PAGE A12, KEIZERTIMES, JANUARY 21, 2022
Adelman awarded for lifelong commitment to peonies
Feel -Good
STORY
Saluting the people that make
us proud of our community
presented by
BY SAPHARA HARRELL
Of Salem Reporter
When Carol Adelman was a pre-
schooler, her father would take her
across the street to visit Reverend
Hartwig’s garden in Salem, where he
had 300 varieties of peonies.
Those early trips spawned a lifelong
love of the fl ower for Adelman.
Years later, her father would tell her
if she wanted to start a business, she
needed to look for a need or defi ciency.
Adelman said peonies are found on
abandoned homesteads or in neglected
cemeteries still growing.
“I decided there was a defi ciency,”
she said.
After 25 years raising apples with her
husband Jim, the market had crashed.
Then, the pair decided to start a peony
garden in 1996.
Adelman said people showed up to
their Brooks farm the fi rst day they were
open.
“Jim decided maybe this would
work,” she recalled.
These days, hundreds of people fl ock
to the Adelman Peony Gardens in the
spring to look at and buy blooms from
the garden where there are more than
500 varieties. The garden sells divisions
of the peony plant all over the northern
hemisphere, in places like Latvia and
Germany.
Adelman recalled the past spring
when, “People covered the whole 25
acres of peonies to see all the diff erent
kinds and get all the exercise and just
be outdoors.”
She was recently awarded the
Bertrand H. Farr Lifetime Achievement
Award from the American Peony
Society.
It’s given to members who have con-
tributed to the society and peony world
in numerous ways, over many years.
Adelman has been on the American
Peony Society board of directors for
more than 15 years.
“Throughout her life, Carol has
served as one of the peony’s most
respected and knowledgeable promot-
ers. Her willingness to encourage others
and share her knowledge has inspired
thousands of peony enthusiasts,” the
award said.
“Carol and her husband Jim are leg-
endary competitors and supporters of
the (American Peony Society) Annual
Carol Adelman was recently awarded with a lifetime achievement award from the American Peony Society.
Flower Show and Exhibition held at
our annual conventions. They typically
bring hundreds of fresh blooms, and
breadth of their entries has provided a
dazzling showcase of beautifully grown,
premier quality peonies, including rare,
seldom-seen varieties.”
In 2002, Adelman brought her fl ow-
ers to the American Peony Society con-
vention for the fi rst time. She won best
of show and had several fl owers make
the court of honor, the next highest
ranking, in her fi rst showing.
She described it as “totally
unbelievable.”
She’s won best of show nine times
since then.
Adelman said the Willamette grow-
ing area has an advantage over Midwest
competitors.
That’s because her plants can grow
bigger in the winter without freezing
temperatures.
“When the sun comes out and
the snow melts off , the bud doesn’t
have much time to grow larger,” she
explained.
In 2017, a book she co-authored titled
“Peony: The Best Varieties for Your
Garden” made the New York Times sum-
mer reading list.
Adelman has been spending more
time hybridizing peonies as her family
members take over day to day opera-
tions of the farm.
That means she’s coming up with
new varieties by taking the pollen from
one plant and putting it on another.
She said it takes 12 years to get a new
peony on the market, because of how
long it takes to multiply and grow new
plants.
There’s an orange, coral fl ower she
hybridized and now has two plants of,
but she’s waiting until there are 25 to 50
plants before she sells it.
She’s careful not to post photos of
the fl owers she’s creating because she
Submitted photo
LIFE
said people will call every year asking
when it’s going to become available.
Adelman has an almost encyclopedic
knowledge of the diff erent peony variet-
ies and even with more than 500 at her
farm, she still manages to fi ll a legal pad
with ones she wants to someday grow.
She said many families have peonies
that are more than 100 years old. When
there’s a wedding or graduation, they’ll
gift a piece of the plant so they can have
it in their home.
Peonies only fl ower for a short period
of time, with each bloom lasting about
a week to 10 days typically in May and
June.
“If they bloomed all the time, they
wouldn’t be so special to us,” Adelman
said. “That makes springtime real
exciting.”
St. Edwards hosting
blood drive Thursday
St. Edward Catholic Church will host an American Red Cross blood drive on
Thursday, Jan 27, from 1 to 6:30 p.m.
There is currently a big demand for blood of all types by hospitals and clinics.
To schedule an appointment call 1-800-RED-CROSS or sign up online at
RedCrossBlood.org, using sponsor code: stedwardkeizer.
St. Edward Catholic Church is located at 5303 River Road N.