- \n
- While you could use newspaper, the ink can rub off. I suggest a tablet of newsprint purchased from a craft store.<\/li>\n
- Plastic bags. I found the bags from the Sunday newspaper were great. They are long and narrow.<\/li>\n
- An empty crisper drawer in your refrigerator\u2026this might be the hardest thing of all! If you have a second refrigerator that could help matters.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The preparation\/storage process<\/strong><\/p>\n
- \n
- In late May, cut the peonies when they are like large, soft marshmallows\u2026. Not knowing just how well they would save I cut them at various stages of open\u2026.hoping to have a few that worked well. Single pettaled varieties should be cut when the buds are tighter than the multi pettaled double flowers.
\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/lakeminnetonkagardenclub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Peony01-300x225.jpg\")
<\/li>\n - Because ants may already be crawling on the buds, I suggest you rinse buds off and pat dry with paper towels.<\/li>\n
- Remove almost all of the leaves as they tend to produce too much moisture when bagged resulting in the buds rotting.<\/li>\n
- Wrap buds in newsprint. The newsprint keeps the buds from touching the plastic\u2026.this is to avoid moisture build up and mold development. I labeled the outside of each package with the number of stems .and color of the blooms
\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/lakeminnetonkagardenclub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Peony02-300x225.jpg\")
<\/li>\n - Cut a small hole in the bottom of a plastic bag that is large enough for you to insert your hand<\/li>\n
- Lacing you hand through the hole, place wrapped buds inside the a plastic bag. (You could use two-gallon zip-lock bags, but I find the newspaper plastics a bit longer so I can keep the stems longer.) Close the bag tightly to keep plants from drying out.
\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/lakeminnetonkagardenclub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Peony03-300x225.jpg\")
<\/li>\n - The packaged peony buds are stored dry, and placed flat on the shelves of the refrigerator. You will be surprised how many will fit into one drawer.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
To use the flowers<\/strong><\/p>\n
You need to plan ahead\u2026.Once removed from the refrigerator it will take from 8 to 24 hours for buds to open. When the buds are first removed from the refrig, the blossoms may look wilted and the cut ends may look dry. DO NOT PANIC. Re-cut the stems to expose clean fresh tissue and place upright in a bucket or vase containing room-temperature water.<\/p>\n
Other things you may want to know<\/strong><\/p>\n
- \n
- For best results storing flowers for no more than 3-4 weeks is best. Once the stored flowers are arranged, they should last 5-10 days. I saved mine for 8 weeks. While they looked good for our daughter\u2019s wedding, they lasted only 2 days. We used the bouquets for both the rehearsal dinner and the wedding reception.<\/li>\n
- If you have cut your buds when they are too tight, they will not open\u2026if you cut them when they are too open the petals will fall quickly. This is a trial and error process. Your success will improve with experience. I suggest you keep a journal (and maybe even take pictures). This will help you track what worked and what did not work.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Peonies\u2026.what great cut flowers. Their blooms are so large they make a big impact with only a few blossoms. What if you could make the\u00a0 season last longer? Would you do it? Well, here is an idea that prolongs peonies \u00a0for later\u2026.much later\u2026. bouquets\u2026.. Commercial cut flower operations pick their peony buds and can successfully store […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12839,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[140],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-garden-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakeminnetonkagardenclub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakeminnetonkagardenclub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakeminnetonkagardenclub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakeminnetonkagardenclub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakeminnetonkagardenclub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12842"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakeminnetonkagardenclub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12843,"href":"https:\/\/lakeminnetonkagardenclub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12842\/revisions\/12843"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakeminnetonkagardenclub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakeminnetonkagardenclub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakeminnetonkagardenclub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakeminnetonkagardenclub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- In late May, cut the peonies when they are like large, soft marshmallows\u2026. Not knowing just how well they would save I cut them at various stages of open\u2026.hoping to have a few that worked well. Single pettaled varieties should be cut when the buds are tighter than the multi pettaled double flowers.