This lovely pale lemon flower was grown from a seed. The seeds came from Chris Lanning and I believe are typical of the peonies he was breeding. Each seed produces a plant with large single flowers. The flowers range from snowy white through to lemon, apricot and pink.
Late summer and we are harvesting peony seeds.
Some people ask us how to harvest their own peony seeds. It’s very satisfying to watch the seed pods grow through the summer, swelling to an amazing size as the seeds increase in size.
Not all peonies will produce seed, some will grow large empty pods which show great promise and then shrink as the summer progresses.
The pods with seeds inside remain smooth, plump and green, eventually changing colour to yellow, orange or red.
Late in the summer the pod will start to split open exposing the seeds. This is when we harvest the pod, bringing it inside to fully open in a warm room. It’s easy to remove the seeds while the pod is still leathery and pliant.
Bella loves to join us when we walk in the bush. As she explores I am sure she covers three times the distance that we do but she is always close by and comes quickly when called. This photo was taken in a very wet area of tall Eucalptus regnans with an understory of sassafras - Atherosperma moschatum.
The ancient fallen log Bella is standing on is covered with moss and the sassafras roots are wrapped around it. Some roots are quite exposed and spread out like a woven lacy shawl from the log to the ground. This area is only a fifteen minute walk from the peonies but seems like another world with it’s filtered light and moist air.
In August we had some visitors from Canada. Pam is a Canadian but for many years she lived at Highcroft right next door to Pine Rise. When she remarried she moved back to Canada with her husband Gary and son Jim. It was very exciting to have them come and stay and it was great fun talking over old times. Jim had heard of the Tasmanian forests and wanted to see some big trees. It was only a fifteen minute walk from our house to some Eucalyptus regnans which are 400 years old. Years ago these gum trees would have been an incredible height but as they have aged the tops have fallen and all that remains is the enormous trunk and the first few sets of branches. It’s a wonderful place for an eagle to make her nest and I think one day they will. We often see eagles flying around in this area.
It’s amazing how different every peony harvest is, it all depends on the weather. This year was dry, there was no rain during October and very little through November. The early varieties were slow to start and we found that irrigation was needed to finish the development of the flower buds.
Usually the picking season is wet and we find ourselves wearing wet weather gear but not this year. I think this is why a lot of stems were short, the fields were a mass of colour by early December. We don’t pick the short flower stems.
The alpacas in the next field were very interested in the picking.
The beginning of Spring is usually very windy but this year has been lovely. Mild warm days followed by soft misty rain. The rain and mist hang about the trees wreathing through the branches and looking rather like smoke. But the cool moist air is very different to the searing dry of a fire day.
The Eucalyptus globulus have just shed their bark, the colourful golden trunks gleam with rainwater in the damp atmosphere.
This is a photo taken recently of our pea hen with her young daughter.
Yesterday I heard an unusual peafowl squawk and thought the peacock had returned to visit the girls but tragically I was wrong. Our mother pea hen started calling as she does when her daughter gets frightened and hides. I went out and there was no sign of her.
Today her mother is still pacing about calling in vain. Tragically I think her daughter has gone the way of a number of our bantams - dinner for one of our Wedgetail eagles. She was so pretty with her little tiara and colourful neck feathers.
Remember back in April we started to build a vegetable garden? Since then we have filled the beds with some lovely rich soil and planted seedlings and seeds. We then had to quickly build a fence around the garden because of the wallabies and possums who thought we had planted everything for them. Before too long we will put a net over the top as well.
The cabbages, broccoli, silver beet and broad beans are doing well. The seeds of carrot, silver beet, kohl rabi and beetroot have germinated and are growing slowly.
The old peony tops which were brown and dry have been mown off and raked away. Our bantam hens, roosters and a peahen with her daughter have been busy through the winter roaming over the peony fields. They are eating weed seeds and any insects they can find. I’m sure they find the odd worm as well because we have plenty of them in the rich soil our peonies grow in.
The main peony area is resting during the winter but in our species garden the first peony has appeared. This is sometimes called Feng Dan Bai and is a tree peony which we have grown from seed. The peony seed came from China. It will grow into a tree about four to seven feet high and have enormous white single peony flowers.
Winter is passing, the weather has been quite stimulating with a few cold frosty days to remind us it really is the cold time of the year.
I love the days when the sun shines and there is not a breath of wind. It was just such a day when a friend came to visit from Canberra. Juliette hadn’t been in Hobart for a while so we drove down to the Hobart docks for a coffee and a wander.
The water glittered in the sunshine and it was good to be alive.
The weather has turned cold, snow on the mountain, mist and rain. Being typical snowy weather we also get delightful bursts of sunlight. During one of these warm lulls I heard to my amazement the sound of newly hatched chickens. Our bantams are not penned up, they range through the garden, the peony fields, out into the paddocks among the cows and at night roost in the trees. This hen must have been sitting during May which was mild and warm with little rain and here she was with seven little chickens.
Several days later I heard them coming past the window, what a funny sight. They had decided that the rooster was going to find them a feed and even though he was walking very fast they were streaming along in his wake almost under his body with their mother clucking along in the rear. The little rooster was walking faster and faster but they didn’t give up until he started to run at which point the hen gathered them back.
This is the beginning of our new vegetable garden. The trees blew down two years ago during a big gale so we just dragged them out of the bush and cut them to size. The garden has raised beds which will make for easy weeding.
It’s the wrong time of year to be planting vegetables but we will see how we go. Because of the drought the gloom and doom journalists are predicting expensive vegetables in the Spring so maybe this is the start of us growing our own.
P004 Boule de Neige - A lovely white double peony, similar to Festiva Maxima but instead of streaking some petals have a very fine frill of magenta. Heavy dark foliage with strong stems. Calot 1867 .....$28.00
P045 Jadwiga - One of our latest peonies, some years flowering right up until Christmas. This is an unusual peony because each plant has some dusky pink flowers plus an equal number of hot pink blooms with a pale frill. The leaves are round, crinkled and almost an olive colour when compared to the deep green of the lactifloras....$24.00
This is a record of the day to day life on a farm in Tasmania where we have been growing peonies commercially for 15 years. The seasons and the weather lead us gently through the year. It has a soft natural rhythm to it and I would like to share this with any peony enthusiasts who might stumble onto these pages.
