people just press on either side of the bud with their 

 thumb and two fingers. The technique depends how 

 you are trained and how it feels to you. Singles, Japa- 

 nese, and semi-doubles are harvested harder, and reds 

 are harvested softer with a true petal flagging. "Flag- 

 ging" is when the petal is unfurled a bit from the 

 bud. 



Each cultivar is a bit different. As you work with 

 them, you get to know when they are ready. Many 

 late cultivars may look ready with big and colored 

 buds, but they are rock hard until the end of the sea- 

 son. Kathryn Hill, manager of Craigmore Peonies 

 Partnership, Timaru, New Zealand, has written a great 

 manual covering how to harvest peonies for the begin- 

 ner. She includes specifics on several cultivars (See 

 Recommended Resources for details on how to get the 

 manual). 



Cutting peonies in the bud stage gives you the 

 longest vase life. If you want to use the flowers im- 

 mediately, cut — under water — one inch from the 

 stems, then strip the leaves off the bottom two- 

 thirds of the stem. Floral preservatives extend the 

 vase life a bit more compared to water, but water is 

 sufficient for the home gardener. If you want to 

 keep your peonies for a later date, how you handle 

 them depends on how long you want to store them 

 and what cultivar they are. If you are going store 

 them for more than a week, you should place them 

 dry in polyethylene bags. I use two-gallon self-seal- 

 ing bags, which hold two bunches of five flowers 

 fairly well. The stems need to be cut short enough 

 so the bag can be sealed. The flowers should be dry 

 when placed in storage to prevent disease problems. 

 For one week of storage, my research shows that the 

 best methods depends on the cultivar. I stored flow- 

 ers dry in polyethylene bags, in water, and in floral 

 preservative. Some cultivars took longer to open af- 

 ter being held in floral preservative. 



Sometimes a treatment made the flowers bigger, but 

 they lasted a short time. With most, treatment did 

 not make a difference, although the flowers held in 

 water and floral preservative looked better coming out 

 of storage. 



I have successfully stored peony flowers for 12-14 

 weeks using a pretreatment of floral preservative and 

 silver thiosulfate. However, the vase life was very 

 short, only a day or two. A Kansas grower stored 

 flowers for 19 weeks with minimal loss, less than 

 25%. She did tell her buyer that they would last only 

 a day, but the buyer was happy to have peonies in 

 October. 



In 



foL 



of 



my tour years or so or working with peonies, I 

 can now make some recommendations on which 

 cultivars have the best vase life. My best reds in- 

 clude 'David Harum,' 'Felix Supreme,' 'Felix 

 Crousse,' and 'Philippe Rivoire.' My best whites are 

 'Festiva Supreme,' 'Dr. F.G.Brethour,' 'Henry Sass,' 



and DH1460. The best pinks are 'James Pillow,' 

 'Mister Ed,' 'Raspberry Sundae,' and 'Sarah 

 Bernhardt.' 



Illustrations from The Peony, Alice Harding, The 

 Timber Press, Portland, Oregon. 



Karen L.B. Gast, Ph.D. is an associate professor and 

 extension horticulturist at Kansas State University, 

 Manhattan, KS. She received her doctorate in plant 

 science from the University of New Hampshire in ip88. 



Recommended 

 Peony Resources 



The Peony, Alice Harding updated by Roy 

 G. Klehm, Timber Press, 133 S.'W. Second 

 Avenue, Suite 450, Portland, OR 97204. 



The Gardener's Guide to Growing Peonies, 

 Martin Page. Timber Press, 133 S.'W. Sec- 

 ond Avenue, Suite 450, Portland, OR 

 97204. Has listing of peony sources. 



Peonies, Allan Rogers. Timber Press, 133 

 S.W. Second Avenue, Suite 450, Portland, 

 OR 97204. Has listing of peony sources. 



The Beginners Guide to Picking Perfect Peonies, 

 Kathryn Hill. Craigmore Peonies Partner- 

 ship, RD2, Timaru, New Zealand. 



American Peony Society, Mrs. Greta Kes- 

 senich, 250 Interlachen, Hopkins, MN 

 55343. 



Kansas State University Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station Reports of Progress Production 

 and Postharvest Evaluations of Fresh Cut-Peo- 

 nies, Karen L.B. Gast. 



1995 KSU-AES SRP 767 



1996 KSU-AES SRP 791 



1997 KSU-AES SRP 818 



1998 KSU-AES SRP 820 



JUNIvTULY 1999 



