Suz

I love peonies, their beautiful colors as well as their scent. My only complaint is that their season is way too short. Recently my son sent me a link at which we are told how to keep them for months and enjoy them later.

Here is what I learned. When the bulbs is starting to open and are the size of a marshmallow, cut the stem, remove all leaves, then wrap them in newspaper and put them in the frig until you want a bouquet. I have three in one bundle and two in another. I plan to pick a few more when another bush is ready and wrap them one in each bundle just to see how it works out. I plan to open in July. They are to keep for several months. This is how florists keep them for summer weddings.

Anyone with this experience have anything to add? If not, I’ll talk to you again at the reveal.

Tartan

I just enjoy the flowers as they come and go in season. Forsythia, honeysuckle, orange blossoms, cardinal bush, lily of the valley, lilacs, roses and peonys. I bring a bunch into the house and enjoy them especially because they are transitory. Let’s us know how your experiment works.

Jingle

I have big white peonys blooming right now. Flowers are so big they hang down. I wish the season were longer. My bush is very big, I planted them about 40 years ago.

peaceandjoy

That's so interesting! I'm looking forward to hearing how it worked out.

SusieQOH

Suz, I heard the same thing and want to experiment! I ADORE peonies- they are one of my very favorite flowers. And yes, they are brief bloomers.
Mine are just getting ready so thanks for the reminder.

I just thought of something- I don't have any newspaper!!

Iceblossom

My peonies are in full bud but not quite ready to open. The bed they are planted in used to be quite sunny -- until the dogwood grew in. I need to finish building my rock wall and move the peonies out into the sun when they go dormant this winter, just too much shade for the poor things.

There are two types of peonies, I have the type that die down every year. If you get lots of leaves and no flowers, you have them planted wrong -- usually too deep. Two of them have strong scents, two not much, and one is sort of in-between!

Macybaby

mine are also forming buds - I bought this home a year ago in December. two owners before me had planted extensive flower beds, but the current owner had pretty much neglected them for the last three years, so I had no idea what I might end up with when the plants started growing in the spring. Was very happy to find four peony plants sprouting! There is a fifth that looks like it had been dug out but a few roots remained, Last year just a few tiny stems grew, and this year it's looking much better, so hopefully I'll eventually have five.

SusieQOH

I've been looking online and all the sites say to completely encase them in plastic wrap. I haven't seen any articles using newspaper. I'm going to try some tonight.

sewbizgirl

What, no beautiful peony pictures?

Jingle

My peonys are now finished. I will cut off the flower stems and trim down the leaves by September 1st.

My irises have been done for a few days. I already cut off the dead flowers. Will trim the leaves in October.