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People in this industry tend to associate Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport with freighters and kerosene, rather than with flowers.
But the airport authority is planning to change this perception, getting ready to plant peonies for export.
As these flowers are popular for weddings, there is solid international demand, noted airport director Jim Szczesniak.
Peonies grown in Alaska bloom later than those from further south, so Alaskan growers have a window in which they face virtually no competition, he pointed out.
So the airport ...
Comment on this article
Kim Dunshie Herning
November 21, 2019 at 1:40 amGrowing peonies commercially for export by the Anchorage airport is either a really smart idea or a really dumb idea. As a peony farmer in Fairbanks with a six year old farm I got in on the “rush” to plant peonies – along with close to 200 other farmers State wide. Existing farmers adding peonies to their mix , people with some farming experience and a bunch of folks that had never farmed before all joined this party. And I can tell you every single one of them will tell you (a few seasoned farmers are the exception) peony farming is harder than what they anticipated. Growing a good quality cut peony requires a lot more than digging some holes and giving them water. I have seen many farmers that I started with sell their farms or stop farming peonies because they have not been able to sell their flowers for a price that would give them a profit. Some of the challenges we peony farmers share are weather, sales , competition and transportation. If the Anchorage airport can set up exports I have a hundred friends that would like to help them fill their planes with all of our stems.