Adelman Farms Peony Gardens

This weekend I packed up my daughter and a few of my friends and we spent the morning at Adelman Farms Peony Gardens in Salem, Oregon. It was so beautiful! We went right at opening, which is 9am, and luckily it was cloudy so we got nice diffused light.

When to go to Adelman Farms

If you’d like to get your own family photos done here, we can definitely go during open hours (9am-6pm) if it’s cloudy, but on a sunny day, the sun will be too harsh out in a field with nothing to block the sun. They do allow after hours appointments for $100 an hour. Sunset there would be amazing!

We went the last week of May and less than half the flowers had bloomed yet, so if you’re still wanting to go this year, there’s definitely still time! I heard that last year it bloomed much sooner and was already on it’s way out at this time, so make sure to pay attention each year and see when the peonies are in bloom.

Wear Appropriate Shoes to the Gardens

We went just after it had rained, and it was pretty muddy and slippery in spots. Keep in mind that you do have to walk for about 5-10 minutes to get out to the fields, so don’t show up in high heels because you’ll sink into the mud with every step. Boots are your friend.

Buy a Peony or Six!

We were so excited to get out to the peony fields that we totally forgot to buy flowers first. We did get some at the end and I got some gorgeous shots of my daughter holding them with the wheat field in the background. The wheat field is just right there next to the shop and it makes a great background.

And now for the rest of the photos…

When we first got there, the kids had a great time exploring the garden area in the front and they especially liked the waterfall!

She was very excited to have found a 4-leaf-clover!

My friend Claudia is also a photographer and we took turns photographing each other. This is only one of her little boys, she has 2 more. But the older two were at my house having a boys day with my son and husband. They preferred that to a flower garden, anyway 😉

Here are the photos I took of them…

To book your own family session, send me a message or you can check out the packages I have by going to my pricing page. Let’s create your own fun family photography experience!