Season: Peonies are a late spring/summer flowers.  May, June and July plus or minus a month on each side depending on the weather that year.  You can import them other times of the year but you will pay dearly for them and honestly, there are NO guarantees that they will actually arrive open and usable.  Unless you are getting married in the late spring or summer, don’t set your heart on peonies even if they have been promised to you.

Cost: High.  You can expect to pay at least $12 per stem for peonies – double or triple that if you are out of season.

Varieties: While there are different varieties of peonies such a single bloom or full double bloom, you can generally request peonies and know what you are going to get – no more specification needed.

Colors: You will find peonies in colors all along the pink spectrum from white, light pink and hot pink all the way to burgundy and red.  You can also find yellow and coral peonies.

Hardiness: It depends on the growing season.  If you are out of season, the blooms will be smaller and much more delicate because they were forced to grow.  Because of that, they can bruise and crush more easily than if you are dealing with in season peonies.  The blooms themselves can be delicate but they have lots of petals so even if you lose a few along the way, they will still look beautiful.  Just keep them in water as much as possible as they have a short cut life and their large size requires a ton of water.

Pairings: Peonies can absolutely stand on their own but also look fantastic as part of a mixed bouquet.  I especially like them with hydrangea and roses as well as with fillers like berries, cox comb or bachelor button mums.

Good Things to Know: If peonies are out of season or your price range, you can get a similar look using cabbage roses or ranunculus. Cabbage roses especially look very similar to peonies with ruffled petals and round shape.  The casual bystander will not be able to tell the difference between cabbage roses and peonies.

Next up on Flowers 101: Sweet Peas.

Picture credits
top row: all from the theknot.com
bottom row: weddingbee.com, thenest.com, Anne Ruthman Photography, Bridge Water Gardens

This entry was posted on Friday, January 30th, 2009 at 10:00 am and is filed under Flowers 101. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.