2010 APS Peony Seminars

I was able to attend 4 of the 5 seminars at the American Peony Society convention this year. I wanted to attend all of them, but I lost track of time and missed one of them while photographing the beautiful flowers on display. The seminars I attended were “Entering your Cut Flower Peonies in an Exhibition” by Dana Tretheway, “Companion Plants for Peonies” by Mark Dwyer, “The Best Fragrant Peonies” by Harvey Buchite, and “Down Peony Lane” by Roy Klehm. I missed the seminar by Kim Hummer on Peony Genetics. I wish I had attended that one and skipped the companion plant seminar instead. Excluding the companion plant seminar, I felt like I learned something about peonies and the society from each of the seminars.
Dana Tretheway's “Entering your Cut Flower Peonies in an Exhibition”

2010 APS Grand Champion Peony - Flying Pink Saucer

Flying Pink Saucer

Flying Pink Saucer is the Grand Champion of the 2010 American Peony Society National Convention. This flower was hybridized by William Krekler and Roy Khlem. I guess it is fitting since the peony convention is here in Wisconsin, and Roy gave everyone at the convention a personal tour of his farm. I'm sure he's thrilled. Roy gave the talk on my tour bus, and he was quite entertaining. The flower seems to be listed for sale on his web site currently, name misspelled. I am guessing this one may sell out this year. It is listed as a double on his web site, although the bloom displayed at the convention was semi-double, and the APS registry description lists it as semi-double as well. It is a beautiful flower, though. Check it out...

2010 APS Peony Convention Farm Tour

The weather did not cooperate this morning for the tour of Klehm's Song Sparrow farm. It rained quite a bit. However, it did start to clear up this afternoon. I was able to get several shots of varieties that interested me. I saw a few peonies in person that I had been interested in, in the past, and after seeing them in person, intensified my interest. The Award of Landscape Merit meeting is tonight, and the flower show opens to the public tomorrow after judging. I met several people that I have ordered peonies from, talked to over email, or heard of in the APS bulletin. It is nice to put faces with names.

Klehm's Song Sparrow Farm

2010 APS Peony Convention Park Picnic

Today I arrived in Wisconsin. The weather is nice, and so are the people. The recently formed Wisconsin Peony Society hosted the welcome picnic. I made some new friends today at the picnic and hope to make many more tomorrow during the farm tour. I haven't seen a peony yet, but I am so ready! It would be nice to see more intersectional peonies in bloom, but I think their season has probably passed here. Also I don't think Klehm grows very many of them, as I haven't seen too many listed in their catalog for sale. They did hand out an abbreviated version of their catalog in the registration packet, and I did see 3 yellow intersectionals for sale on the back cover. I don't recall seeing any more, but I haven't had time to review the catalog in detail. It will be so nice to see the peonies in person tomorrow!

2010 APS Peony Convention Preparation

I now have a place to stay for the convention, and less than 48 hours before my flight leaves for Milwaukee. My focus now is on what I need to bring to the convention and what I can learn from it. My camera is the most important thing I can think of to bring. I am hoping to learn a little bit about displaying flowers for showing. I don't think I'll be showing peonies any time soon, but I did enter the NC State Fair flower show last year for the first time and won three 3rd place ribbons. I think I will do much better this year as I already have plans to adjust my strategy, but I hope I will learn even more about showing flowers from this year's peony convention as well. Since the NC State Fair is always in the fall I won't ever be entering any peonies into their contest (alas), but I think some flower showing tips in general will help me.