Peonies, with their lush, fragrant blooms, are popular for both floral arrangements and long-term garden planting. Their popularity is driven by their exquisite beauty and their relatively short natural blooming window, typically from late spring to early summer in the Northern Hemisphere. Understanding where and how to purchase these flowers and plants depends on whether you are seeking a temporary display of cut stems or a permanent addition to your landscape.
Sources for Peony Cut Flowers
The availability of cut peonies depends heavily on the season and the global flower trade. During the domestic peak season of late May and June, you can find locally grown, high-quality stems at various outlets. Local florists represent the highest quality option, often sourcing the freshest, most robust varieties directly from regional growers. While this option comes with a higher price point, the flowers are typically harvested at the ideal “marshmallow” bud stage for maximum vase life.
Grocery stores and big-box retailers offer convenience and a more affordable price, but the vase life can be shorter due to long-distance shipping and less specialized handling. These stems are often sourced globally, extending availability beyond the peak season, but they may lack the intense fragrance of a locally grown bloom. Farmers markets and roadside stands provide an excellent source for hyper-local flowers during the short season. These vendors usually sell garden-fresh blooms that offer superior fragrance and are often harvested just hours before sale, though variety selection may be limited.
Online flower delivery services can provide peonies year-round by importing them from countries with opposite growing seasons, such as Chile and New Zealand. While imported blooms ensure availability for events outside the typical season, the cost is substantial, reflecting the labor and logistics of air freight and specialized cold storage. For the freshest, most fragrant experience, purchasing close to the local peak season remains the best option.
Sources for Peony Plants and Roots
Purchasing peonies for planting requires a distinction between two main forms: bare roots and potted plants. Local nurseries and garden centers primarily sell potted plants in the spring, which are actively growing and ready for immediate transplanting. This is a convenient method, but these centers often only stock the most common, reliable varieties, and the price is generally higher than for bare roots.
The best selection of rare and new varieties is found through specialty peony growers, often operating as mail-order businesses. These growers specialize in dormant bare-root divisions, which are the preferred planting material. Bare roots are typically shipped in the fall, which is the optimal planting time for the plant to establish a strong root system before winter dormancy.
Horticultural catalogs and online plant retailers also offer bare roots, allowing gardeners to pre-order desired varieties well in advance of the fall shipping window. Planting bare roots in the fall encourages root growth when soil temperatures cool, setting the plant up for successful spring development. Potted plants, while easier to transplant, can be slower to establish than their fall-planted bare-root counterparts.
Key Considerations Before Purchasing
Understanding the peony’s lifecycle is important for a successful purchase, regardless of whether you are buying a cut flower or a plant. The domestic peak season for cut flowers is brief, typically running from late April through June, depending on the region. Outside of this window, cut stems must be imported from places like Alaska, the Netherlands, or the Southern Hemisphere, which significantly affects their cost and availability.
For plants, timing is also paramount: bare-root peonies should be planted in the fall, ideally four to six weeks before the first hard frost, to ensure proper root development during dormancy. Planting them too deeply can prevent flowering, a common mistake where the eyes are covered by more than two inches of soil.
The three main types of peonies—Herbaceous, Tree, and Intersectional (Itoh)—also dictate their purchase and care. Herbaceous peonies are the most common cut flower variety, dying back to the ground each winter. Tree peonies have woody stems that remain year-round and are often more expensive and rare. Itoh hybrids are a cross between the two, offering the large blooms and color range of tree peonies with the reliable die-back habit of herbaceous varieties. Itohs are also known for their sturdy stems that rarely require staking.