Peonies by the crate
Final Peony Restock of 2024
Great news from Holland! Our trusted supplier Kolster BV has unearthed a few more crates of some of the most sought-after peonies: Sarah Bernhardt, Coral Sunset, Bowl of Cream, and Duchesse de Nemours. These timeless favorites are being dug up as we speak, ready to be cleaned, packed, and shipped to the U.S. to arrive in the first week of November.
The peonies will arrive in Pennsylvania, and from there, they'll be shipped to your doorstep. If everything goes according to plan, you should receive them by the end of Week 45—just in time for autumn planting.
Why Now is the Best Time to Plant Peonies
If you can work the soil in your garden, you can plant peonies! The ideal time to plant is now, during autumn. By prepping your beds ahead of time, you’ll find it quick and easy to plant these beauties when they arrive.
Even if you’re in the northern parts of the U.S., there’s no need to worry—you can safely plant peonies up until Thanksgiving. Take advantage of these last few pleasant days of fall to get your garden beds ready for planting.
Limited Stock Available
This will be your last opportunity to order peonies for the 2024 planting season. These varieties are highly sought-after, and we expect them to sell out quickly.
Year One to Year Three
Young Peony Primer
Lush, bombastic and classically beautiful, Peonies are top performing perennials that can yield decades of harvests for the cut flower farmer.
However, peonies take approximately three years after planting to establish and reach the size where normal flower harvests won’t affect the health of the plant. Like all things flower farming-related, there is more than one path to success.
Two methods for removing blooms and buds from Year 1-3 peonies follow, plus a third method that may be a bit controversial. Intrigued? Read on for more from Farmer Bailey horticulturalist Bobby Bowen.
Method One: Deadheading
Let the peony plants flower for the first three years, but don’t harvest the stems. By letting them flower you can make sure they are true to variety and that you didn’t get a mislabeled variety by mistake. This method is also a way to make sure the plants look healthy, and that everything is going as it should.
You likely won’t see flowers the first year after planting, and just a few flowers in Year 2. The key here is to deadhead the peonies as they fade–do not allow them to set seed. A large amount of energy goes into seed production, and that energy would be better used for setting eyes and buds for next year’s growth.
Method Two: Pinching
Pinch the buds off the peony plants right when you see them starting to form. Some growers suggest doing this for at least 2 years after planting so that absolutely no energy is wasted in flower production and the plants can use that energy in leaf and root production, pushing the plant to mature a little faster.
The key here is to pinch the buds when they are still small–we are talking grape size if the goal is to save the plant from expending energy on a flower. If the buds have reached full size and are going to open there is no sense in removing at that point; the energy has already been expended. If you go this route, it might be worthwhile to let one bud open just to make sure it’s true to variety.
Method Three: Controversial
This option might receive some criticism but there is no reason why it shouldn't work. You can harvest the flowers right from Year 1 or Year 2 (whenever you see the first blooms) but the key is to not harvest any foliage.
This means you can’t cut a two foot stem, so if you grow for florists or wholesale, this option is out. If you are a farmer-florist or have a floral design side of your business, you can cut peonies with a short (3 inch) stem to use in centerpieces, low arrangements or mason jars. The foliage is the most important part of a peony plant as the leaves feed the roots through photosynthesis, so the more leaves, the more growth. This even holds true for mature peony plants - they will do their best year to year if you only cut the stem length that is required and leave as much foliage behind as possible.
Peony Pro Tips
No matter which method to choose for your young peony plants, it’s important to remember that the plant is developing the new eyes for next year’s growth in July and August, so that is a great time to feed the plant with a fertilizer lower in nitrogen (ie 10-20-20) and don’t forget about the water during dry spells! It’s easy to forget about peonies after their spring flowering season is over but if we want to set ourselves up for the greatest success the following season, we have to give our plants a little attention during the summer–especially during periods of drought.
Another fertilizer application in the early spring as the plants are waking up will help to give that new growth a boost. After the first hard freeze, cut the foliage off and discard it, don’t leave it on the beds and don’t compost it because that’s how we perpetuate any fungal or disease issues that might be in the peony patch. For more detailed information on planting, maintenance, and harvesting tips, see our Peony Growing Guide.
Get Cultured
Peony Growing Guide
Although peonies will survive in hardiness zones 3-8, they prefer and perform better in colder zones. They may struggle in zone 8 from the lack of an extended cold winter.
When planting the bare roots, position them with the eyes facing upwards, and cover with no more than 1-2" of soil. Planting too deeply will encourage foliage to grow with few flowers.
For the first 3 years after planting, it is suggested that you do not harvest the flowers. Taking the flowers themselves is not the real issue, more so that you would also be taking some foliage along with them, and every leaf is important to the plant at this stage as they are photosynthesizing and helping the roots store nutrients for next years growth.
Post flowering, remove spent blooms so that the plant doesn't expend valuable energy on unnecessary seed production. At the end of the season, around the time of the first frost, cut the plants back to the ground and dispose of the dead material to prevent any fungal or bacterial issues the following spring.