How to make peonies open faster

Peonies are a beautiful flower, and in our opinion one of the rare flowers that look almost as beautiful in the bud as they do in bloom. If you have a special event, however, that you bought the peonies for, you will want them to be in full bloom. Thankfully, you can speed up the blooming process within a few hours. Follow our florist's guide to making peonies open faster.

I need to get my peonies open fast, what should I do??

  • Remove all Foliage that will not be needed. Although peonies look beautiful with their leaves on, the greenery is taking up excess energy that the plant could use to bloom.
  • Cut the stem on a sharp angle and repeat this every 4 hours. The trimming process should be done with a sharp knife or scissors that you only use for flowers. Disinfect the tool before using with a small amount of bleach or washing up liquid then proceed to trim about an inch from the bottom of the stems.
  • Place stems is a vase of tepid water containing flower food. The slightly warm water will also help to speed up this blooming process but make sure the water isn’t too warm because hot water won’t help speed up the blooming process but instead will do the opposite. 
  • Keep the flowers in a warm bright room to encourage them to open.  This place should be a warm but not hot room where the flowers can bloom but will not dry out or get dehydrated from the heat. The warmth in the room will help to speed up the blooming process. Make sure the peonies are kept away from direct sunlight and heating vents since these are known to dehydrate flowers 

I'm panicking, I need my peonies open tomorrow, what can I do??

  • Cover the peonies with a large plastic bag to seal in the ethylene gas to encourage them to open faster.
  • Place the blooms as close as you can to ripe bananas, to add more ethylene gas.

Send Peonies - they really are the pick of the season

It’s the most wonderful time of the year (ok, a close second to Christmas). Full-bodied blossoms meet glossy leaves and a fresh fragrance that’ll keep your guests talking long after they’ve left. Ordered yours yet?

View our Peony collection here