Specialty Gardening: Delaying peony blooms - and others too??, 1 by soilsandup

soilsandup wrote:
So, I was thrilled when I came across an article which tells you how to pick peonies early, and refrigerate them to delay blooming for up to two weeks. Perfect solution to my problem. The article is from a blog - will have to find it later. But basically, what you do is to pick the peonies when they are between the size of a golf ball and a tennis ball. Make sure the buds are dried, remove the leaves, wrap individually in absorbent paper like newspaper, put in a plastic sleeve, and refrigerate. It was an extremely windy day yesterday, so I knew the buds were perfectly dried. I cut a bunch of buds that fit the size description (though I think the last three are probably too mature), wrapped, and stuck in the fridge. Will see what happens.