About Us

About Peony's Envy

Peony's Envy is a Nursery and Display Garden in Bernardsville, New Jersey, within easy access of New York City and Philadelphia. Founded in 2006, the farm has grown into one of the most extensive peony collections in the United States — a living library of woodland, tree, herbaceous, and intersectional cultivars, with trails that invite visitors to wander and discover at their own pace. In 2021, the purchase of a neighboring property doubled the farm's footprint, bringing the total acreage of peony gardens on-site to thirteen acres, with an additional nine acres of leased production land off-site.

The Display Garden features four major types of peonies — woodland, tree, herbaceous, and intersectional. Thousands of peonies, including over 500 unique cultivars, bloom across a six-week season, each putting on a show for 7–20 days before giving way to the next. The sequence begins with the delicate woodland and stately tree peonies, giving way to the herbaceous and intersectional bloom. The most breathtaking display of color occurs during the herbaceous peony bloom, which, by a happy coincidence, often reach their peak around Memorial Day. Like all great beauty, the bloom is fleeting: cool weather allows it to linger, while heat and heavy rain speed its passing.

Peony's Envy is primarily an online business, shipping peony roots nationwide from September through June, and cut peony flowers from May through June. In support of horticulture, Peony’s Envy exhibits at flower shows and horticultural events nationwide throughout the year, and opens its Nursery and Display Garden to the public for the spring peony bloom and fall bare-root peony sales.

See our Catalog for the most recent peony selection and our Events page for the current listing of shows and events.

About Kathleen Gagan

Kathleen Gagan's path to farming was anything but conventional. A linguist and international corporate communications consultant fluent in Mandarin Chinese and Spanish, she built a distinguished career overseas before returning home to New Jersey with the goal of transforming her land into a thriving commercial farm.

She spent two years cultivating nursery stock — from bedding stock to trees — searching for the most viable commercial crop. Peonies, remarkable for their beauty, resilience, and resistance to deer, emerged as the clear choice. For Kathleen, it was also deeply personal: peonies had captured her imagination since childhood, when she first encountered them growing in her grandmother's garden. That vision became Peony's Envy in 2006.

Kathleen gives lectures and conducts workshops on peonies both at the Display Garden and across the country. She has presented at the Scott Arboretum's Hardy Plant Conference, Longwood Gardens, the Hortus Club of New York, and the Martha Stewart Living Show. Kathleen is currently on the Garden Club of America's National Speaker List.