Transporting Peonies

If you are one of those blessed enough to have excess peonies blooming in your back yard right now, be thankful. 🙂 Let me share this little tip with you for when you have a chance to bless others with them.

I have a peony plant, well actually 2 of them now. The success of the first one to bloom has been nearly zero. I did get this beautiful solitary bloom last spring about half way through my chemo treatments. I counted it a gift!

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My one, lonely bloom I got last year.

This year the plant, once more, produced buds but they didn’t bloom. I had even transplanted it to different spot. I had treated it with a fungicide that was supposed to help the problem. Still no blooms. Even the 2nd plant purchased that was supposed to be specifically for zone 9 didn’t do anything. I’ll give that one a few years to get established before I give up on that one.

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Loaded Plant

I was in Utah recently visiting family. At my uncle and aunt’s house, a beautiful bouquet of pale pink peonies greeted us from their spot on the dining room table when we first arrived.

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She made the “mistake” of saying they had so many they didn’t hardly no what to do with them, or something similar and I offered to take a few of her hands. 🙂 Last year I had ordered some blooms online for my mom. They had come nearly disappointingly (at first) as closed buds, no moisture, stems sealed with wax, in a box. After I clipped the waxed ends of and put them in water, they did quite well!

 

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The three buds shown here are great for transporting.

 

So when I offered to take some off of my aunt’s hands, I decided to try the same thing. I forgot to take pictures of the process, partly because it was late-thirty til we clipped the buds just before going to bed, and we had to leave at 3:45 the next morning for the airport. I chose mostly closed buds but some were partially opened. I clipped them as along stemmed as possible, dipped the stems in wax from candles that had been burning. I put them into a rubbermaid-type container, similar to a cupcake pan. I laid them in there and put a few clothes inside to protect it in case it got banged around (checked luggage). When I got home the next evening, they had fared the trip home pretty well. I wonder what TSA thought when they opened my suitcase. I know they did because the card they put inside checked luggage was there.

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I had some fun with them when they were all opened up, a few days after getting home.

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The only downside that I can think of is that they don’t stay good long enough. Sigh. The are like a lot of other flowers in that regard.

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I am so grateful for those who share their beautiful blooms with me! 🙂