Already at the point of harvesting cut peony stems of Elsa Sass. It’s going fast this year, with quite some difficulties (read: botrytis) due to the wet weather. Filled two boxes again for Ultra Low Oxygen treatment and long storage. The image shows what will hopefully deliver some good flowers in September. 3 kg of calcium chloride active ingredient (they actually weigh 4,5 kg with the added starch and packaging) to keep relative humidity under control. Only the varieties that should be able to hold well (Coral Charm, Old Faithful, Rozella, Bowl of Cream, OFF-4) and a few stems of Sarah Bernhardt for comparison. Sixth year of trialling this, hopefully after all that time it will finally work out. There are only short stems and curved ones in the box, I’ve learned the hard way to put only cheaper ones in the box as the loss is less staggering when I have to throw everything away in case they fail again.