I recently attended a Canadian Peony Society Zoom seminar “How to Grow Peonies
for Cut Flowers”. The presenter was Piet Wiersta of the Oregon Perennial Company;
a large scale grower of perennials. Most of their peonies are grown for the cut
flower trade.
Growing peonies in hoop house
allows gardeners to get the peonies to market earlier
The peonies are grown in open fields and in hoop houses. Growing peonies in hoop
houses allows growers to get peonies on the market earlier before the field grown
peonies are ready. Earlier peonies demand better prices. To extend the sales
period the Oregon Perennial Company has large storage refrigerators and can
extend the sales period up to 8 weeks.
All leaves are stripped from the flower stems
The peonies are picked when colour is just beginning to show and are immediately
placed in buckets of water. Peonies should be picked at elbow length leaving at
least three leaves on the plant.
All leaves are stripped from the flower stems. The
buckets of peonies are then placed in refrigerators and kept at 0.5 degrees celsius
Peonies are picked just as the colour begins to show
In the hoop houses the soil is fertilized with 16 16 16 mix in February.
When peonies are about 20 cm tall they are sprayed with a fungicide, Pageant.
The hoop houses have irrigation systems.
The cut flower trade was not impacted negatively by the Covid pandemic aspeople who were spending more time at home were anxious to make their homes
pleasant.
And what could be better than a fresh bouquet of peonies?
http://www.oregonperennial.com
authored by Joy Cullen