How To Get Peonies To Open

Peonies are a beautiful flower and one of the rare flowers that in our opinion 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 then naturally you will want them to be in full bloom. Thankfully you can easily speed up the blooming process within a few hours. To find out how to do this follow our florists guide to making peonies open faster.

Step 1

First, you should remove as much foliage as possible, although peonies look beautiful with their leaves on, the greenery is taking up excess energy that the plant could use to bloom. This means that by removing the greenery on the flower all the flowers energy will be directed to opening the bloom and therefore the process can be sped up. You can remove the greenery by using a sharp knife that has been disinfected with a small amount of bleach or washing up liquid and slide it carefully down the stem or peel the leaves back with your fingers ensuring you take the leaves off cleanly.

Step 2

Before putting the flowers back into the vase, you should re-cut each stem so that the ends of the stems can absorb water more easily without obstruction from any sap that may have developed over the ends. 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. Always cut at a diagonal angle when trimming the stems so that they have a larger surface area to absorb water with.

Step 3

Next, you should fill your vase up to about six inches deep with lukewarm water. Usually, we would advise against adding deep water to your flowers since it can cause the stems to rot if the flowers are left in the water for days on end, however since this is a short term solution it can be done. 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.

Step 4

Now you can place the flowers in the vase of warm water and choose a place to develop the flowers for the next few hours. 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, especially when combined with the previous steps but make sure the peonies are kept away from direct sunlight and heating vents since these are known to dehydrate flowers which would slow down their blooming.

Step 5

After a few hours, the buds should have started to open up, but if you would really like them to open up more you can help them along by carefully helping them along with your fingers. We must warn you though this should be done extremely gently. To do this tenderly push back the outer green petal-like covering which is called the calyx and the other very outer petals to help them open more. We wouldn't recommend this method but if you do decide to try it out then proceed with caution and be as gentle as possible with the flowers.

For more information on how to look after your flower bouquets or boxes take a look at our flower care guide or to order your peonies for local delivery across Manchester and Cheshire call 0161 202 9645.