As the saying goes, April showers bring May flowers. December showers, it turns out, can bring financial ruin for commercial flower farmers in Alaska. A rain event last winter caused widespread loss to peony stock among Alaska growers.
"We had snow early on, and then things warmed up, and then it started raining, and everything melted," said Mike Flores, with Alyeska Farms on West Poppy Lane off K-Beach Road. "I have photos of our fields. They're completely underwater, flooded and, you know, the ground was frozen. There's nowhere for the water to go, so it just sits there, and the peonies drowned."
Alyeska Farms, established in 2018, had 10 acres planted with about 60,000 peonies in 2024. By spring of 2025, Flores estimates he'd lost nearly 20,000 plants — about a third of his stock. Of the plants that did sprout again, many were stunted and didn't produce buds. From his research, Flores thinks those roots are dying, as well.
"Learning more and talking to the University of Fairbanks (Cooperative Extension Service), those miniatures, they're basically dead. They're on their way out. And they're not going to ever produce a stem again," he said.
Read more at KDLL
