Adeline’s Peonies

Adeline McCarthy started growing peonies in 1933, and her family has not stopped since. During the Depression she traded blooms with Yakama tribal members for salmon and huckleberries. Four generations later the fields belong to her great grandson Jay McCarthy, who owns and manages them. The original field is in Toppenish, and the newer field on Lucy Lane in Zillah, about five miles away, is the main farm and the pickup point. The farm also keeps a shop on Asotin Avenue in Toppenish.

Only cut flower varieties are grown here, about twenty named peonies including Sarah Bernhardt, Festiva Maxima, Coral Charm and Buckeye Belle. The farm sells fresh cut stems for weddings, events and bulk orders in season, and it sells roots of up to a pound each for spring or fall planting, picked up at the farm or shipped anywhere in the country. Fall root distribution runs from the middle of September to the middle of November.

Timing is everything with peonies. The farm is open to visitors during working hours in May, from 8 in the morning to 2 in the afternoon, and in June from 8 to noon, when you can walk the rows and watch the picking. Outside the bloom the field is simply a farm, so check the season before you drive out. Jay McCarthy gives personal tours on request by email, and the late spring bloom is worth building a Yakima Valley weekend around.