Peonies: The Flowers of Summer

Peonies are native to Asia, Europe and Western North America. There are at least 34 known species and thousands of different varieties. The stems are  typically 22- 24 inches tall and the blooms are very large. Often fragrant flowers, peonies come in colors ranging from purple and pink to red, white or yellow, in late spring and early summer. Fun fact…they cannot be grown blue! The flowers have a short blooming season, usually only 7–10 days. This is part of what puts them in such high demand when they are in peak season. We often think of peonies the most during the month of June, for example.

Peonies are a popular perennial garden plant. Many brides and/or grooms remember seeing them in their childhood garden and put them on their wish list when their wedding rolls around. In the continental U.S., they bloom in June and early July, making the prices more affordable during this timeframe, and allowing wholesale, direct to consumer businesses like ours to provide our customers with discount pricing on Peonies by early July. Peonies are sold as cut flowers on a large scale, we now have growers in many different regions around the world and so that is why we also have the ability to source peonies for our customers during just about any time of the year. We source from American Flowers growers including Alaska in the later summer months, for example. We also bring in Peonies from Spain and Morocco, The Netherlands, Poland, Chile and New Zealand and Australia in the fall and winter months.

Types of Peonies:

Six types of flower are generally distinguished in cultivars of herbaceous peonies. (Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground, including many perennials). The most popular cut flower types are as follows:

Single: a single or double row of broad petals encircle fertile stamens

Double: the flower consists of many broad petals only

One of the best known peonies is named a Sarah Bernhardt Peony, named after the French actress. This peony comes in a beautiful double flowering, bubble gum, light pink color.

Peony is an early summer flower. Depending on the weather, the Dutch Peony season often starts in May and ends in July. The flower is earlier already available from southern European countries (often starting in April). Everyone knows the light pink Peony, but the flower is also available in dark red, coral, hot pink, white and yellow.

Bouquets with just peonies look great and combining with different colors can make a romantic. You also often see the combinations with  Bupleurum, Eucalyptus, and Cottage Yarrow,  but there are a lot of  other flowers that mix beautifully with peonies in vases or hand tied bouquets. The pink and lavender colors are better to use when deciding to dry out peonies. Peony flowers can be dried by taking the stems and hang them upside down in a well ventilated warm dry room.

How to Care for Your Peonies:

Care and handling of Peonies is the same as for many other cut flowers. Cut the stems at least one inch from the bottom on an angle with clean garden scissors. Use a clean vase  container and clean water and repeat this process every couple of days . Best to use Peonies in water instead of floral foams and add a little flower food  (preservative) or a tiny teaspoon of bleach  this will help keep development of bacteria down and the stems open do it continues to take up water.

How to Order Peonies in Bulk:

Fabulous Florals is one of the top direct-to-consumer wholesalers in the nation, and for good reason. Even as a small, family-owned business, we source our flowers from the best growers around the world and we ship via FedEx Priority Overnight to ensure that our flowers arrive in the best condition possible. This all helps the flowers get to you many days earlier than if you were to purchase off of the shelf somewhere, where the flowers will go from Wholesale (us) to a shop or supermarket, and then sit until they are purchased. You can find our selection of peonies here (hint: most of them are on sale right now, so get them while you still can)! Buy in bulk, and use your DIY creativity to decorate the whole house or supply enough peonies for your upcoming wedding!