Newsletter 2018/2019
HIGH COUNTRY PEONIES
2018/2019 SEASON
Our overseas trip this year took us to Scotland Yorkshire and Holland.
In Europe the sheer amount of people we found quite overwhelming! Even on the Isle of Skye and theScottish Highlands were crowded out. It was however peak tourist time. We visited a Cheviot Sheep farm in Skye that overlooked the Mcleod Castle, the best place to view this was across the sea inlet.
Interesting that the sea eagles that take sheep and lambs are heavily protected and are actually fed shot deer to keep them by conservationist.
It was virtually hunted to extinction in the 1800s and has been successfully reintroduced to the west coast of Scotland in the 1970s and 1990s and to the east coast in 2007.
Its wingspan can be almost 2.5metres in length, standing at a height of almost a meter.
There are too many now and because of its aggressive nature is driving the Golden Eagle out.
We wanted to visit Annat as this is our local township here in NZ and we were not disappointed it was a lovely village set in a beautiful landscape, bordering the Torridon estate.
There’s a superstition in Applecross/Torridon area of Scotland in which water sipped from the skull of a female suicide is a supposed cure for epilepsy.
The poor woman is thought to have been the daughter in law of the Garve Wizzard who is said to have lured passersby’s to their death in the Black Water river in order that he might steal their possessions.
It adjoined the Torridon estate, which was devastated by the Highland Clearances, particularly when it was under the ownership of Colonel McBarnet, who purchased the estate in 1831 and proceeded to evict tenant farmers, moving many to Annat, and restricting crofters to a single cow.
Annat
A visit to Holland and we met fellow peony growers. We saw amazing flowers and systems in place.
Back home to reality
Four seasons in one day
The 2018 season was to prove to be a testing one, October and picking commenced a week later than the previous year. We had snow rain frost wind and everything Mother Nature could send us eventually giving way to warm sunshine.
Lambing was still underway and to see some of those wee lambies struggling in the cold and wet is not pleasant, despite being in sheltered paddocks. Luckily, we have a nice warm barn we can offer them for a temporary respite whilst getting their tummies full of mum’s milk when the weather was at its worst.
The Cheviot ewes are excellent mothers but can prove difficult if needed to be caught. So having the help of Blue the Border Collie at this time is invaluable he is a great dog for holding a ewe and then catching lambs, he paddles the lambies with his paws after tipping them over with his nose!
The Merino ewes followed on lambing after the Cheviots and are very secretive and quiet mothers, occasionally they seem to have an inability to count lambs…. This of course is mainly due to man’s interference as it is was normal in the wild for sheep to have one lamb.
The resulting years and mankind having selected for genetic traits to increase fertility so that the ewes are more likely to have twins and triplets.
This is fine it just requires a little more shepherding skills and to remind odd sheep ‘you have 2 lambs not 1!’.
However we always seem to end up with a few pet lambs.
Our helpers this year came from Yorkshire, Hong Kong, plus our regular locals and our daughter from Wellington!
The season overall was much longer as many mornings became late starts as we waited for the flowers to become dry to pick. Mr Sunshine was not so accommodating this year at first either. However, we still managed to achieve a good harvest.
Cutting back the flowers was much later this year too as the weather has been offering milder temperatures going into Autumn. Peonies love the winter and autumn frosts.
This coming season will see two new varieties making a debut for High Country peonies Lemon Chiffon and Many Happy Returns.
We are very excited at watching these new peony flowers grow please check under varieties on the web page for a full description.
