Tips for Harvesting Peonies for Picture-Perfect Bouquets

With their luscious blooms, peonies are treasured as cut flowers, but their relatively brief bloom season makes harvest timing a bit tricky. A single flower typically blooms on the plant for about 7-10 days, and perhaps 5-7 days in a vase. These expert tips will help you extend the peony season and get the most out of your peony bouquets.

Choosing Your Peonies 

Peonies span about three feet tall and wide and bloom the best in full sun. If your garden has space for more than one peony, selecting peonies spanning from early-, middle-, and late-season bloomers will keep the blossoms coming as long as possible. 

Flower farmer Lindsey McCullough, who with her husband Josh, has been growing peonies (and tulips and dahlias) since 2012 at Red Twig Farms in central Ohio. The farm is known for shipping tens of thousands of peony stems in boxes in spring, and for its “give-a-bouquet-to-a-stranger” program, encouraging community generosity. Here are some of McCullough’s favorite cut-flower performers spanning the full peony season:

Early-season Varieties: ‘Coral Charm’, ‘Coral Sunset’, and fernleaf peonies (Paeonia tenuifolia).

Mid-season Varieties: ‘Duchesse de Nemours', ‘Festiva Maxima’, ‘Monsieur Jules Elie’, and ‘Sorbet’; ‘Angel Cheeks’, ‘Best Man’, ‘Sweet Sixteen’, ‘Mother’s Choice’, and ‘Karl Rosenfield’.

Late-season Varieties: ‘Bartzella’ (Intersectional/Itoh peony), ‘Dr. Alexander Fleming', ‘Fantastic', ‘Bowl of Cream’, ‘Felix Crousse’, ‘Red Charm’, and ‘Sarah Bernhardt’.

Depending on the weather, you may be able to stretch the season to up to six weeks. Warm temperatures speed up the blooming, shortening the season.

“Mother Nature plays a big part, though,” says McCullough. “We have in our past, had our mid- and late- varieties harvest before our early ones were ready. “So, it’s not a full guarantee they will go as planned with early, mid and ending with late. But no matter what, you will have a lot of beautiful blooms.”

Peony Harvesting Tips

Here’s what you need to know to create the most bountiful, beautiful peony bouquets this year.

1. Stake your plants.

Those heavy, bowl-like flowers need support to keep from breaking. Protect your blooms by staking peonies with ready-made or DIY supports in spring just as new growth appears.

2. Let the plant mature before harvesting.

It can take three or four years after planting before a peony hits its stride. Until then, allow the plant to put its energy into establishing roots and foliage rather than flower production. Once mature, established plants will be better able to support bigger blooms and a longer harvest season.

3. Don’t worry about ants.

McCullough says the number one issue her clients ask about is, “What should I do about the ants?” Many first-time growers become alarmed seeing ants swarming their peony buds, but it’s really a harmless symbiotic relationship. 

“We tell our customers that ants are a good thing,” says McCullough. “The peony provides ants food from their nectar and then the ants protect the flowers from insects such as aphids and thrips, to name a few.”

4. Use the right tools.

When the day comes to cut your peonies, you’ll want a sharp pair of bypass hand pruners or “snips,” and a bucket of water at the ready. 

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5. Cut at the right stage. 

Home gardeners, McCullough says, can cut their peonies when the buds have just opened. If you do need to cut them early, for instance to be ready for a special event, try this tip from the professionals. To allow for shipping, flower farmers like McCullough harvest peonies at what’s called the “marshmallow stage.” How to tell? It’s “when a squeezed bud feels like a marshmallow,” she says. 

Whichever method you choose, she suggests snipping the flowers at the base of the stem for best vase display, ideally leaving two sets of leaves on each stalk.

6. Harvest at the right time of day.

McCullough says your blooms will be fresher if cut either in the early morning or at dusk. Avoid the heat of the day, which stresses the blossoms and causes them to wilt faster.

7. Keep cut flowers hydrated at all times.

Once cut, plunge the stems in your water bucket immediately to keep them as hydrated as possible. The warmth of your home will prompt the blossoms to open to their full magnificence.

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