Come visit us on the farm for a special event like no other.

When visitors stroll through the tables of potted peonies we have for sale there is a common question… What do the bloom week ratings mean?

So you bought a new peony. And even better it grew and formed a bud! It’s so exciting to see the first flowers on your new peony. But if you can possibly stand it, it can be a good idea to snip off that bud before it blooms.

Why would I suggest such a horrible thing?

First, peonies don’t love being moved around. It’s a lot of stress on the plant.

While they are getting settled into their new home, it’s best for them to focus on root development. It takes a lot of energy to produce a flower and that energy is coming from the roots that were already stressed from moving.

Removing the flower bud on a newly planted peony allows the plant to conserve that energy and devote it to forming healthy roots. Healthy roots are a healthy plant.

In the long run, your peony will grow faster and give you more flowers sooner if you give it the first year with no blooms.

But it is a hard thing to do. If there is more than one flower bud on your peony plant you may want to leave just one to open and remove the rest.

Or at the very least, if you do choose to let your peony bloom in its first year, be sure to snip the remains of the bud off after it’s done blooming so the plant doesn’t have to use even more energy making seeds.

Many peony plants don’t even produce a flower bud in the season, or even the first couple seasons. That’s just the plant building up energy reserves in the root system until the plant can support the big and beautiful flowers.

We would love or you to visit the farm this season and see the peonies in bloom!

We get a lot of questions about the best time to come and how to go about coming here. Here are the most frequently asked questions we get.

If there’s one topic that comes up in peony conversations the most, it’s ants. Grandma may have told you the buds need ants to open. Or maybe that you shouldn’t plant peonies next to the house or ants will come in! (Both are not true.)

You may have childhood memories (nightmares) of ants on peonies. Or perhaps you’re just wondering how to get those ants off the flowers before you bring them indoors. We cover all that today! Read on.

First off, what is a side bud?

Some peonies produce one flower per stem. Other varieties have multiple buds on one stem. For these, one of those buds is the main one, the others are found lower down on the stem, typically smaller and bloom later.

Removing those secondary side buds will allow the plant to devote all its energy to the primary bud. This makes that resulting flower bigger, bolder and better than it would have been if the side buds had been left on.

As an experiment, you can try removing side buds from some of the stems and leave them on for others, even on the same plant. Compare the flowers and be sure to share your results!

In order for the plant to divert energy in time, you should remove the side buds as early as possible, preferably when they are the size of peas.

It’s your choice, more blooms or one big bloom!

The American Peony Society is the foremost expert on peonies in the world. So many great minds have contributed to the collective knowledge of this agency.

We are a proud APS commercial member and preferred vendor.

For more than 100 years, the APS has awarded both people and peonies that go above and beyond.

The Gold Medal

The “Gold Medal” is awarded annually for peonies exhibiting outstanding floral qualities and in recent years has also been designated  “Peony of the Year.”  These peonies are excellent for gardeners wishing to have plants that produce outstanding flowers for use as cut flowers, arranging or simple visual enjoyment.

- American Peony Society