting the 50 peonies I just had to buy in my own garden.

Photo: Sue Kent was concerned that I came all the way to Alaska and did not arrange any side trips to have any fun. The photo below should confirm that I did have fun.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Good luck for all who are doing fall plantings.

~ F. J. Trzuskowski

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APGA Board Members

Ron Illingworth, President Shelly Rainwater, Vice President Virginia Young, Treasurer Sue Kent, Secretary Jan Hanscom, FBX Rachel Christy, MATSU Harry Davidson, MATSU Richard Repper, SOL Rita Jo Shoultz, HOM Taffina Katkus, Associates’ Rep