Peony Garden Opened Upwards Together With Loaded Amongst Flowers!
Chotkowski Gardens OpenAnnual Mother’s Day Party May eleven from 1 to 5
16142 Pin Oak Rd, Fayetteville AR
Information (479) 587-8920 as well as hchotkowski@cox.net
Henry Chotkowski, the Peony Man, is belongings his annual Mother’s Day party, Dominicus from 1 to 5. He as well as his married adult woman Karen opened upwardly their patch of blooming peonies to the populace for the day, providing refreshments to the hundreds of visitors who come upwardly to bask peak peony season. Their garden is inward the rolling hills 10-miles westward of Fayetteville AR.
Before shopping for peonies, it is a practiced consider to know a piffling flake virtually what you lot desire for your garden.
There are 2 types of Peonies or Paeonia: The herbaceous type that dies to the solid set down every twelvemonth as well as the woody type that has shrub-like branches as well as stems.
Three-feet tall is typical for peonies but at that spot are some that are nether 2-feet as well as others that grow iv or five feet tall.
Peony bloom colors attain from white to deep cherry amongst many pinks as well as corals inward between.
Peony bloom forms include saucer or bowl shaped singles amongst whorls of five to ten petals; semi-doubles amongst 2 or iii layers of those whorls; doubles accept amongst narrower overlapping petals as well as Japanese or anemone shape amongst unmarried or semi-double flowers inward which the stamens are replaced yesteryear petal-like petaloids or staminodes.
Hardy from zones 3 to 8, they are fairly slow to grow if the correct weather are provided.
“Tree peonies similar some shade inward the afternoon, as well as most of the nighttime colors fade inward total sun,” said Chotkowski. “You tin accept 6 weeks of peony flowers yesteryear planting early, mid-season as well as late-blooming varieties.”
Chotkowski Gardens has 1200 cultivars to bask on a visit. His involvement inward peonies began inward 1988 when he assisted a grower inward Manassas VA where he as well as his married adult woman were living at the time. When they moved dorsum to Arkansas inward 1996, they brought 600 plants amongst them as well as that was the beginning.
When putting inward novel plants, Chotkowski recommends earthworks a hole eighteen yesteryear eighteen yesteryear eighteen as well as filling it amongst a combination of soil as well as compost. If the solid set down some the planting hole is especially heavy, some sand tin move added to the mix to amend drainage.
“I’ve heard that adding forest ashes is practiced for them but I accept never used it,” said Chotkowski. “Also, a piffling fertilizer tin move added but solely the smallest amount at the dripline afterwards the constitute is inward the solid set down 2 or iii years. The best fourth dimension is simply afterwards they emerge inward the spring."
“We never H2O the garden,” Chotkowski said. “The amount of pelting during the previous summertime is what makes this year’s bloom buds. The plants suffered during the two-year drought as well as nosotros lost a few”.
Peonies demand a minimum of 6 hours of Sun for best flowering inward our area. Farther north, 8-hours of Sun is the recommended minimum.
Some of the flowers nosotros saw final calendar week included Phoenix White, Baiyu which is a double white, Shimanishiki Tree Peony amongst pinkish as well as cherry flowers, and, Golden Wings amongst large peach flowers.
One of Chotkowski’s mid-season beauties is Red Charm as well as the belatedly flavor varieties he suggested are Myra McRae as well as Pink Radiance.
Many basic growing questions are answered on the American Peony Society website (www.americanpeonysociety.org) as well as at that spot is a helpful site called Peony Bloom Date (peonybloomdate.com) where the cultivars are listed yesteryear bloom date.
Chotkowski Gardens is an patch of peonies as well as irises that visitors are costless to wander. It is worth the trip.
“Normally people tin come upwardly hold back as well as pick out the plants they desire as well as thus come upwardly dorsum to alternative them upwardly when they are dug inward the fall,” Chotkowski said. “This twelvemonth nosotros are selling solely the ones that are already inward pots.”