Peony Time: Make it Last Longer

It is ALMOST Peony time at Sweetwater!

I walked through the garden yesterday and was amazed to see how 

the blossoms are getting fuller and fuller!

almost....almost.....but probably at least a week away from full bloom!

I can hardly wait until the whole side yard is filled with peonies....

I can hardly wait until I can fill vases and vases with these showy blooms...

Alas...the blooming season for Peonies is short and often affected by late spring rainstorms!

If you are like me you probably want your peonies to bloom longer....and....while that is NOT possible....

There is a way!

There is a way that works!

There is a way I have been doing this for more than 5 years!

I have posted about this before....but I think it is so BRILLIANT....it is worth being redundant!

We learned this trick back when the Sweetwater Daughter chose her wedding date around the Peony Season....

We wanted to have all of the varieties in the Wedding Bouquet and Table Arrangements.

We learned that you can keep Peony buds refrigerated for as long as 3 weeks!  Then when you rehydrate them....you have peonies that "almost" rival fresh cut! 

Here is the Expert Article about how to do this!

But let me show you what I did last year!

I cut peony blooms that were in the soft marshmallow stage....and that had no moisture on them.

I cut the stems pretty long...10-12 inches.

They got loosely wrapped in newspaper....

If you have cellophane or a plastic bag that is nice to put around them as well...

I stacked them up pretty high...but I didn't pack them tightly.

 

I left them in the refrigerator for 3 weeks....I think 2 weeks would have been better...

To be honest...I forgot they were in there...until Mr. S started complaining about "no room for beer!!!"

 I took them out of the refrigerator....
Made new cuts on each stem and put them in fresh warm water.




Then I waited.....
and waited....
and worried that I had left them for tooo long...

but 12 hours later....





They started to perk up and fill out....


Whew!!!!

Here are the flowers after a day....

SUCCESS!








Blooms that are stored this way don't last quite as long in the arrangements....but hey....I wasn't complaining when I had Peonies in the house in the last week of JUNE!

Here's to the Power of Peonies....!

Have A Wonderful Day!

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