Peony Fest is back

The Shacksboro Schoolhouse Museum at 46 Canton St. in Baldwinsville recently announced that the Peony Fest is back!
After a four-year hiatus, mostly due to COVID issues, the fest is once again celebrating the historic peonies’ annual bursts of color that announce to the world summer has begun. This year’s Fest will be held , from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 3.
The Heritage Peonies were cultivated from the Indian Spring Farms, Inc. which had its origins on the 1920s.
Although it has been over 85 years since Baldwinsville’s acclaimed peony farm closed its doors, the cultivation and propagation of the farm’s root stock continues to thrive.
The museum is surrounded by a peony display garden in which almost 200 varieties of herbaceous peonies flaunt their glorious blooms and summery fragrance each May and June.
Highlighting the day will be the flower show, where everyone in the community is encouraged to bring a prized peony bloom from their garden to show and compete.
The flower show winner will be voted on by everyone who attends the fest throughout the day.
All blooms that people want to enter need to be brought to the museum by 9:30 a.m. that day so that the display table and voting can be set up. Balloting will continue until 3 p.m., so be sure to come out and vote for your favorite bloom on display.
There will be music and many local artists and artisans on hand.
Featured artisans’ work will include antique jewelry, photography, glass jewelry, rug hooking, quilting and other beautiful artistic endeavors.
Demonstrations and products created by the artisans will be for sale throughout the day on the park grounds around the museum.
The day’s events will also feature historian Bonnie Kisselstein manning her “What’s it?” table featuring local history topics.
The Baldwinsville Women’s Garden Club will be selling various perennials at the event.
In addition, the Baldwinsville Library will be on hand with garden-reference information and the Museum Board is sponsoring a bake sale, raffle opportunities and selling assorted vintage and collectable gardening and flower books.
The Museum Gift Shop will also be open and will be full of wonderful peony-themed items to purchase.
The community is invited to come back on Sunday, June 4, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. to purchase cut peonies from the gardens at $1 per stem.
Volunteers will be on hand to cut whichever blooms you choose from the gardens to create a customized bouquet of your liking to take home and enjoy.