June is the month of peonies, flowers I absolutely love! The remarkable beauty of these exquisite flowers, found in abundance at the captivating Little Budds Peony Farm, has truly captured my admiration. It was on my wedding day when I first experienced their undeniable charm, as my friend, a professional floral wedding stylist, presented me with a stunning peony basket. I think peonies are one of the most romantic flowers in the world and can create such a positive atmosphere in your house. They originate in ancient China and symbolise pure love, innocence and happiness in marriage and relationships. I love them more than roses, which can you buy all year round: peonies seem be even more special and elegant due to their short season and blooming period.
I’ve never been to a peony field (only to Sunflower field) and I wondered if there was one near where we live, and I found out there was! In the beautiful Kent countryside you can find the Little Budds Peony Farm with over 6,000 peonies with a variety of colours, scents and origins. It took us approximately 1 hour from our West Sussex home to Thurnham via the M25 and M20. It’s the best option to reach the peony farm by car as there is a really long road behind the fields so walking would take a long time. There’s a big car park and the organisers direct you to a space.
The farm has vast peony fields with a variety of peonies. As we visited in the first week in June, only a few types were in bloom, including red ones, but most of the field wasn’t yet blossoming. Planning the best time to visit could be guesswork unless you carefully follow their FB page or Instagram, but waiting too long means that the event could be fully booked. Talking of booking, the peony event is completely free but you should book your parking time slot ahead, as there are limited spaces.
There are no options to handpick your own peonies, which I had guessed would be the case. In fact, they only sell potted peonies or bunches of flowers. This is probably for the best as you can be sure there will still be plenty of peonies in the fields rather than holes after cutting.
I really enjoyed our visit, which I made only with Jacob and Lucas while the babies were being babysat by our good friend. We took our son for this little trip as I think sometimes it’s good for a kid to be without siblings and he could enjoy special quality time with his parents and receive all the attention!
As Lucas loves gardening and flowers, he was running carefree in the fields, and we had a lot of fun together. He is an absolutely free-spirited little soul and as you already know, I love to capture these spontaneous moments on my camera. I could spend hours in these types of places, just watching how happy Lucas is. We looked at almost every peony and said ‘Hi’ to them (haha) and picked old flower leaves and threw them above our heads!
The sun was shining and the field was quite protected by trees so you didn’t feel the strong wind. We spent most of the time around red peonies as those were the most dense. We also had a look at pink ones and even some wild daisies (which I love!).
The field wasn’t crowded but there was a group of people with an interest in peonies, photographing the flowers. After spending time in the field, we headed to the floral stall where we bought a peony bouquet (£12.50) wrapped in paper.
In front of the flower stall there are containers with different potted peonies, all for £30. While we paid for the peonies, Lucas spotted a trolley and started to pretend he was a farmer and had so much. As we couldn’t see any café or other facilities, we waved and said goodbye to the peony field. On our way home we passed a field full of sheep with little lambs. It was truly one of our best spring days out as a family! We will definitely be returning next year!
Questions about outfits? Don´t worry, here are some clues!
Mum´s skirt: Joe Browns
Mum´s bag: Brakeburn
Boy´s T-shirt: F&F (organic cotton)
