Pink peonies, with their voluminous petals and romantic hue, are highly sought after for special occasions and garden enthusiasts. Their beauty, often associated with prosperity and honor, makes purchasing them a seasonal event that requires planning. Whether seeking a stunning bouquet for immediate enjoyment or a perennial plant for the garden, understanding the different purchasing options is necessary. This guide details how to acquire both the cut flowers and the live plants.
Cut Flowers Versus Live Plants
The purchase of peonies involves choosing between cut flowers and live plants. Cut flowers are stems harvested from a field, intended for short-term display in a vase, and their lifespan is typically a week or less. Live plants, which include bare roots or potted stock, are meant for planting in the ground to grow into a permanent garden fixture. These require a multi-year commitment but will reward the gardener with blooms for many seasons. The purchasing process, timing, and source for these two products are entirely different.
Sourcing Fresh Cut Pink Peonies
The peak season for locally grown cut peonies in the Northern Hemisphere is a short window, generally spanning from late May through early July. During this time, the flowers are most abundant and most affordable. Local florists are an excellent resource for custom arrangements and high-quality, often locally sourced, stems. They can provide advice on specific varieties and ensure the flowers are conditioned correctly for maximum vase life.
For budget-conscious or bulk purchases, grocery stores and big-box retailers offer pre-packaged bunches, especially during the height of the spring season. Outside of the domestic growing season, pink peonies must be imported, typically from the Southern Hemisphere, which significantly increases their cost. Online flower delivery services can source these imported blooms, but expect a higher price point and a slightly reduced freshness profile compared to in-season, local flowers.
Finding Pink Peony Plants and Roots
Purchasing live peony stock requires an understanding of the plant’s life cycle, as the best selection is often found when the plant is dormant. Specialized mail-order peony farms and online growers are the primary sources for the widest variety of pink cultivars, including rare or heirloom types. These businesses often ship bare roots, which are dormant divisions of the plant.
Bare roots are best planted in the fall, which allows the plant to establish fine feeder roots before the ground freezes. Reputable growers will ship the roots in late summer or early fall, perfectly timed for planting two to four weeks before the first hard frost. Local nurseries and garden centers typically sell potted peony plants in the spring, which is convenient for immediate planting but offers fewer varietal choices than fall bare roots.
Horticultural or botanical society sales are another valuable source, often providing divisions from established local gardens. This can be a great way to acquire varieties well-suited to the local climate. A newly planted peony, whether from a spring pot or a fall root, may take up to three years to produce a full flush of mature blooms.
Quality Checks for Your Peony Purchase
Ensuring the quality of a cut flower starts with checking the bud’s firmness. For the longest vase life, a pink peony bud should be in the “marshmallow stage.” This means it is colored and the sepals have begun to peel back, but the bud is still firm and feels slightly spongy when gently squeezed. Buds that are hard will likely fail to open, while those that are already fully soft or open will not last long in the vase.
For live plants, particularly bare roots, a healthy purchase is characterized by firm, plump roots that are not soft or shriveled. A quality bare root division should have at least three to five visible “eyes,” which are the small reddish-pink buds that will develop into the plant’s stems. The more eyes present, the faster the plant will establish and begin to flower. Avoid roots that show signs of mold or rot.