You have until Monday, May 31 to experience a unique Chadds Ford event, Styer’s Festival of the Peony.
The peony gardens, tucked away off Creek Road on twenty-five acres, present peonies in every size and color imaginable. For $20, you can walk the fields on foot and take pictures from 8 to 10:45 a.m.--the best time of day to enjoy the cool morning air. Event Director Bruce Mowday, Jr. says, “It’s an Instagrammer’s Heaven.” Or, you can take a “road trip” with friends for $25/car, stay in your car, and drive through the seemingly never-ending rows of peonies from 11 am to 6 p.m. Leave the pooch and the garden clippers at home, please. Tactile reminders of your visit to the Festival of the Peony are available for purchase—fresh-cut flowers, potted peonies, and peony-themed items at the gate.
The gardens started as a “dream, hope, and a wish” for owner Richard Currie. Then he hired Mowday (not related to the beloved local author) to handle the logistics, including getting permits and applying for rezoning. Mowday points out that the fields are like the tulip gardens in Holland, with rows perfectly aligned following the natural contours of the land. This is the third year of what has become an annual Chadds Ford event.
Styer’s peonies have deep roots (pardon the pun), dating back to the 1800s when Concordville farmer and botanist Dr. J. Franklin Styer began breeding varieties. He was searching for flowers with a long lifespan that would stay beautiful in vase arrangements. He was convinced that fresh-cut peonies brought pleasure. Today, Dr. Styer’s collection includes some 200 varieties. The organically-grown shrubs still generate excitement with their remarkable beauty and pleasant aroma.
Some people wear their finest outdoor apparel to visit the fields, putting the “festival” in the affair. “After the tough year we’ve all had, people want to dress up and celebrate a little,” says Mowday. And the beautiful blossoms make a beautiful backdrop for photographs.
A sign of a well-organized event is easy-to-follow, directional signage. Such is the case here. Even though you’re in the middle of “nowhere” on Creek Road, signs will clearly guide you when to turn on Cossart Road and then to the peony fields, so don’t worry. Signs that thank you for visiting are posted as you leave.
Mowday shares that the big success of the Festival is the peonies themselves and the workers who take care of them. He attributes that to the warm atmosphere. “Everyone is happy here,” declares Mowday, “and we pass that happiness on to our customers. We’re selling happiness as well as a unique experience,” he sums up.
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About Lora B. Englehart
Lora has a passion for art, gardening, yoga, music and dancing. She continues to research the life of locally born abolitionist and 1998 National Women's Hall of Fame inductee Mary Ann Shadd Cary. She is a dedicated community volunteer, working with the American Association of University Women, Wilmington, DE branch (programs chair), Chadds Ford Historical Society (former board member) and Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art. Lora lives in Birmingham Township with her husband Bill and son Brad. Daughter Erika lives in Pittsburgh with husband Bob and baby Wilhelmina. She is a former French, Spanish and ESL teacher, bilingual life insurance underwriter and public relations coordinator for Delaware Art Museum and Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art.
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