SEQUIM — The colorful blooms of Peony Farm will grace the pages of a national magazine next year after a photographer from Garden Design documented the blossoms and their owners, Amy and Michael Hall.
Being featured in the magazine is “absolutely” an honor, Amy said after the photo shoot at the farm at 2204 Happy Valley Road last month.
“For them to select my farm — I am thrilled.”
Thad Orr, editor of the quarterly Garden Design magazine in Calimesa, Calif., said the story with Ngoc Minh Ngo’s photographs will be published sometime next year in the magazine that publishes in February, April, June and September.
“We found out about [the farm] from one of our writers,” Orr said.
The magazine, which exists only on subscriptions with no advertising, “features great designers, great horticulture all over the country,” Orr said.
The recognition is one more satisfaction for Amy, whose flourishing peony farm represents a lifelong dream fulfilled.
A colorful English-style garden surrounds the farmhouse at the 2-acre spread, which also features a small fruit orchard, berry patches, grapes and a vegetable garden.
But most of the farm — about 1.5 acres — is dedicated to peonies, a plant native to Asia, Southern Europe and Western North America.
Amy now has more than 2,000 blooming plants at the farm after five years of work.
“Every year, it just keeps growing and growing,” she said. “We keep adding products as well.”
Amy now has about 250 peony species, including hybrids, growing on her land.
“When I started, I only had 10 varieties,” she said.
Amy worked as a loan officer when she and her husband moved to the Sequim area from San Diego, Calif., about 13 years ago.
She was laid off from Countrywide Financial when it was purchased by Bank of America during the Great Recession.
That’s when she decided to do what she really wanted to do.
Amy had adored peonies ever since moving to the United States from the Philippines in 1967 — she remembers seeing them in romantic movies — but they would not grow in San Diego because they need colder winters to develop their rootstock.
The weather in Sequim, however, is perfect for peony cultivation.
So in 2009, she planted about 170 herbaceous peony roots in her Happy Valley yard, and set out to create a thriving business.
She established a website for the farm, www.ILovePeonies.com, and filled it with information about how to buy and nurture the plants.
Then she compiled a catalog for farm visitors to pore over.
Since 2010, her business — much like her beloved peonies — has blossomed.
Amy has had success selling dormant peony roots to local customers and folks from across the state.
The roots are planted in home gardens in the fall and will bloom in the late spring or early summer after the stems break ground in February or March.
“Basically from February to August, I start getting orders for peonies, and then they are delivered in the fall between October and November because that is when the peonies are dormant, and that is when we can dig them up and we can ship them,” she said.
The most popular variety of peony among her customers seems to be the coral charm, which has white-to-light-pink petals.
These are followed in popularity by the red and pink varieties.
Amy does not sell the flowers when they are in bloom.
“I do not sell the flowers because the visitors like to see the flowers, and I don’t want to rob them of that pleasure,” she said.
“We plant them in November,” she said. “Come February, they are starting to come up. They are breaking ground.
“From then on, they just keep growing taller and taller. Between the months of May and June, they start to flower.”
The different varieties bloom at different times, meaning there will beautiful flowers on display at her farm through the early summer.
“They have two months of blooming period, and in that two months there are seven blooming cycles,” Amy said.
“So, during that two-month period, every seven to 10 days there is a new peony that is opening.”
The public can view the peony blossoms at the farm through June 30.
A few miles southeast of the Third Avenue overpass on U.S. Highway 101, the farm is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays to Sundays.
For more information, phone 360-808-4099 or visit www.ilovepeonies.com.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.
Features Editor Diane Urbani De La Paz and Managing Editor Leah Leach contributed to this story.
