Page 33 - The Hunt - Summer 2023

The Styer’s Festival of the Peony is expected to draw hundreds of paying visitors, who are free to drive or walk through the property. It’s open daily during blooming period—rain or shine. “Even if there’s a storm, we stay open,” Mowday says. “If we close the gates, the cars back up on Route 100, waiting to get in.”
Peonies earmarked to be shipped later are cut before the hard bud opens, then put in cold storage prior to shipment. When florists receive the flowers, they’re told to cut the end of the stem at a 45-degree angle and
put the flowers in water. About two
hours later, they completely open up.
“Our field at Geneva in the Finger Lakes has about 60,000 plants,” Mowday says. “They usually begin blooming around Memorial Day and continue through mid-June.”
A new field in southern Maryland will eventually expand the Styer’s season back to early May when it comes online.
Despite the fact that they typically bloom less than two weeks, peonies are quite popular with gardeners. Their foliage is lush and green—and because of their height, they’re good for borders and the back of layered plantings. Then there are the blossoms, with their randomly layered petals in an array of colors. Any early-summer garden party would be lost without a vase of peonies on the table.
Peonies also grow well in the Brandywine Valley’s temperate climate. Once owned by the Pyle family, Hill Girt Farm was purchased by H.G. Haskell over a century ago and added onto as adjacent properties became available. Most of the farm’s modern life was as a dairy, but that was closed in 1972. “We plan to expand the festival for 2023 and add several new things,” Mowday says. “We’re going to have tailgate nights, where people can reserve a space for two hours.”
Also look for food trucks on weekends. “We hope to have one or two theme dinners,” says Mowday, “perhaps one where everyone dresses in the color coral, which happens to be the most popular color for peonies.”
For Mowday, the peony fields of Hill Girt Farm will always be more than just a place to work for a few weeks a year. “Last spring, my husband of 13 years and I got married on the farm,” he says. “It was a nice ceremony, but not elaborate.”
One with lots of peonies, no doubt.
Visit styerspeonies.com.
TheHuntMagazine.com 31