Michelle Morton is an Alaskan peony cultivator by way of Los Angeles , Australia and Scotland .
She was born in Scotland , grew up in Australia and landed in Los Angeles as a unseasoned adult where she study music , rhythm section specifically , at the Musicians Institute in Hollywood . It was , she found , “ a very strange place . ”
“ Somebody tell ‘ You should try Alaska , ’ and I said ‘ Alaska ? ’ And I ended up coming up with just a backpack and I love it . It ’s so extremely different from anything that I ’d known . ”
She put down roots in the state and finally bought five acre in Homer , which would eventually become the home of her business , Stone Circle Peonies , a indorse American Grown flower farm . The property was filled with utter trees , the victims of a beetle infestation . After she realize the trees , she was left with terra firma she did n’t know what to do with .
It called out , however , to her womb-to-tomb dear of gardening . She pop out with a lowly vegetable garden . That eventually led to enrolling in the USDA ’s high tunnel computer programme , where the authorities reimburses agriculturist for building the enclosed structures that allow produce to be turn in a protected environment .
It ’s a four - year program , “ where they ’re basically teaching you how to farm , ” she allege .
It was also a prison term when peonies were exploding in Alaska .
“ There were workshops on growing peony , ” she enunciate . “ I thought , ‘ Wow , what ’s a paeony ? I ’ve never even heard of a peony . ’ ”
Morton found herself a bud farmer in a suddenly fertile flower - growing environment .
“ I ’d grown vegetables for the farmers market . I just thought I ’m going to develop peonies , they ’re beautiful and there ’s a requirement for them , it ’s a unexampled industriousness and there ’s a lot of plug about them . ”
Peonies had taken off in Alaska after a government pilot light projection in the early 2000s found that the flowers thrived in the state of matter ’s farsighted summertime days and were quick for harvest in July and August , a clip when the rest of the worldly concern ’s yearly supply of paeony had been pluck , sold and used up . It also coincided with the crest of the wedding time of year , which the big , showy blooms seem seamster - made for . And the flowers were relatively light weight and perfect for export via air . Alaska went from zero peony Fannie Farmer in 2004 to more than 200 by 2014 .
Morton was part of that boom . She plant a quarter - acre in 2012 , and nurtured her plot for the four twelvemonth it takes to germinate a commercially viable craw .
The encyclopaedism curve , however , was outrageous . “ Everest steep , ” she said . She ’s grateful for the kindness of Homer ’s other peony growers .
“ I have a lot of citizenry who have need me under their wings and have been teaching me , ” she said . “ And I ’m not afraid to ask people for help . A luck of the honest-to-god - timers in Alaska have been serve me with empathise the ground and what things need to be glad . People have been very kind in helping me understand the needs of the peony . ”
Three eld ago , she harvested a thousand blooms . Last year it was 6,000 ; this year , she figures the number is 10,000 , and she sold all of them .
She manages to keep the farm locomote with just the avail of her two baby , Fiona , 14 and Seamus , 12 .
Fiona designed Stone Circle Peonies ’ website and does much of the merchandising via Instagram and other social media platform . Both she and Seamus help out in the fields .
“ We station photos that show the flush in the Alaska place ” Morton said . “ Our motif is ‘ love Alaska , love paeony . ’ We want to show people what a beautiful place Alaska is and how beautiful peonies are . ”
Morton sells the blossom to florists , flower designers and instantly to consumer in the low-spirited 48 state of matter , and has her eye on the external market .
“ Growing flowers , what a great job , ” she order . “ We ’re not put down the earth , we ’re working with Mother Nature and we ’re attempt to do it as naturally as we can . I do my own compost , I talk to my flowers . It ’s a glad surroundings . I work from home and my kids can be a part of it . ”
For more information : American Grown Flowers916.441.1701[email protected]www.americangrownflowers.org
