The Peony Farm, located in Sequim, WA, has been open since May 1st and already I am having the satisfaction of meeting people from different parts of the country. Visitors attending events such as the Irrigation Festival, or visitors visiting family members and of course, those taking a short drive to visit the Olympic Peninsula from other parts of Washington – they stopped by to visit the 1st and ONLY peony farm in the Olympic Peninsula. Their comments were very gratifying and conversations which were primarily about peonies – varieties, growing conditions, why it fails to bloom, which ones are fragrant, etc. Looks like I’m going to have friends all over the country. How great is that? Visitors who come to the farm are interested in peonies, interested in gardening and we share these passion. They are lovely to talk with and are full of good wishes for my success.
On May 13, we had a ribbon cutting ceremony officiated by the Sequim Chamber of Commerce. The event was attended by Vicki Maples, executive director of the chamber and members of the board. Our local newspapers were duly represented and took pictures of the farm. What happened next was totally unexpected. Dianne Urbane dela Paz of the Peninsula Daily News interviewed me before the event. We had a nice talk about what led me to open a peony farm. During the ribbon cutting ceremony, she took a lot of pictures and was showing a lot of interest on my farm.
May 19, Michael and I went to SARC as usual. I was greeted with comments like: “Nice job; Congratulations; Wow; Didn’t know the Peony Farm actually got off the ground”. I was surprised until my husband’s friend and racquetball buddy told me that my farm was featured by the paper, full page on the “Our Peninsula” section. Later, while I was waiting for Michael to get out of SARC’s (Sequim Athletic Recreation Center) dressing room, a lady heading toward the Women’s dressing room saw me and exclaimed: “Are you the peony lady? The one in the paper?”. How fun! I decided to take on the name for my blog name – “Peony Lady”.
Of course, I immediately bought 10 copies of the Peninsula Daily Newspaper to send to family members!
By the way, here’s a link to the article,Growers Passion for Peonies. Coincidentally, Sequim Gazette (the other newspaper) published a picture of the ribbon cutting ceremony. Here’s the link to the Peony Farm ribbon cutting and article.