Oregon Travel: Visiting the Adelman Peony Gardens

If you love peonies, you should not miss visiting the Adelman Peony Gardens located in Salem, Oregon, just an hour south of Portland. The peonies are in bloom generally from May – June. During this bloom time the Adelman Peony Gardens has an open house daily 9 AM – 6 PM to allow you to visit their display gardens, their peony production fields, and they have an indoor display showroom. Their open house is also free!

I think this is the last week of their open house (check their website for their open house dates- the may extend it based on the conditions of the flowers), but here are some photos from when I took my mom to visit on the Thursday before Memorial Day weekend. At the time, some were open but it wasn’t full peak yet (which probably occurred another week later, aka last week).

Still as you can see, a visit still had a lot of pay off visually as we walked a bit further into the production fields. During our visit we saw some workers in an area harvesting stems.

By the way, all the photos of today’s post have not been processed – they just how my mom captured them on her iPhone 6 and me on my Samsung Galaxy s7, totally unfiltered. This is just the luck that after a gloomy overcast morning, our patience paid off and the sun came out, so as soon as I saw it clearing up we jumped into my rental car and drove here.
 

It’s stunning the variety of variations in color and petal arrangements that you can find. Going on a weekday meant that we mostly had the fields to ourselves – we arrived just after lunch.

And then visit the display garden closer to the gravel and grass parking area. The display garden is great if you have guests with you who don’t want to walk farther out into the fields also had perfect examples in blossom, arranged artfully with other flora and fauna. You can also find some seating here to rest after wandering the fields.

Do not forget to visit the covered display room which features a sample bloom of one of each of the many many varieties they grow here as well as a small gift shop. In the display room they are not still showing all the peonies they offer, as all would be a bit overwhelming as they grow more than 500 different varieties of peonies! Adelman Peony Gardens also cultivates their own peonies and participates every year in the American Peony Society Judged Flower Show and has brought back “Best In Show” many times.
 

Next year, or any future year, if you are around during May – June, I definitely recommend a visit for a few hours. You can combine your Adelman Peony Gardens visit with that to the Shreiner’s Iris Garden only a few minutes drive away- which I will share more details of next week. On the way back, I took the longer route through McMinnville, Dundee, and Newburg aka wine country, so you can make this a spectacular day trip to show off what is available just outside Portland.
 

Adelman Peony Gardens sells some peonies as cut stems and potted plants, during their open house. Then they take orders for peony varieties up to the fall, when they ship bare root peonies which you can order through a catalog to plant for their dormant period during the winter so they will be open in late spring/summer.
 

Have you ever been to the Adelman Peony Gardens? If you were to pick a flower field or farm to visit,
what kind of flower would you love to be surrounded by?

Do you like peonies, what colors or kind do you like?