CAZENOVIA — This spring, “Bag End” in Cazenovia will open its extensive flower gardens to the public for four afternoons of viewing, education and inspiration.
Jay King and his wife, Anne, will welcome community members and area visitors to their private residence on Fairchild Hill overlooking Cazenovia Lake on June 1-4 from 1 to 4 p.m.
Bag End’s traditional open garden events have been timed this year to align with the 2023 American Peony Society (APS) Convention, which is to be held in Syracuse from May 31 to June 4.
At Bag End, the Kings maintain many herbaceous peonies, emphasizing varieties that have won the APS Gold Medal or Award of Landscape Merit; 15 “Itoh” intersectional peonies, which are hybrids that combine the best qualities of tree peonies and herbaceous peonies; and a recently-formed Saunders peony garden devoted entirely to varieties created by Arthur Percy Saunders (1869-1953), the “Father of the Modern Peony,” at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York.
King became aware of Saunders’ work at Hamilton College only after learning that the APS would be holding its 2023 annual convention in Syracuse. At that point, he started looking into the organization’s ties to Central New York and learned about the desire of many peony aficionados to visit the Saunders collection on display in Hamilton College’s Grant Garden.
Realizing that he did not know of any local gardens, including his own, that grew Saunders varieties, King decided to put in a whole garden of them at Bag End.
As of this spring, the Kings have planted just over 70 Saunders plants including several duplicates.
“One of the really interesting messages that has gotten through to me, and that I think would be of interest to people in Cazenovia, is that there are so many of these Saunders peonies that are early or very early [bloomers],” said King. “They have had the effect at our place of basically adding a couple of weeks to our peony bloom viewing season, which is pretty significant.”
On April 27, King said he was in the process of planning a small Ukraine garden in support of the Ukrainian cause. The garden will feature six to eight peony plants that originated in Ukraine.
The peony roots are expected to arrive from Europe in the fall. In the meantime, King plans to plant a Ukrainian flag in the garden space using yellow marigolds and blue petunias.
“That will go in this month, and hopefully we will have a blooming Ukrainian flag all summer,” said King. “Then those annuals will pass, and we’ll put in the peony roots.”
According to King, this will be the sixth year of open garden afternoons at Bag End.
For several years, the property has hosted a spring “Rosalia,” a celebration honoring the “first flush” of the property’s hardy, old-fashioned roses.
“We do not currently plan [to hold] an open garden Rosalia celebration this year but will certainly celebrate the glorious ‘first flush’ of the roses,” said King.
The Kings hope that by opening their gardens, visitors cannot only enjoy the beauty of the flowers in bloom but also learn from the experimentation at Bag End and identify varieties that they would like to grow in their own gardens.
“We have learned a great deal over the years about what thrives on our windswept hilltop,” said King. “We are [eager] to share, to show local gardeners what works. If a plant thrives at Bag End, we think it will also do well elsewhere in Cazenovia. We have about a dozen ‘stars’ that we especially love. Herbaceous peonies are probably the most spectacular, during their short blooming season, but there are other wonderful, old-fashioned perennials as well.”
Bag End is located at 1702 US-20, Cazenovia. For more information, visit cazenoviabagend.com.
