Peonies only bloom for a few weeks each spring. They are such a fan favorite (and frankly a money maker) that growers have mastered a trick for extending their season through something called dry storage. Essentially harvested peony buds are put into “stasis” by denying them the elements (water, light, and warmth) they would need to develop further. By doing this, growers for the Philadelphia Floral Guild can offer our florists peonies several weeks after they have finished blooming in the field.
So how does peony dry storage work?
To dry store peonies for later use, harvest them when the buds are still closed, but have color and feel like a marshmallow when pressed in the center. Buds that feel hard like marbles are too immature still and should not be harvested yet. Wide open blooms cannot be dry stored. The only stage that can be dry stored is the marshmallow stage.
Remove most of the foliage from the stem, wrap the buds in paper (newsprint or kraft) like a burrito, covering both ends and wrapping around the entire bunch. Store the wrapped peonies laying flat in a floral cooler at a temperature as close to 33°F as possible. The idea is to keep the peonies as cold as possible without freezing and damaging them. Some growers have even retrofitted chest freezers to store peonies at 32.5F, which is the optimal temp for very long term storage. If kept very cold like this, peonies can be stored for months and still be beautiful in the vase!
Rehydration
When ready to use, remove the peonies from the refrigerator, re-cut the stems, and place them in a bucket with cool water to rehydrate for at least 3 hours before beginning to use them in designs. Peonies that have been stored properly will last just as long in the vase (4-5 days) as they would if they were fresh picked.
Pro Tip
As a florist, you can ask your wholesaler to send your peonies dry so you can hold them in your cooler for longer. Say you have a special event coming up in 2 weeks and you see the perfect peony available on this week’s inventory. Reach out to us here at the Philadelphia Floral Guild to ask if you can order them this week and have them kept dry so you can store them for longer in your own cooler. Just be sure to keep them as cool as possible at all times (including transit) so you don’t break the cold change that is keeping them in stasis.
As the bloom season in our region continues to shift to earlier in the spring (mid-April through mid-May), dry storing peonies will become necessary for florists to still design June events with locally-grown peonies. If you are putting proposals together for spring weddings, it’s a good idea to shift your mindset about peonies and start thinking of them as an earlier spring bloom. Add them to late April and early May events. And be cautious including them in proposals past Memorial Day as selection will be more limited locally and you’ll have to rely on shipped in stems.