Peony Flower Season: 5 Simple Tips On How To Get Peonies To Bloom Open
Sponsored Content: This post has been sponsored by Flowwow London. As usual, all thoughts and opinions are my own.
Peony season only lasts a short 60 days in spring, but they really are worth growing or buying as cut flowers in a flower bouquet to style in your home. Peonies look wonderful placed in a mid-size vase and work well arranged on their own or with other seasonal blooms on the kitchen table or island, or positioned in the corner of living areas. The perennial peony plant when in bloom is a joyful mass of pink, white or coral petals which make full and luxurious bouquets when cut, also making them a favourite for bridal bouquets or to order online for delivery as a gift. From the popular soft pink Chinese peony to the luxurious rich tone of the Hybrid peony, head to head to Flowwow London for a wide-range of peony bouquet options.
Peonies make a beautiful addition to the home in spring. These were from Flowwow.com
One of the most common questions surrounding peonies is how to get those tight ball heads to open so that you can enjoy the big peony bloom for as long as possible. You may have had to cut back your peony plant and need to force the tight buds out, or you may have purchased a bouquet that you want to look at its best on a particular day and you want it to be bursting with colour. I took to Instagram to ask my fellow floral lovers what worked for them, and these were the top 5 tips that they shared with me:
Cut the peony stems at an angle and place them in lukewarm water
Wipe the peony bud to remove any sticky sap
Use flower food in the water to give it strength to force open the peony
Place the buds in a sunny spot until they open
Give them a gentle burst of heat from a hairdryer
Cut the peony stems at an angle and place them in lukewarm water to make them open
Refresh the peony stems by chopping them at least 1 cm from the ends at a 45° angle so that water has greater access to be absorbed up the stem to the closed or tight bud. Use sharp secateurs or specialist flower-cutting scissors for a clean, sharp cut. Once all your peony stems have been trimmed, place them in a vase of clean, lukewarm water (but make sure it isn’t boiling which will harm the flowers!). The gentle warmth will stimulate the cut peony stem and encourage it to open up.
Wipe the peony bud to remove any sticky sap
If you can see a thin layer of sticky sap on the protective petals, this will be holding the peony bud together and halting it from opening up fully. With a damp clean cloth, very delicately wipe away any sap from the bud to aid the opening of the peony. You can also try gently peeling up the top of the protective petals to loosen the bud and give the petals underneath room for manoeuvre.
These peony buds are on their way to opening fully.
Use flower food in the water to give Peonies strength to force open the bud
Those little packets of flower food contain a mix of citric acid, sugar and bleach. The aim of flower food is to keep your blooms looking fresher for longer by killing off any bacteria in the water as well as nourishing them with the sugar. Contaminated water makes cut flowers wilt and die quickly and your buds may never open, so the bleach combats this and the citric acid maintains the balance of the pH level of the water, enabling flowers to reach their potential and blossom while in the vase.
Place the buds in a sunny spot until they open
When your peony buds are open you should remove them from direct sunlight as this will make them fade, lose their petal colour and die quickly. However, in order to get the buds to open initially, place them by a window so they absorb the natural sunshine and the petals loosen and the peonies start to bloom.
Place peonies in a mid-size vase with a supportive neck that can support the heavy weight of the peony heads once fully opened.
Give them a gentle burst of heat from a hairdryer
For emergency forcing of peonies, run a short blast of low heat from a hairdryer over the buds! Warmth is key to getting those tight buds to open, so this simple trick is a peony hack you need to know about!
Have you tried any of these peony-opening tips? Do you have any other tips you could add for peony maintenance? If so, leave a comment in the box below!
