Cold, wet weather delays commercial peony harvest in Southcentral Alaska (via AKpublicnews)
Martha Lojewski stands between rows of peony bulbs at her farm, Mt. McKinley Peonies, near Willow on July 7, 2023.
In a typical year, the field is filled with Elsa sass peony flowers, not rounded bulbs that have yet to bloom. Lojewski is not alone. For Southcentral Alaska, cold and wet weather has put a damper on the start to summer, which is the region’s coldest since 2008. Lojewski said that Alaska Peony Cooperative farms only began harvesting the first week of July, three weeks behind schedule. She said that means tens of thousands of dollars in lost revenue already this summer.ADVERTISEMENT
“Alaska has so many microclimates that are conducive to peonies, and basically that’s how the industry has started and that’s how we have progressed,” Williams said. Peony farmers in Interior Alaska are faring better though. And some Southcentral growers have reached out to Interior farmers to help fill their orders. Dave Russell and his wife started Boreal Peonies in Two Rivers in 2012, and have become the largest producer in the state, producing approximately 100,000 stems each year.
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