 Hi, good morning. I'm Peter Bates here. I'm the director of properties here at Maine Audubon and I'm coming to you during peony week Those of you who are Maine Audubon members Likely realize we typically have a peony day Celebration kind of an ice cream social for our members where we gather around the peonies have ice cream have a band Well, this is not a typical year. So I thought this year give you a little bit of a Virtual tour of the garden and give you a little bit of background that you may not be aware of as to how the gardens got here and a few things about how we care for the peonies First I should say that those of you who are Maine Audubon members and are aware of our mission One of our big focuses nowadays is to work on native plants which form the basis of the food web that supports You know insects right up to birds and small mammals Peonies don't fall into that category. Peonies are not a native plant But they have a special place here at Gilslin farm because they're they're a legacy plant The peonies here are at least 69 years old and I tell you that because this farm was once owned by David Moulton And David Moulton back in the first half of the 19th of the 20th century Grew hundreds of varieties of peonies and sold them all over the country and he died in 1951 even 69 years later if you go into some of the fields out here, you can see some of his old production beds Now these peonies here This was not one of his production beds This area was created by volunteers at Maine Audubon some Volunteers very dedicated volunteers who really worked hard to do this I can tell you it's hard work because I've dug some of these from the field and when you dig us You know a 70 year old plant. It's got a big root ball on it But they moved all these up here made seven rows of peonies And made this more of the formal garden so although you'll find some off in the field They won't flower like this because these get great sun and we also put down a light dusting of compost each year But peonies are very popular garden plant because they're perfectly hardy for Maine You know, they're reliable flower They can take some abuse It's not many plants that you could put out in a meadow here and leave them for 70 years and still have evidence of them So they're they're really a legacy from David Moulton He died in 1951 as I mentioned his daughter and her husband Maurice Freeman and Ruth Ruth was his daughter Donated the property to Maine Audubon in the mid 70s and we preserved these gardens as a Legacy to them. I mean they're beautiful that was his passion his life's work and we are of course very grateful to him and his family for providing us with this headquarters and sanctuary location and of course they're beautiful if you grow these at home typically you would put like a round metal hoop kind of like half of a tomato hoop to keep the heavy blooms from falling over if you can see here We have wires because we have long rows so the wires help hold them up It's not a perfect system, but it works pretty well If you're going to grow these at home, you probably want some way of keeping them up You can also do it with a string and a rope around it But when they get a little bit of rain on them, they're going to tend to fall down with the weight One of the other things I thought I'd mentioned about them because I think it's a common and enduring sort of myth about peonies is that they need ants to open the flower buds and You know, sometimes you'll find a flower bud like this It's getting ready and and they'll be ants crawling on it But really what it is it's an example of mutualism the ants come up because On the sepul of the plants There's little ducts that produce nectar and the and the ants feed on that So you see ants scurrying all over the buds But they're not required for it the good part and the thing that makes them a mutualistic relationship is That their presence keeps away other insects that might feed on the flower head so it's a kind of a win-win type situation and But they're not strictly necessary for the peonies to flower as I mentioned earlier peonies are kind of a Carefree plant in a lot of ways. They're very tough and durable But we still like to perform some maintenance so they can look their best To a large part if you've planted them in good soil that drains they don't like wet feet So it has to be a draining soil and a reasonably good soil. We try and keep the weeds and other competition out That just strengthens the plant We also in the It varies depending on our schedule, but when we can put a light dusting of compost on it's just a natural method of Letting the organic material work itself down as it would in nature from the Decay of leaves and other things like that the one of the things that I should note about when the Volunteers move these and I think that was back in a talk to a gardener and I believe that was in the mid-1980s One of the things that they had to look out for and then you do have to be careful about with peonies And there's not a lot to be careful about but if you give them good sun and reasonable Water and soil they'll do fine, but the one thing you have to be careful of is not to plant them too deep Typically if you buy it from a nursery It's going to be in a pot and you can plant it at that level and feel comfortable that you're going to be okay But when you transplant them And the soil is falling off here and there it is very important that you get the level right Otherwise you can get a whole lot of leaves and very few flowers and kind of that sweet spot is to have the eyes the little red Shoots that you find at the base there have them one to two inches below grade Most of these are whites and pinks. There are some reds. I noticed a few years ago that we were short on reds So I dug I tagged some that I saw in the wild field down there so that I could dig them in the fall I would know which ones to dig and brought up so now we have a few more reds here, but this is the primary Assortment if you do visit I would ask that you know We're trying to run it like a supermarket aisle that you kind of go in the aisle one way and out the other end And that way we don't have to worry about people crossing and such like that Kind of to wrap up a little bit Peonies are a lovely plant but we like to maintain them as a memorial and A legacy of David Edward Moulton and his family So I'm often reminded of him and that's why I give you that brief background of him and Show you some of his work, which we still enjoy today