The display area temperature is especially important with peonies. Peony arrangements will have better vase life at the lower side of a room temperature range. They will not hold up as well in very warm rooms, or if they are in locations receiving too much direct sun. For commercial purposes, putting arrangements into a cooler during times of the day when their display is not needed can extend vase life. Our customers have used some of our peonies for more than one special event. For example, in 2004 a customer used Garden Treasure for a special event and returned them to their cooler after the event. They reused the same flowers for another special event 3 weeks later.

We have done some experimentation with different products and found that 1 tsp of unbuffered Vitamin C per gallon of water worked better than a professional cut flower food. We used both products with semi-double and double peonies imported from New Zealand for the 2003 Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. They arrived almost fully opened. The peonies in the Vitamin C solution performed much better than those in the professional cut flower food solution. They used more solution, grew larger, looked fresher, and lasted longer and were in good display condition for about 3 days.

In 2004, we made numerous quality control arrangements from many of our varieties using Vitamin C solution after dry storage up to 4 weeks. Even after long-term storage many varieties lasted 5 or even 6 days at room temperature. Usually, the semi-double and double varieties lasted the longest, but many single and Japanese varieties also performed well. We have heard reports of much longer double peony vase life. Some blossoms of our double varieties, and some of double varieties we have purchased, have held together much longer. However, all those blossoms had essentially mummified after 5 or 6 days and certainly were not of display quality beyond then. Tree Peonies have a relatively short vase life, but they are so exotic that they are still in demand for high-end applications. It is also a fact of life that certain varieties, particularly corals, fade out after a few days in the vase.